Report No. PID8783 Project Name Indonesia-Library Development (@) Region East Asia and Pacific Region Sector Other Education Project ID IDPE68949 Borrower(s) GOVERNMENT OF INDONESIA Implementing Agency Address THE NATIONAL LIBRARY Address: Jl. Salemba Raya, Jakarta, Indonesia Contact Person: Mr. Hernandono Tel: 62-21-3101411 Environment Category C Date PID Prepared May 7, 2001 Projected Appraisal Date May 1, 2000 Projected Board Date June 15, 2001 (RVP approval) 1. Country and Sector Background Limited use of information in daily life. Increasingly, as daily life becomes more complex, even in rural areas, reliance on traditional wisdom and knowledge is insufficient. Knowledge of farming techniques, pest control, birth control, disease prevention and cure, and marketing information is now gathered from traditional sources and existing wisdom by many people. To gain additional knowledge, however, and to move to more advanced levels, people need to develop new habits of information gathering, relying more heavily on printed materials, and on expert sources of information, with skills that should include approaching learning as an interactive, live-long acitvity, with reading at its core, to acquire information as part of daily life. These skills are insufficiently developed right now, especially in rural areas. A publishing industry that has not realized its potential. Indonesia possesses a substantial and healthy publishing industry, with a number of large publishers, mostly in Java, who have distribution reaches throughout the country. School textbooks form the largest part of the publishing business, with the remaining titles on sale focusing mainly on the urban, middle-class market. There is also substantial publishing of religious texts, and especially in the urban areas and with the recent increased freedom of the press, a vibrant market in newspapers and magazines. Because of the almost non-existent book purchasing power of rural and poorer segments of the community, there are almost no books serving these communities. Bookstores exist in most urban areas, but there is very limited access to a good selection of existing book titles in all but the largest urban areas. Most bookstores have extremely limited stocks, mostly concentrating on textbooks and related school items (dictionaries, atlases, wallcharts), religious texts and pulp literature. Bookstores or stalls, can be found in most towns, but of a very rudimentary nature, providing testimony to the existing reach of distributors and interests of the population, but also indicating the limits of penetration of those books that do exist.A national public library system exists. A network of provincial public libraries, under the management of the national library, has been active in providing library services to the public. Provincial libraries are generally housed in adequate buildings with significant and appropriate collections; they are well attended. In several provinces, the provincial library has been active in developing district-level libraries which serve as true community and public libraries, with active programs and reading promotion activities. While promising, these initiatives are very limited, because of the limited budgets, although the enthusiasm and dedication of the staff is encouraging. Limited resources in grassroots libraries. A limited number of grassroots, community initiatives for small libraries and book collections can be found in all provinces. These libraries operate largely with volunteer effort and almost no budgets, and serve small groups of constituents. They can be found in mosques and other places of worship, and are often associated with community efforts such as youth groups and farmers' extension groups. While remarkable for their dedication and initiative, these efforts are limited, with extremely small donated book collections and only a limited number of useful titles. They show the limits of what is possible with almost no resources and little training. The challenge will be to build on the existing initiatives to make them more effective and to develop a strategy to provide long-term financial support.Centralized school library supply policy. Number of primary schools with effective libraries is very limited. In most cases, the schools have only very limited selection, inattractive to students. In general, library book supply policies -- provided by projects -- were determined centrally and thus took little account of the varied needs of different schools in different localities. It was notable that, in most of the schools librarians and class teachers had little idea as to which titles were most popular with the students. It seems likely that their lack of interest stemmed, in part at least, from the fact that they took little if any part in deciding which library books should be ordered for their school. The challenge will be to shift the responsibility for determining library needs down to school and community level, at least the school-cluster level. A teacher forum should provide opportunities for teachers to share experience concerning library book usage and to agree on approaches to book selection and ordering. 2. Objectives To develop innovative approaches to increase the use of reading materials in community libraries and SD librariesTo motivate students and communities to use, enjoy and value books for recreational and informational purposes To develop a strategy for community and primary school (SD/MI) library support in the rest of the country, involving local community support, non-government organizations and local government. 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement N/A 4. Description The project will find appropriate and effective ways of supporting existing grassroots small libraries, that have already been put in place by a few dedicated people or institutions and that provide reading materials to the community around them. Primary schools that already have small libraries will also be included and improved. The project emphasizes the long-term sustainability of such initiatives, by working with local communities and charities and with local government as well as - 2 - the private sector, to find optimal configurations of support and self-initiative. The project will be implemented over a period of 3 years in total 23 districts in 4 provinces: Central Java (10 districts), West Nusa Tenggara, NTB (7 districts), South Sumatra (5 districts) and Bangka-Belitung (1 district). The project will cover total 770 small libraries: 25 primary school libraries and 10 community libraries in each district. Each librray will receive small block grants during the three project years, to purchase books and magazines, library materials, library furniture, modest remodeling and to support reading promotion activities. All activities will be supported by appropriate training and be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation program, to ascertain sustainability and long-term expansion of the program. 1. Grants to small libraries A. School Libraries B. Community Libraries 2. Institutional Development A. Technical Assistance and Training B. Project Management 5. Financing Total ( US$m) Government 0.45 IBRD IDA 4.15 Total Project Cost 4.52 6. Implementation N/A 7. Sustainability N/A 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector N/A 9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) N 10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Susiana Iskandar The World Bank Office - Jakarta Jakarta Stock Exchange - Tower 2, Fl. 12-13 Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav 52-54 Jakarta - Indonesia Telp. 61-21-52993000 - ext 3032 The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: 202 458 2701 Fax: 202 473 8065 -3- 12. For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project. This PID was processed by the InfoShop during the week ending June 22, 2001. - 4 -