C Bangka, Bangka Belitung Isla (ANTARA) - The National Library (Perpusnas) has allocated a budget of Rp520 billion (around US$33.09 million) for the construction of library buildings in a number of Indonesian districts and cities.

“The budget has been sourced from the special allocation fund (DAK) to build 185 library buildings in a number of districts and cities,” the director of standardization and accreditation at Perpusnas, Supriyanto, informed at the inauguration of a library building here on Wednesday.

The construction of library buildings is part of Perpusnas' efforts to strengthen its function of institutional guidance and boost people's interest in reading.

"This is our service commitment in a bid to enlighten the nation's children," he said.

Perpusnas is continuing to support the provision of adequate library facilities in each district and city so that its function of guiding libraries in each region can run well.

"In addition to physical DAK for the construction of library buildings and facilities, going forward, we will also make efforts for non-physical DAK allocation," he informed.

The non-physical DAK allocation will be used for coaching, the development of information and communication technology in the field of library science, and library services.

"It means, in addition to budget support for physical construction, library activities will also be supported by the central government through the non-physical DAK," he said.

He expressed the hope that the DAK budget support for libraries would boost people's interest in reading as well as literacy.

"We are also very concentrated on developing village libraries, be it in terms of book collections, building improvement, and the improvement of village library management human resources," he said.

Perpusnas is targeting to build 10 thousand village libraries across Indonesia in the 2024 fiscal year.

The village libraries will be supported by several programs, such as the Social Inclusion-Based Library Transformation (TPBIS) Program at 600 selected locations as well as community reading parks (TBM).

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Translator: Ahmadi, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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