Malang, (malangkota.go.id) – Malang City has a new facility to encourage public interest in reading, namely the Digital Reading Corner (Pocadi) Taman Trunojoyo which was inaugurated by the Mayor of Malang Drs. H. Sutiaji, Wednesday (22/12/2021). Pocadi is a program assistance from the National Library (Perpusnas) received by Malang City.
Mayor Sutiaji expressed his appreciation and gratitude to the National Library and the East Java Provincial Library and Archives Service. Because Malang City was chosen as one of the locations for the Digital Reading Corner development program.
"The interest in reading in Indonesia is still low. Hopefully what we are currently doing is recorded as an act of worship and strengthens literacy in Malang City," Sutiaji hoped.
This man who loves to read refers to the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) research released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), that the reading interest of the Indonesian people is only ranked 62 out of 70 countries in 2019. Indonesia's reading interest index is only 0,001%. This means that out of 1.000 people in Indonesia, only one person is an avid reader.
"Therefore, through this program and the reading interest of Malang City residents can increase. So that the strengthening of literacy in Malang City is better from year to year. Because Malang City is also known as a city of education," he continued.
In this Digital Reading Corner, there will be hundreds of thousands or even millions of digital books that can be accessed by the public for free. Visitors only need to register based on their Population Identification Number (NIK) and can read various books they want. The collection of digital books provided is also very diverse, ranging from school books, general books, lectures, computers, magazines, historical documentation and many more.
"To support these services, the Digital Reading Corner has provided facilities in the form of three Personal Computers (PC), six Tablet Computers, and free internet access," he added.
Meanwhile, Acting Head of the Public Library and Regional Archives Service (Dispussipda) Suwarjana, SE., MM said that the selection of Malang City as one of the locations for this program was inseparable from its performance which was considered good and innovative. "Malang City was selected as one of the locations for the program as an appreciation for the innovation that has been launched in the form of drive thru and the M mobile-lib application," said Suwarjana.
His party is also ready to run other literacy strengthening programs, including library standardization and mobile libraries. The latest achievement is that 95 percent of school libraries in Malang City have been accredited. "Standardization is considered a crucial factor in improving library services," he explained.
At this event, an additional assistance of one car for the mobile library fleet from the National Library was symbolically handed over. Thus, overall, Malang City has five mobile library cars. (ndu/ram)
