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The government needs to keep the library closer to the community. Interest in reading is expected to grow if people have easy access to reading materials. It was raised in the discussion “Implementation of the Mental Revolution through the National Reading Movement in Order to Increase the Public Literacy Index”, Monday (5/6), in Surabaya, East Java.
House of Representatives Commission X member, Syarif Bando who was one of the speakers said that it is no longer the time to calculate the effectiveness of the library by looking at the number of citizens who come. Today the challenge is how urban and rural communities could access reading books. Libraries should be closer to the public.
Through the habit of reading books, people will have a deep level of understanding of issues. They will be critical in seeing a problem and not easily incited by information that is still superficial. A high literacy index also prompts communities/ people to solve problems easier because they are broad-minded.
Head of Surabaya City Library and Archives Service, Wiwik Widayati said that currently Surabaya has 1,399 reading service points spread in 31 sub-districts. A total of 347 reading service points are in the neighborhoods (RW), while the rest are scattered in public areas, such as schools, city parks, Islamic boarding schools, and mobile libraries. The spread of the reading service points is expected to encourage the community to improve the reading culture that is currently starting to erode with the habit of receiving information audio-visually.
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