Australia and Indonesia Reaffirm Longstanding Library Cooperation

The National Libraries of Australia and Indonesia have agreed to reaffirm and strengthen their longstanding cooperative relationship following a renewed memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed today in Jakarta.

“Libraries are significant cultural heritage resources and the warm relationship between the two national libraries reflects the strong relations between our countries,” Ambassador Farmer said.

The MOU was signed by Ms Amelia McKenzie, Deputy Director General of the National Library of Australia, and Mr Dady P Rachmananta, Director of the National Library of Indonesia.

“The cooperation is a priceless investment for both countries and it is a partnership that we encourage and support for the benefit of our future generations,” said Mr Rachmananta.

The libraries will further cooperate in the acquisition of Indonesian materials, bibliographic control, sharing information on preservation of Indonesian materials held in both libraries, sharing collections through interlibrary loan and other cooperative programs.

The inter-library loan cooperation agreement will enable each library to loan publications to the other library from within its collections.

The two libraries worked closely together in the wake of the 2004 tsunami to help public libraries in Aceh rebuild their book stocks and provide reading services to refugees.

Four senior Indonesian librarians also went to Australia earlier this year to attend a training program on preservation management at the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

The National Library of Australia has the largest collection of Indonesian language material in Australia and one of the largest contemporary collections on Indonesia in the world, acquired through the Library’s Jakarta Office since the early 1970s. Around 4000 Indonesian titles are acquired every year.

Further information:
Jenny Dee, Counsellor (Public Affairs) tel. (021) 2550 5290 mob. 0811 187 3175