The National Library of Indonesia Appreciate BPI Commitment to Build and Develop Village Library in Batang Regency

Batang, May 8th, 2017 - PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI) received certificate of appreciation from the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas) in Batang Regency Hall today, Monday (8/5). Perpusnas considered that BPI remains consistent in its commitment to improve literacy and reading interest through building and developing of village libraries and Islamic Kindergarten School (TPQ) in areas affected by the construction of the 2 x 1.000 MW coal fired power plant project.

 

BPI President Director Takashi Irie extended his gratitude for the appreciation given to BPI for a number of activities that have been initiated and run consistently for two years. "We are proud of the appreciation. BPI's commitment is to continuously improve the culture of reading habit for all levels of society and this appreciation will encourage us to constantly innovate and run the library programs for the community, "said Irie.

 

This appreciation is given in relation of safari activities themed "Reading National Movement" of The National Library of Indonesia. On that occasion, BPI's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Manager, Bhayu Pamungkas received a certificate of appreciation from the Head of Preservation Center of Library, The National Library of Indonesia, Sri Sumekar accompanied by Member of House of Representative, Commission X, Marlinda Irwanti and Head of Library and Archived of Batang Regency, Muchlasin.

 

Based on the latest data of the National Library of Indonesia, there are about 25,728 libraries throughout Indonesia. The school library is the largest with the number of 22,375, followed by public libraries (1.506), special library (1.002), and university library (845). While the library area, mostly are in West Java with 4780 libraries, followed by Central Java with 4,268 libraries and the least in West Papua with 3 libraries.

 

However, the number of libraries in the region has not made Indonesian people eager to read or have a high literacy culture. Data from World Most Literate Nations (WMLN) - a country's literacy rating - notes that Indonesia is ranked 60th out of 61 countries rated.

 

Indonesia's literacy ratings are lower than other ASEAN countries such as Thailand (59), Malaysia (53) and Singapore (36). The countries with the highest literacy culture level are Nordic countries such as Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

 

BPI strives to include the education sector, particularly the literacy culture into CSR programs as contribution to improve human resource capacity in Batang. From 2015 until now BPI along with Library & Archived Agency in Batang and Coca Cola Foundation Indonesia have replicated the PerpuSeru Program in 14 villages related to PLTU.

 

The villages are Karanggeneng, Ujungnegoro, Ponowareng, Wonokerso, Kenconorejo, Tulis, Simbangjati, Beji, Wringingintung, Bakalan, Juragan, Kedungsegog, Sembojo, and Sengon. In addition, BPI has developed 20 mini libraries at Kindergarten Islamic School (TPQ) and Reading Area which are scattered in Central Java's 2 X 1.000 MW Power Plant Construction Area.

 

In this program, BPI through the CSR program of Education supports every activity of library development program stages such as Socialization, Library Development Strategy Training, Basic Computer Internet Training, Computer Procurement, Projector Assistance, Assistance and Donation of 4,651 books that have been given to each village library and Mini Library in Kindergarten Islamic School. 

 

Bhayu explained that this partnership program is expected to be a breakthrough program that allows people to access information and knowledge. "Based on our daily observations, then we create a program that aims to increase public knowledge in dealing with issues that arise in daily life to help them find an alternative solutions through books or information technology that can be found in the library," said Bhayu.

 

This partnership program aims to make the library as an innovative learning center and community activity based on information and communication technology. After building a library, BPI continues to carry out its commitment for the development so that later it can transform into a community learning center and create agents of change in rural communities.

 

In this case, administrators and managers facilitate and create library programs in a more interesting way so that young people, students, and even family of PKK are interested in visiting the library because of the exciting and fun atmosphere. "Of course with this facility, it isn’t only providing information and knowledge sources through books and information technology, we also hope this library could improve quality of life of the village community," said Bhayu.