‘Love Books. Books Are The Gateway To Knowledge.’

For a librarian, Yeri Nurita spends a lot of her time killing bookworms. But don’t worry if you always have your nose stuck in a book, Yeri’s not gunning for you. Her target is all the insects trying to make a meal of the collection at the National Library.

Yeri looks after her charges with the kind of personal care and kind touch that a doting mother gives to her children. Today, the 45-year-old tells 
My Jakarta what kind of treasures can be found in the National Library’s Rare Books collection and just why we all should love books a little more.

How did you become a librarian?

I have a degree in Indonesian literature from the University of Indonesia with a concentration in philology. I worked at the H.B. Jassin Literature Documentation Center for three years. During this time, the collections from the library at the National Museum were moved to the National Library and they needed some employees to help deal with the books. I applied for a job and was hired in 1994.

What are your tasks at the National Library?

At the beginning, my duty was to classify books. I numbered the books and classified them by their subjects before making them available to visitors. In 1998, I was moved to the Special Collections section, where I dealt with old manuscripts, for example, translating Arab-Malayan texts into Indonesian. And since 2001, I have taken care of the rare books. I am responsible for the Rare Books collection at the library. Although I mainly help visitors who are searching for books, I also help my colleagues maintain the library.

Do you enjoy your job?

I love this job. I love being surrounded by books. I’m most happy when I help visitors. It’s a personal achievement, a personal happiness that can’t be compared with money or anything. But I’m disappointed when visitors can’t find the books they want.

Who are the main visitors to your section?

This is the Rare Books section, so the visitors who come here are more particular. People who usually come here are undergraduate students, master’s students or researchers who are working on their dissertations. This library is a very good resource for them, as this is probably the most comprehensive library in Southeast Asia. It has 80,000 titles and 120,000 examples of original rare books that are mostly about Indonesian culture, history and law.

What do you think about Indonesian reading culture?

It’s a tough call. People might say that we still have an undeveloped reading culture, but the truth is, we don’t really have any fixed benchmark to measure the issue. Maybe if we compared the reading culture here to developing countries it would not measure up very well, or if we compared the number of Indonesians who like to read with the total population. But then again, whenever the National Library bookmobile visits remote villages, the children there always greet us enthusiastically. They can come in the morning and read for hours until the afternoon. So I think the level of interest in reading is quite high in Indonesia.

What sort of problems does the library have?

First and foremost is maintenance. It’s really essential to fumigate the books frequently to protect them from insects, but fumigants are scarce and we can only do it once every two years. Second, fungi. Fungi appear due to the humidity inside the library. We can’t afford to keep the air-conditioner running 24 hours a day, but it should been on the whole day to keep the room less humid. Also, security issues — books keep going missing, either from being misplaced or by theft.

What sets the National Library apart from other libraries in the country?

Old books with greater historical value are kept with us. Other libraries are more accessible compared to us. Our visitors need to be a member of the library.

Why is the access limited?

There are rare books and manuscripts here and making this an open-access library would be out of the question. But actually, we’re quite open already. Everyone, as long as they are responsible, is welcome to utilize these rare books.

Tell us about the National Library’s special collection.

‘Terzo Volume Delle Navigationi et Viaggi’ [‘Navigation and Travel, Volume Three’], an Italian book published in 1556, is the oldest book that we have. It tells us about the journeys of European explorers, one of whom is Christopher Columbus. This book is still in a perfectly readable condition. It came from some Dutch aristocrats who collected book about Indonesia, and they later donates some of the books to the library.

What would you like to do in the future?

I live and die here. This is the world that I love and I hope to retire here.

Speaking as a librarian, what would you say to Indonesian readers out there?

Love books. Books are the gateway to knowledge. And, please, come over. Rare books are proof of Indonesians’ footsteps throughout history.

Yeri Nurita was talking to Joshua Irwandi.

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