"The award will be given to individuals, groups, and institutions that have succeeded in initiating, encouraging, and carrying out activities to cultivate the love of reading and literacy in Indonesia," head of the National Library, Muhammad Syarif Bando, informed here on Friday.
Law No. 43 of 2007 concerning Library stipulates that the government bestow awards to people who have succeeded and participated in movements for cultivating public interest in reading.
The awards will be presented on the night of the 2022 National Library Gemilang Award or The Shining Night of National Library in Jakarta on Monday (November 14).
Nominees from eight categories will receive the highest award of Nugra Jasa Dharma Pustaloka. The categories are public officials, public figures, literacy activists, mass media, journalists, ancient manuscript conservationists, books, and lifetime achievement.
“The effort to educate the nation is a Constitutional mandate. This is not an easy task. (Therefore,) the National Library continues to innovate by involving stakeholders to collaborate and synergize in increasing the community's love of reading," Bando said.
The stakeholders who are helping promote the love of reading include ministries/institutions, local governments, communities, writers, publishers, literacy activists (such as the women of literacy and reading ambassadors), journalists, and the media.
Nugra Jasa Dharma Pustaloka may be a physical trophy, but the community's welfare, as the real result of strengthening literacy, is the real award, Bando remarked.
The presence of libraries in society as a source of education will keep being a strength to improve quality of life, he said.
"A library is a medium of enlightenment for the society's intellectual development. Libraries that emerge from the community's interests will make them more crowded and useful," he added.
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Translator: Indriani, Kenzu
Editor: Suharto
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