Kajian Sistem Sosial Organisasi Perpustakaan Umum Dalam Memasyaratkan Inovasi Kepada Masyarakat

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Research Report – Full paper

The Development Of The Library And Information Science Through Books Published In Indonesia, 1952 – 2005[1]

By : Laksmi

Department of Library and Information Science

Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia

Depok – INDONESIA

Introduction

The discipline of library and information science has developed so far. Despite of the argumentation if this discipline could be called as a science, there are a lot of aspects can be developed. Looking for information[2] written by Donald O. Case says that library and information science is able to be examined in many approaches and perspective of sociology, psychology, anthropological and management.

Since 1952, when the course of the library science was formed, the scientific work published in the form of book, article, report or seminar paper is very limited, both in Indonesian and English in this field. This statement was concluded as a result from the research conducted by Sulistyo-Basuki[3] at the discussion panel to analysis book publications on library and information science, held by IPI (Indonesian Librarian Association) in the 1991. The weakness is not only in the quantity but also in quality. Most of books published are textbooks, bibliographic or index books. The textbooks and manual books may give a good contribution to the development of the science, but substantives is limited to the practical points, such task how to do the technical task, how to make a catalogue, how to do the public services, and so on. The facts show that the students have some difficulties to decide what subject research for their thesis or dissertations. Moreover, the methodology they use in their research is limited only in the quantitative approaches. The publications may cause librarians at the work as well. They may not have good inspiration, information and knowledge in librarianship for increasing their public services. The role of scientific books is a tool of communication. The book writer or sender has knowledge’s that should be transferred to the public or receiver.

The aim of this study is to analyze the development of library and information science through its publications written by librarians, scholars, and others who are interest to the field in Indonesia since 1952 to 2005. The book publication is limited to the scientific books that contain the knowledge of the library and information science. The analysis is focused on the kind of books, the subjects, the publication, the originality of books, and the writers. The study uses the content analysis approach that is named as bolometric study. This knowledge is needed as references to develop the science and to create more literatures with the various, innovative, and constructive ideas in the future.

The book as scientific works

The definition of the book is literarily ‘set of blank, printed or written sheets of papers bound together along one edge, and enclosed within protective covers to form a volume, or a treatise or literary work. At the Unesco Conference held in 1964, a book is defined as library materials non serials that have at least 49 pages excludes cover.

As a scientific work, books contain individual ideas in a specific discipline. The ideas are organised systematically in this structure, and supported with analysis, concepts, argumentation and some data.

This study based on the aim of writing includes reference or textbooks, manual books, act and regulation books and seminar or workshop report. Reference book or textbook supposed to be used for educating future librarians, which contains comprehensive information, and written by one writer or more. The systematic of book can be compiled in single subject or multiple subjects, as collection of essays. The manual book contains the customs of regulation perform something, for example, classifying the books. As to acts and regulation books, they contain the acts that prevail both local and national institutions. The report of seminar and workshop are formed as proceeding. Contains the collections of essays.

In relation to the development of library and information science, the production of books is influenced by several factors of the writers, institutions in this field including the library association, and the institutions, which published their books. From the textbooks studied by Sulistyo-Basuki in 1991, the book writer has difficulties to translate from English into Bahasa Indonesia. Besides that, the reference books used to compose a research or writings are hard to find, and it is limited in American literature. The second factor is the institutions of library education and the library association. Both institutions are responsible for the development of the library and information science. The last factor is publishers. The book published usually is selected as the one that seems to be best sellers, the book which is accommodated to public interest. Library and information science seems not to be interesting to public that means that it could not give profit to the publishers.

The development of the library and information science in Indonesia

According to research conducted by Hawkins[4] and Case[5], the development of library and information science extend considerably. From publication of books, article in the scientific journals, and the schools in many countries including Indonesia indicates its development. In Indonesia, there are about 15 academic institutions, which have library and information programs, from undergraduate to postgraduate level.

The history of the library and information science in Indonesia established from the emerging of library course in 1952, at the University of Indonesia. It was for the staff at National Library Museum. The activity was stopped between sixties to seventies period, because of the decline of political and economical condition. In the eighties, the library science and practical spread to around the country, as well as the textbook publications.

The term of library science is synonymous to librarianship. The library science deals with the techniques and methods of collection, organization, and dissemination of graphic knowledge[6]. According to ALA in 1943, library science was defined as the knowledge and skill by which printed or written records are recognized, collected, organized and utilized. Pendit[7], one of the scholars in this field, differentiate between library and information field. The library field consists of the role and significance of library and information in society, routine tasks and process of organizing information in the library, history and its development in the future, including giving information and recommending society to understand that reading is important, educating them how to search information through books and non-book materials, and informing them that a library is a place of long life learning. The book written by Pendit[8], shows that the subjects that can be studied in the librarianship are library materials (rare books, non-book materials, etc), building and furnitures, library exhibition, circulation services, archives, library management and organization, financial problems, library extensions, museums, users studies, the use of library, library promotion, and the library staff. The information field consists of information technology, information industry, artificial intelligence / expert system, database, informational professionals, the user behavior in facing the information technology, related acts and regulations.

The quality of the publication

The quality of the publication is based on the characteristic of the books. The total number of the book that can be collected are 218. I am not able to find all the books physically, then I record and list them from the bibliography of the other books.

1)The number of publication, 1952-2005

The total number of the book is 237. Table 1 shows that books written increases slowly per 5 years and reaches the peak in 1988 – 1993, that is 59 books. In this period, there was financial support from government for book publications through Balai Pustaka, one of the official government publishers. In addition, the British Council gave some scholarships to some academic lecturers to pursue postgraduate in library science. The graduate students are expected to write down their knowledge into books.

After that period, since 1994-1999 and 2000-2005, the number of publication gradually has declined. The economic crisis may be one of the factors that influences the spirit of the librarians to write the book. The other possible factor is the custom and the way of think of the librarians. The routine and technical works make the librarians are used to think in accordance to the procedures. This custom hampers the creativity, whereas they have to be dynamic and creative and think fast to face the problems of the changing world.

In recent day, instead of the multi dimension crisis that is still going on in Indonesia, the number of lecturers and graduate students in library and information sciences increase and the information technology emerges. Then, the number of publications should increase as well. But the facts are in contrast. There are several possibilities. First, the characteristic of the library tasks focuses on the technical processing. It makes the individuals concern too much to their works, they forget to develop their knowledge. They do not have much time to read and write the book, because the library work contains many things performed continuously. The second possibilities, there is no concern and motivation from institutions where the individuals work. Due to the unhealthy condition, the data shows indications that it needs then to be examined carefully.

2)Type of publications

Based on the data found, the type of publication between 1952 and 2005 are reference and textbooks (136) and manual books (83). It is a significance development, in spite of the other type of publications are important too. With those total numbers of books, the students, lecturers and practitioners in this field can get enough resources in Indonesian.

The reference and textbooks, as well as manual books, have important role to disseminate information. Although the information is not as up to date as the journals, both types are needed to refer. The other two types, books on act and regulation and reports of seminar/workshop are published in a few numbers. The books on acts and regulations should be the responsibilities of the government, but the related departments have no enough serious interest to make the library acts legally. The National Library develops national standards for libraries. The assumption, the government is not aware of library roles and people have lack of knowledge about library, so that they seem as their needs. As the reports of seminar/workshop on library and information science, they are published in limited edition and rarely launched to the public. In Indonesia, the seminars or workshops on librarianship are very often held, but the committees make the internal reports and do not publish to the public. This custom behaviour is regretted, eventhough the subjects discussed in the seminar/workshop frequently provide innovative ideas in this discipline.

3)The subject of the books

During 53 years, the most subjects books published in the library and information science is librarianship (I); followed by the subjects of library technical work (A), services (C), and collection development (K). Those categories discuss the same topic, it is the library technical work. This theme consists of the management of library in general, management of information, management of collection development, management of automation and technology, management of services, and so on. The subject books few discussed are human resources (B), facilities and library building (D), public library (E), school library (F), special library (G), academic library (H), and library network and cooperation (J), the education in this field (L), the books in research (M), (N), (O), and (P). There are sharp differences between the subjects which writers most and few discuss.

Information :

A = library technical works (classification, cataloguing, abstracts, index, bibliographies)

B = human resources (librarian)

C = services, the service use of users

D = facilities and library building

E = public library

F = school library

G = special library

H = academic library

I = librarianship, including information technology, automation, management

J = library network and cooperation

K = collection development

L = library education, including curriculum in library and information science

M =library research

N = library association, the National Library

O = books on acts, regulation, rules

P = reading habit

The figure at the Table 3 shows that the concern of the writings is focused in library application. If it is compared to the development of this field in the developed countries, the subject published in Indonesia are still left. Although this discipline is categorized as new science, it is developing dynamically and rapidly in conjunction with the rise of technology and the social change. The complex and global changing world demands this discipline to change the perspectives. The knowledge of library technical work and ‘traditional’ library management are not enough strong tools to face the modern environment problems nowadays. More educated and multicultural society needs fast and accurate information and better services. The librarians may not be able to fulfill those needs, if their knowledge only is limited to the technical work. They have to understand the characteristic of the society they serve, they have to examine the social phenomenon, they need to improve the communication skills, and they need to know the information and communication technology. Therefore, the book publication on library and information science should be developed to other disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, communication and technology.

4)The institutions that involve in book publications

One of the factors influenced the development of a science is determined by the institutions that involve in book publications. In difficult economic condition in our country, the publishers have a lot of considerations in deciding what books are going to publish. So that the subjects that public are interested in will be selected and published. The other subjects such as librarianship not a good choice.

In this research, the type of institutions which publish the books in library and information work are classified into 4 groups, they are the government institution, such as The National Library, The Province library, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Religions; the commercial publishers such as Bumi Aksara, Kesaint Blanc; academic publishers especially which have librarianship program; and the Indonesia Librarian Association[9]. The last two types have commitments and responsibility to develop the library and information science. Some universities with the librarianship program publishes those books, and few numbers published by the IPI.

The institutions that publish books are the government institutions, followed by the commercial institutions and academic institutions. The books published by the government are limited edition, not sold, and the limited distribution to special regions. In the past, the format of books were usually photocopies or bad printed. Furthermore, the books are rarely to be revised. If the government do, the revision is limited to their language composition. While, if the commercial publishers have only profit oriented, they do naturally not improve their substance. The academic institutions are IPB (Institute of Agriculture, Bogor), GAMA (University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta), UI (University of Indonesia, Depok), Open University, and so on. IPI, as Indonesian library association, have published many reports on their congress. The reports compile some articles on librarianship presented at the congress.

5)Originality and characteristic of the books

Some books are written directly by the writers, others are produced by the translation from foreign writings. The characteristics of the book are examined through the number of the pages and their sources. From 236 books, there are only 4,2% (10) book translations. Since 1952, we have difficulties to find the translation books. The foreign opinions are valuable to enrich the knowledge. Although the works written by indigenous librarians in this country is important, we need the existence of such books. One of the reasons is the Indonesian use mother tongue. They have difficulties to read the books in English.

The commitment of the writers can be seen in the physical book, whether the pages of the book are more or less than 100 pages. The data shows that half of the total books have pages less than 100 and more than 100 pages.

In this research, it is found that there are more than 20 writers who write the books between 2 to 4. The active writers who contribute much more are Sulistyo-Basuki, Soejono Trimo and Lasa. HS, they have written more than 10 books. The number of single and multiple writers are almost balanced, they are 49,4% of single writer and 50,5% of multiple writers.

Conclusion

Summing up all above analysis, I would say that the development of the library and information science through publication of books, 1952 – 2005, however, shows few developments. This science can not fully rely on the publication of books, because the numbers of publications are not very substantially. On the other hand, the publication of books shows that this science in our country develops slowly. These are the details.

Although the book publication has various subjects of this field in Indonesia, principally they are the same subject, namely library technical tasks. The books discuss how to manage library, how to make a bibliographical description, how to conduct the services, etc.

This publication decline has been seen since 1993 till recent times. The institutions which have a big role in developing the library and information publication is the government, that includes The National Library and Ministry of Education, and followed by the commercial publishers. Ironically, the academic institutions, especially those who have library and information program/department, and the library association that should be more responsible to disseminate the knowledge, publish these kind of books in few number. Both institutions should lead in publishing the books.