Yogyakarta Urged to Complete Library Development Project

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Government of Yogyakarta, Central Java has been urged to complete the development of their village library project. From the total 438 villages in the area, there are still 86 villages which do not have the Jogja Library for All. “We hope that this is not just a slogan and can really be realized,” said Chief of Semar Sembogo Group Sukiman Hadiwijaya.

Sukiman, who is also the Chief of Dukuh Kwagon village, said the library is still not available in his village. He requested that the library be developed in his village by next year, and it needs to be done sporadically. “Not part by part. It will create a sort of social inequality,” said Sukiman.

Budi Wibowo, Head of Yogyakarta’s Library and National Archives, explained that the development is still not thorough because it is developed using Yogyakarta’s fund. The value of the budget next year is Rp3.2 billion.

The government donates 750 to 1,000 books for each library. The books vary from farming, harvesting, to arts and crafts among others. The types of books are catered to the social conditions of the locals. “If most of the locals are fishermen, then the books will be mostly about fisheries,” said Budi.

The plan is for the libraries to be integrated online to the new Yogyakarta library building. The people are hoped to be able to access the books which can be read online. “We have prepared a 40 terabytes server in the Yogyakarta library,” said Budi.

PITO AGUSTIN RUDIANA