Accessing Public Libraries via QR Code

The Jakarta administration has expanded access to digital books as part of its public library transformation to encourage young people to read. Various reading materials are now easily and readily accessible at a click.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Visitors look for books at the Jakarta Library at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) Cikini, Central Jakarta, which was opened, Friday (8/7/2022). The Jakarta Library has a collection of 109,000 books, 38,000 titles, and 72,000 books that can be borrowed by library members.

A 30-by-30 centimeter image of a QR (quick response) code is printed on an orange banner displayed at entrance to the 2nd floor of the Jakarta Library at Taman Ismail Marzuki in Cikini, Central Jakarta. Adit, a young visitor, was seen using his smartphone to scan the black-and-white code, which directed him to the Kubuku website (kubuku.id). He had thought the code would take him to the Jakarta Library registration page. Instead, he was led to the digital library and resource platform.

Adit saw that his phone had opened a digital catalog of books listed by genre: general issues, history, social science, and others. Novels and children’s books were also available. He clicked a title, and it opened the pages of a book he could read directly. "You can read it right away," he said on Wednesday (31/8/2022).