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National Library Launches Khastara: A New Way to Discover Nusantara Manuscripts

Published At

07 January 2019

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Medan Merdeka Selatan, Jakarta—Ancient manuscripts are like the lights of civilization. The information content in each manuscript is always full of positive messages. The collection of ancient Indonesian manuscripts is written in various scripts and languages. The National Library until 2017 had 11,133 manuscripts. However, not many can read every content, both implied and explicit.

For the public to easily access and know the great benefits of ancient Indonesian manuscripts, the National Library launched a special website ‘Khastara’ at the Soekarman Theater Room of the Library Service, Thursday, (3/1). Khastara means Khasanah Manuscripts of the Archipelago. This website is the result of collaboration between the Library and Information Services Center as the system and web provider and the Preservation Center as the content provider.

“One of the roles of the library is as a bridge of knowledge in the past and the Khastara website contains all digital collections resulting from media transfers from the printed collections of Indonesian libraries owned by the National Library. “This site is expected to be utilized by the Indonesian people for intellectual interests,” said the Head of the National Library, Muhammad Syarif Bando, at the launch.

This website added the Head of the National Library, makes it easier for librarians to access the archipelago library collection that has been digitized in an attractive form and format so that the condition of the fragile printed collection is maintained.

The presentation of the archipelago library collection will be made in the form of an intuitive but simple website, by the latest technological developments with the Responsive Web concept. So that the Khastara website can be opened with gadgets, such as tablets and smartphones.

The Khastara website contains a collection of 8987 titles, including a collection of manuscripts (ancient manuscripts) of 837 titles, a collection of rare translated monographs (rare books) of 144 titles, a collection of cartography (maps) of 1,548 titles, a collection of graphic materials (photos, pictures, paintings) of 5,716 titles, and a collection of rare serials (rare magazines and newspapers) of 79 titles.

“We hope that the improvement of information services based on information and communication technology presented by the National Library will add to the wealth and diversity of existing information and be useful for the people of Indonesia,” said Deputy for Development of Library Materials and Information Services of the National Library Ofy Sofiana.

Reporting: Hartoyo Darmawan

Source: National Library of the Republic of Indonesia

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