BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – World Book Day commemorated on April 23rd is the right moment to grow reading interest and literacy. Even there are a lot of e-books spread throughout the world, physical books remain an irreplaceable source of knowledge.
To grow reading habit, Unpas Head of Library Division Dr. Titin Nurhayatin, M.Pd said that it is necessary to have high motivation and reading interest. In this case, family and other neighbors have the important role to make it happen.
“Motivation and reading interest are not formed instantly, it needs family’s role and other neighbors’ support. Even in various and limited condition of socio-economic, we are forced to think to build the interest and literacy of reading and writing as younger as possible,” she said at Unpas Campus IV, Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi, Bandung, on Saturday (April 24th, 2021)
She thought that creating reading interest/ literacy started from the smallest neighborhood will also create good result in the future. Even more, currently there are a lot of researches stating that literacy in Indonesia is considered low.
Nevertheless, efforts to grow literacy and reading interest have already been widely done in various level of education, including in the smallest scale of societies. It is seen for example in school library, government institution (such as Dinas Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan Daerah, Dispusipda), National Library and also regional libraries in the districts and villages.
“I think the socialization on literacy has been already fulfilled its own capacity, but sometimes it also finds other obstacles, such as the background of social, economic, culture and people’s level of education. We have now seen in the villages, there are a lot of communities establishing a reading corner as the efforts to make people familiar with reading,” she continued.
Based on that, to support the socialization itself, there needs a synergy and coordination between societies and government. If the societies give good response to it, the status or whatever it is the background should not be the main problem.
Other than by government socialization, formal education institution such as university also has its own role to develop literacy. It is not only limited to reading-writing literacy, but also numeration, science, digital, culture and citizenship literacy.
“These are also our main focus in Unpas Library, not only providing books, but also providing standard-based service. Alhamdulillah, the library itself has already obtained its A-accreditation and other aspects, such as book collections, facilities and infrastructures, service, source development, finance, and other few supporting things. All was covered well,” she explained.
She also continued reading is the best way to open up world’s discovery. Reading is the key to build an advanced nation which is able to follow up various world’s updates.
“Quoting Buya Hamka, ‘reading good books means giving foods for mental health. Books are the most loyal and relaxing friend, the wisest and most opened guardian and the most patient teacher’,” she ended. (Reta Amaliyah S)*