Book & The Arts

Seminar on Magazine during the Dutch colonial era/ Photos: Nopi TNOLInformation could be obtained not only from books. Magazines can be a source of information. Well, during Dutch colonial era, magazines published in accordance to specific aspects such as forestry, mining, government, economics, geography, culture and so forth.

These magazines has been published since hundreds of years ago. Not surprisingly, it categorized as a rare magazine that stores "treasure". In order to commemorate the Joy of Reading Month and Visit Library Day, the National Library held a seminar titled 'Rare Magazine, The Hidden Treasure of Information'

About 2 million copies of rare magazines in various languages namely Dutch, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Egypt and various regions in Indonesia stored in the Indonesian National Library.

"Unfortunately, these collections can only be used by researchers or students of S2 and S3, so it is not pragmatic because of language barrier," the Professor of History Faculty of Cultural Sciences University of Hasanuddin, Makassar Prof. Dr. Abdul Rasyid Asba said to TNOL at the National Library recently.

According to Asba, to make these rare collections can be used for all levels of society; it requires human resources who are able to translate existing materials. Head of Information Services and National Library Woro Titi Haryanti welcome such input. In fact, Woro said, the National Library has taken steps by conducting language courses for his staffs.

Asba added, there is Bestuur Tijdschrift van Binnenlandsch Studien magazine discusses on the aspects of governance and public administration, published on 1887 and the Colonial in 1917. The authors of the magazine are graduate of a public official or government employee. They write something that is important for performing their duties or experiences and their responses when dealing with a case in tenure.

There is also magazine related to military magazine named Tijdschrift Indische Militaire in 1851 until 1900. Magazine writers are military observers or whether they are military officers on active service or retired. Writing about the events of war, military operations, the lives and welfare soldiers or military-related techniques such as equipment, weapons and buildings.

"Understanding these texts are very helpful for building the intelligence of our current military forces," Asba said.

Then, there is Nederlandsch Zeeman Gids magazine published by navy in the late nineteenth century until the twentieth century. The writer is retired naval officer and people who are interested in observing the development of marine in the Dutch East Indies.

Papers relating to maritime issues such as shipbuilding, shipping, ports, ships and events of the war technically at sea are also available. "These magazines are important for the enrichment of our maritime defense as an archipelagic country," Asba explained.