ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 44 | April 2000
NLA Officer visits Bali and West Sumatra
In February this year Oliver Mann, the National Librarys Regional Officer in Jakarta, continued his program of regular field trips to Indonesian provincial centres, visiting Bali and West Sumatra.
The field trip to Bali was incorporated into a weeks leave on the island; once having made the effort to travel outside Jakarta, it is difficult to resist the temptation to search for new regional publications, even if one is on leave! The publishing industry in Bali is quite vigorous, but prices tend to be higher than in other parts of Indonesia, probably because of the steady stream of overseas visitors who can read Indonesian. The perpetual problem of limited distribution afflicts the publishing trade in Bali just as it does the rest of the country. Consequently, it was only in Bali that Oliver was able to acquire many locally published titles, particularly those concerned with the fine arts.
Later in the month, Mr John McCarthy, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, asked Oliver to visit the Centre for Information and Documentation on Minangkabau Culture, in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, and assess its resource needs. Padang Panjang is in the mountains behind the provincial capital of Padang. It is a beautiful part of Indonesiagreen, lush and cool with intensive cultivation of temperate fruit and vegetables such as carrots, celery and strawberries. On this trip Oliver saw wild monkeys by the side of the road, a working waterwheel used to grind rice into flour and a cog railway, all for the first time in Indonesia.
The Centre has a modest but well-listed and accessible collection of materials on Minangkabau culture. It is housed in the most attractive library Oliver has encountereda traditional Minangkabau elevated, elongated building with an arched roof. The collection is held in one main room with wooden windows that open out to expansive manicured gardens.
In the nearby West Sumatran provincial capital of Padang, Oliver visited the local branch of the National Library of Indonesia, the provincial museum and local bookshops, acquiring a good selection of local publications. Padang was last visited by an Officer from the Library in 1984.
Oliver Mann can be contacted at the Australian Embassy, Jakarta (omann@indo.net.id).
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au