VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The 2022 Archipelago Manuscript Preservation Expose activity - 

The head of the National Library of Indonesia (NLI), Muhammad Syarif Bando, said that ancient manuscripts were the result of the thoughts of the ancestors in building the nation's civilization for the better.

"Knowledge contained in ancient manuscripts is very important and can be used to win life," he said in the 2022 Archipelago Manuscript Preservation Expose activity which was held in a hybrid manner, Monday (19/9/2022).

The Head of National Library added that as a civilizational institution that is a symbol of the state, the library has the task of explaining to the international world about various teachings regarding the social order of people's lives.

"Our main task is how to promote the wisdom values ​​contained in the manuscripts," he explained.

The Director of Religion, Education and Culture, Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, Amich Alhumami, explained that ancient manuscripts are a reflection of the high achievement of a nation's cognitive work. He added that ancient manuscripts are part of the knowledge artifacts collected in cultural documents.

"The collection of ancient manuscripts contains very rich knowledge and is very valid if it is said, that this is actually part of the achievements of a nation's high knowledge," said Amich.

Ancient manuscripts, he said, have the same important portion as other development issues. This is because ancient manuscripts are a very central part of the scope of cultural development.

On the other hand, Professor of Philologist FAH UIN Jakarta, Oman Fathurahman, said that there are seven aspects in the ecosystem of the archipelago, namely regulations and policies, manuscript owners, publication and advocacy media, conservation, restoration, and digitization, global networks, big data-based databases. , as well as qualified human resources. These seven aspects must go hand in hand so that the preservation of the manuscript can run well and maximally.

“So don't expect the preservation of the manuscript to be successful if one link doesn't work. Because what is called an ecosystem is a link in a chain, if one is paralyzed, it will not work,” he explained.

He added that preservation consisted of physical preservation of the manuscript and preservation of the text/content. According to him, the community can play a role in preserving the manuscript. "The success of the community's role in preserving manuscripts is determined by the extent to which the community is involved as a stakeholder in the government's manuscript preservation program," he added.

Meanwhile, the main expert librarian, National Library of Indonesia, Ahmad Masykuri, explained that as the builder of the library, his party had made efforts to preserve ancient manuscripts. In addition, the National Library of Indonesia has carried out the function of preserving ancient manuscripts to improve the intelligence and culture of the nation.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Monday, the National Library of Indonesia has made a manual/NSPK/technical guide on the preservation of ancient manuscripts which can be accessed on the National Library Material Preservation Center page. These books can be applied or applied by all library organizers in the region.

“So how to do conservation can be seen here. In addition to books, we also make tutorials in the form of videos, for example the process of lamination, patching books and so on,” he said.

He explained that his party was doing the preservation of regional manuscripts. It was recorded that until 2022, the preservation of ancient manuscripts originating from external National Library which spread in various regions in Indonesia amounted to 5,261 manuscripts.

Meanwhile, the results of the preservation of ancient manuscripts in the National Library of Indonesia total a total of 8,634 manuscripts, including the transfer of ancient manuscripts (manuscripts) to digital form as many as 3,886, preventive conservation with manuscript boxes there are 4,200, conservative curative paper manuscripts are 273, and conservative curative papyrus manuscripts are 275.

In addition, the National Library of Indonesia also preserves information (content) of recorded works, namely digital curation, replication of CD collections, conversion from SWF to Pdf format, conversion from microfilm to digital, and conversion of audio cassette media//VOI