Selasar Pustaka

Selasar Pustaka is a company, located at Jalan Raya Rsud Karawang, West Java 41336, Indonesia. Visit their LinkedIn profile for more detailed information.

Indonesia has around 164,610 libraries, with the second-largest library infrastructure in the world second to India which has 323,605 libraries across the archipelago. In addition to the very large number, Indonesia has the highest library in the world (National Library of Indonesia, 126.3m) and the largest library in Southeast Asia (Crystal of Knowledge, Universitas Indonesia, 33.000 meters square).However, the abovementioned facts do not commensurate with the level of people's willingness to read which is still very low globally. Based on the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) research, Indonesia ranked 60th out of 65 country participants for the reading category, with a score of only 396. Meanwhile, the international average score set by PISA is 500. According to the World Most Literate Countries study conducted by the President of Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), John W Miller, Indonesia is ranked 60th out of 61 countries in 2016.Compared to other countries in the world, the reading culture in Indonesia is clearly still lagging behind. It is indeed disappointing, especially among Indonesian educators. The huge infrastructure of libraries, humongous collection of books, and the relative ease of access to books, do not contribute directly to the reading interest of the population, let alone the development of book literacy in the country.Considering these problems the country faces, a group of two college students decided to establish Selasar Pustaka street library in 2018. Selasar Pustaka is a self-made street library that opens every weekend (regularly in Millennial Park at Karawang) and provides hundreds of physical and digital books from various genres. Additionally, it provides a kid-friendly space to learn and draw. With a humble beginning of only two individuals, this street library movement has expanded to several spots across Karawang and Jakarta with around more than 10 volunteers and constantly growing.