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For the love of books: Revamped library busier than ever
Rini has been going back and forth to the National Library on Jl
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span>Rini has been going back and forth to the National Library on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, Gambir, Central Jakarta, for the past few months to delve into legal books to help her with her thesis.
The 23-year-old law student at the University of Trisakti in West Jakarta is in her final year of study and she said the collection of books was impressive.
“I frequently come to the library these days as I am now in the final year of my college studies. The book collection provided at the National Library is very good. I couldn’t get these books anywhere else,” she said recently.
The same purpose was also shared by 19-year-old Marissa who visits the library to study. As a freshman in college pursuing an accounting degree she said she had many assignments. The library has helped her to find reference books for her study materials.
Besides the vast collection of books, she also commended the facilities of the newly revamped library, for instance its multimedia section.
“I don’t have a personal computer and the library has a multimedia section that allows visitors to use the computer for free. They have many computer units, so I never worry about not being able to use one,” she said.
Dubbed the world’s tallest library, the National Library stands 24-stories tall, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated the building in September 2017 after it was previously located on Jl. Salemba Raya in Senen, also in Central Jakarta.
Rini and Marissa are only one among tens of thousands of visitors who frequent the library.
The National Library recorded a total of 846,847 visitors throughout last year with the highest number of visitors recorded at 103,998 people in December 2019. The total number of visitors has increased significantly from 528,076 visitors in 2018 and 75,273 visitors in 2017.
According to data from January to November 2019, 295,519 people have registered as members of the National Library with 190,300 people registered through online registration and 105,219 registered onsite.
The library itself has more than 2.6 million items in its collection and is connected to 828 libraries across the nation, allowing anyone anywhere with membership status to access the book collections online.
An official at the Public Collection Service, who preferred to remain anonymous, shared the data on the most popular books read by visitors and top of the list was Buku Ajar Strategi Pembelajaran (Textbook of Learning Strategy) written by Suripto.
“The five most-read subjects at the National Library are education, applied management theory, research methodology, communications and medicine,” she told The Jakarta Post.
At the children’s section on the seventh floor of the library building, kids were seen busy reading colorful books, accompanied by their parents, who sometimes read for them.
She mentioned that a book titled 3 Menit Belajar Pengetahuan Umum: Makanan, Kesehatan, Olahraga (3 Minute Study of Social Science: Food, Health and Exercise) written by Kim Seok-ho and Kim Seok-cheon, which was translated from Korean to Indonesian, was the most popular book read in the children’s collection section.
“For elementary school kids, they like to read the science series book titled Why?, which contains a fun explanation of scientific phenomena. They also like the book series titled Keluarga Super Irit and KKPK [Kids Writing Their Own],” Julia, a librarian on the seventh floor told the Post.
The Keluarga Super Irit series is an Indonesian-translated version of a Korean book series titled The Super Economical Family, in the English translation, which tells stories about the low-income Bindae family. The colorful books recount the struggle of the family to save money in their daily lives, of course, in fun narratives.
Another kid’s favorite, KKPK is published under the license of Mizan Publishing, a local book publisher. The KKPK books are written by kids aged 7 to 12 years old. With a wide variety of themes and colorful pages, the books have a special shelf of their own at the National Library.
Meanwhile, the international collection located on the 20th floor of the building has various collections from countries from all over the world.
The library data from July until September 2019 showed that people were most attracted to Japan- and Korea-related books. The Korean Cultural Heritage, Facts about Korea and Yes You Can Speak Korean were among the most favorite Korea-themed books read in 2019. Meanwhile, books like All About Japan, Unbelievable Japan, Tokyo on Foot and Japan: Its History and Culture were among the most popular Japan-themed books last year. (trn)
