Working Together: The National Library of Indonesia and the National Library of Australia
Dady Rachmananta and Amelia
McKenzie exchange MoU documents in Jakarta, watched by Australian
Ambassador Bill Farmer
Courtesy Jakarta Post
The Australian and Indonesian national libraries will continue their close cooperation of recent years with the re-signing of a Memorandum of Understanding last month.
The MoU, signed by National Library of Australia Director-General Jan Fullerton and the Director of the National Library of Indonesia, Dady Rachmananta, came into effect after an official ceremony in Jakarta on 6 May. The ceremony was attended by the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, and Acting Assistant Director-General Collections Management Division, Amelia McKenzie.
The aim of the MoU is to ‘reaffirm and strengthen the long-standing cooperative and productive relationship’ between the two libraries. This includes agreement to cooperate in the acquisition of Indonesian materials and in their bibliographic control; sharing information on preservation of Indonesian materials held in both libraries; and sharing collections through interlibrary loans.
The National Library of Australia has one of the world’s best research collections of Indonesian material, which includes books, serials, newspapers and maps that can be found nowhere else.
The memorandum document was brought to Australia by four senior Indonesian librarians who attended a five-day training program at the National Library in March. The original MoU was signed in 2002.
Amelia said the visiting librarians undertook specially created programs in their areas of interest, which included preservation of digital materials, paper conservation, microfilming and management of these areas.
The two libraries had a special relationship, she said. ‘We are partners and there is a lot of goodwill.’
Ellen Peterson
Media Liaison Officer, Communications and Marketing



