…libraries are the last place of education that they can visit to get knowledge and improve the economy of their families.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Social Inclusion-Based Library Transformation (TPBIS) program is one of the measures for bringing about post-pandemic economic recovery, head of the National Library (Perpusnas) Muhammad Syarif Bando has said.

“Libraries must be able to reach all people because libraries are the last place of education that they can visit to get knowledge and improve the economy of their families,” he said in a written statement received on Wednesday.

According to him, the TPBIS program is helping libraries transform into places where communities can get assistance and training in soft skills and get access to reading materials on applied sciences to produce goods and services.

Training and capacity improvement of the community are important, especially to improve the economy, he added.

In the period from 2018 to 2022, the program has provided assistance to 34 provinces, 399 districts and cities, and 3,535 villages, and provided technical assistance to 1,804 regional library staff and 2,196 village library managers.

In addition, the program has trained 79 main trainers and 415 regional facilitators.

So far, the program has seen participation from 2,133,918 people through 85,776 community-involvement activities held at libraries.

The participants of the TPBIS program have provided a positive response after receiving assistance at libraries, he noted. After obtaining life skills through the program, they have the potential to create micro businesses and home industries to tackle economic problems.

The TPBIS program has also been lauded by Commission X of the House of Representatives (DPR).

A member of Commission X Rano Karno emphasized that human development is a main priority. To realize it, the culture of literacy and reading must continue to be built, he said.

Meanwhile, another commission member Muhamad Nur Purnamasidi stated that the TPBIS program promotes the benefits of reading among the community.

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Translator: Asep Firmansyah, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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