Badung Regency, Bali, now has 12 child-friendly libraries scattered in every district. These libraries which were opened in February 2017, are part of the Room to Read Accelerator Project, aimed at fostering the reading habits of Indonesian children.
The project entitled Scaling Quality Learning for Children: Developing a Habit of Reading with Partners in Indonesia is a joint mission which is fully supported by the Education Department of Youth and Sport of Badung Regency and is implemented in cooperation with Room to Read, Pro Visi Education, and Yayasan Literasi Anak Indonesia (YLAI) to implement the Child-Friendly Library Development Program in Bali province.
Child-friendly libraries in Badung Regency are located in the school libraries of SDN 1 Petang, SDN 1 Bongkasa Pertiwi, SDN 5 Abiansemal, SDN 1 Darmasaba, SDN 1 Kapal, SDN 3 Sempidi, SDN 4 Dalung, SDN 2 Canggu, SDN 2 Seminyak, SDN 3 Kuta, SDN 4 Tuban, and SDN 5 Jimbaran.
These libraries have special features designed for students’ comfort to cultivate reading habits. Various titles of books and genres are classified according to students’ readiness in reading. The libraries also display reading materials written by students. These libraries are designed to be different from the classroom atmosphere, their walls are painted according to the theme chosen by the school. Each class has one hour each week to visit the library. Besides scheduled visit times, there are also unscheduled visit times too. The borrowing process is made as easy as possible so that it will not complicate the librarians and the students. When visiting the library, teachers do various reading activities to model reading approaches to students.
This project of Child-Friendly Library Development has given benefits to thousands of students. One student said that he could not wait to have his class’s turn to visit the library as he wanted to read more books. Teachers mentioned that students’ interest in reading had increased rapidly since the opening of the child-friendly library. According to some librarians, students’ interest in borrowing books to take home is very high. Hopefully in the next few years the Child-Friendly Library Program can reach more schools in Bali. Let’s dream bigger for the future of our children!