"Many Nusantara manuscripts are scattered throughout the world that require attention for their sustainability," acting head of Perpusnas, E. Aminudin Aziz, said in an official statement issued in Jakarta on Monday.
At the agreement signing ceremony held at the SOAS Building, England, on Friday with SOAS Dean of Humanities, Graeme Earl, Aminudin said that the collaboration on the mainstreaming of Nusantara manuscripts is one of the three priority programs of Perpusnas this year.
Under the collaboration, Perpusnas is seeking to consult philologists to determine which manuscripts need to be digitized first, considering that the number of Nusantara manuscripts at SOAS that have not been digitized is 82.
He further said that the National Library is focusing on three priority programs, namely increasing the love of reading, building reading habits and increasing literacy, mainstreaming Nusantara manuscripts, and library standardization.
Meanwhile, head of the Department of the SOAS School of Language, Culture, and Linguistics, Ilana Webster-Kogen, said that the collaboration is expected to help publish widely stored manuscripts.
"We have to follow up with a more technical agreement related to the process of digitizing manuscripts," Webster-Kogen said.
According to her, the cooperation between the two institutions is in the field of libraries and information management.
The scope of the cooperation includes increasing capacity in the field of philology and the study of Indonesian manuscripts, joint publication and research, and identification and cataloging of Indonesian manuscripts in England.
The delegation from the National Library to SOAS was led by Aziz. He was accompanied by the main secretary, Joko Santoso; head of the legal, organizational, cooperation, and public relations bureau, Sri Marganingsih; head of general affairs, Chaerul Umam; and librarian, Anastasia Linawati.
The group was welcomed by Webster-Kogen; head of the SOAS Library, Rookaya Bawa; and several SOAS librarians.
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Translator: Hreeloita D, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
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