The National Library (Perpusnas) has included strengthening reading culture and literacy skills in its strategic plan for 2025-2029.
“The National Library is preparing a strategic plan in line with the upcoming new government,” the Library’ deputy for Materials Development and Information Services, Mariana Ginting, said as monitored online here on Monday.
In the discussion titled “The 122nd anniversary of Hatta: Literacy as the guard of Golden Indonesia 2045,” she cited the national literacy index while saying that Indonesians are not lazy to read but rather there is a dearth of reading materials.
To this end, she said that the National Library this year has distributed books for 10 thousand villages.
Each village received one thousand book titles. This step is expected to boost literacy skills and reading culture in the community.
In the 2025-2029 strategic plan, the Library will also mainstream the Nusantara ancient manuscripts, aiming to raise public awareness about the importance of preserving and inheriting the values contained in those manuscripts.
Ginting affirmed that to preserve the values in the Nusantara manuscript, a strong ecosystem of protection, preservation, and expansion of access must be built.
“Currently, the National Library has stored 13 thousand titles of Nusantara manuscripts,” she remarked.
Ginting said her side will strengthen the preservation of these manuscripts, considering that around 80 thousand titles of them are circulating in the community.
Tens of thousands of the manuscripts have made their not only in the country but also abroad, such as in the Netherlands. In fact, there are more Nusantara manuscripts abroad than in Indonesia.
Lastly, Ginting said her side will focus on library standardization and development as the third point in the strategic plan.
With the program, libraries across the regions are expected to implement the set standards.