My weekend stay in Jakarta at the beginning of this month for the seminar on school library services was generously and warmly sponsored by APISI, the school librarian organization of Indonesia. Their concerns are similar to ours and the work they do for the improvement of school librarianship in Indonesia is an experience I can relate to especially now that I am an officer of the Philippine Association of School Librarians. In this blog interview, Hanna Chaterina George, founder of APISI shares with us their exciting journey towards empowerment and professional growth.
1. How old is APISI and how did it begin?
APISI is 13 years old. It begun in 2005, when some of school librarians around British School where I worked in Tangerang came together to share knowledge and experiences. We invited some experts to deliver their materials about school librarianship with us. About 30 (or more) school librarians shared and discussed and we decided to meet up again by deciding where we're going to meet and the time.
It was October 1, 2005 and we agreed to gather again in Feb 2006 in Raffles International School. We had the same event and again decide to meet up again in August 26, 2006 and that is when APISI founded.
It was October 1, 2005 and we agreed to gather again in Feb 2006 in Raffles International School. We had the same event and again decide to meet up again in August 26, 2006 and that is when APISI founded.
2. What are the purpose and goals of APISI?
The purpose of APISI is to showcase the existence of school information professional through the process of continuous self-professional development to create more passionate school librarianship in Indonesia.
The goal of APISI is to support the development of school information professionals in Indonesia and to accommodate knowledge and experiences interaction to stimulate studies in school librarian development.
3. What challenges has APISI encountered that tested its mettle? You may expound on how you overcame the challenges.
Major challenges faced by APISI are funding and human resources as we are independent and non profit organisation. There was immobility between 2009 and 2013 as we were asked by Government to help them establish their library worker association. Some of our committee members then became its runner including myself. At that time, I propose to take responsibility helping National Library and Ministry of Education in coordinating IASL Conference as Indonesia appointed to be the host in 2013. In 2014, I was encouraged to re-start APISI to live again. Then we registered APISI to have its legal acknowledgement and we are back in business.
We used our own pocket to run APISI and supported with Boediardjo Foundation by letting us have its 'Rumah Ndekem', to be our office. Rumah Ndekem is an ethnical house with window-glassed paintings with a story with wayang characters.
In 2015 we got our proposal approved by IFLA BSLA to run a workshop to build our organisation stronger. Followed with an offer to be partner of Indonesia's central bank - Bank Indonesia (BI) to implement their CSR programs in making a reading corners for school libraries in Jakarta and its nearby areas.
We opened for recruitment and started to hire some staff in APISI office.
Part 2 will follow within the week, so stay posted!
Part 2 will follow within the week, so stay posted!
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