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Aceh Provincial Library: Recovery from Disaster

The library receives its new mobile 'digital library' bus (left) from Augsberg, Germany
Photo: Ralph Sanderson

The acquisitions processing area, Aceh Provincial Library
Photo: Ralph Sanderson

As the National Library’s Regional Office Manager, I returned to Banda Aceh in early September 2007 to revisit the Aceh Provincial Library.

The library was one of many public institutions severely damaged by the devastating earthquake and tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. Floodwaters swept through its buildings and destroyed walls and windows, washing away bookshelves, desks, computers and all collection material stored on the library’s ground floor. In the wake of the tsunami, reading rooms and offices were left littered with muddy debris and corpses. For the majority of staff the disaster affected them personally, as over 20 colleagues, including the then Head of the library, perished.

At the time of my first visit in May 2005, restoration and renovation of the main library building had already begun. Debris had been cleared, floors and walls cleaned of mud, rooms repainted and new windows installed in several rooms. The library had already received a number of donations of books, including the first from the National Library of Australia, which arrived just prior to an official ceremony to mark the reopening of one of the library’s reading rooms. Mobile library visits, especially to temporary accommodation camps, had also begun following the delivery of replacement vehicles.

Recovery Progress

During my September visit, I had the opportunity to see the additional progress that has been made, in not only the infrastructure and refurbishment of the library buildings, but also the extent to which the collections and services have been rebuilt. The visit was marked by another ceremony—on this occasion, for the handover of a new mobile library bus, a gift from the city of Augsberg, Germany, to the city of Banda Aceh. In his speech to mark the occasion the Head of the Provincial Library, Pak Kamaruddin H. Hussein, also made special mention of the assistance and contributions provided by the National Library of Australia.

The progress made at the library to date includes the completion of all major rebuilding and refurbishment of the main and secondary library buildings and the building of a new wing. This area is dedicated to housing collection material relating to religion and is intended specifically for religious studies. The rear building of the library, which previously contained two reading rooms, including the former children’s reading room, has also been fully refurbished, as has the garage housing the library’s growing fleet of mobile library vehicles. Unfortunately, airconditioning of the library buildings is currently limited to several rooms, as there is still insufficient electricity available to meet all power needs.

Most reading rooms in the main building appeared spacious and clean and were furnished with new tables, chairs and shelving. A combined youth and children’s reading room is currently in use until such time as the collection numbers for both groups increases sufficiently to allow them to separate.

Donations and Support

Following my 2005 visit to Aceh, the National Library of Australia commenced a program of book donations to the Provincial Library. At the same time a fundraising campaign by Canberra booksellers, together with individual and institutional donations, raised over A$10 000 for the National Library to fund further book purchases. In all, over the last two years the Regional Office in Jakarta has sent to the library eight separate consignments totalling over 5000 new Indonesian-language books purchased in Jakarta. Both recreational reading and student materials were chosen: books and magazines, including encyclopaedic works; tertiary textbooks; do-it-yourself and cookery books; adult, teen and children’s fiction and comics. This is a small, but nonetheless meaningful contribution to the library’s recovery which has been acknowledged by Indonesian library colleagues in person and at regional forums. As a result of my latest visit additional assistance is now planned, to continue to help meet the needs of the young readers of the province.

Major sponsors—such as the Sampoerna Foundation, the Goethe Institute and the National Library of Indonesia—and a range of national and international donors, including the National Library of Australia, continue to support the rebuilding, redevelopment and restocking of the Aceh Provincial Library. I saw many boxes of donated material waiting to be unpacked and processed, and donations of books still arrive from various sources. The number of volumes in the library’s revamped and contemporary collection is now reported to exceed 105 000, over 50 per cent of their pre-tsunami numbers.

The Aceh Provincial Library has made a strong recovery and is now probably much further advanced in terms of infrastructure and mobile library assets than at any time prior to the 2004 tsunami. University students still form a major client base for the library, but the general public is also served, especially through the mobile library service.

Ralph Sanderson
Manager, Regional Office, Jakarta