The piece of these mainstream chat: “Where do you study? What University ..., what major? Library science and closing with silence instantly are almost experienced by all colleague students who are un-purposely taking library science or seriously taking information, communication and technology department.

Usually, the word “hah”, frowned and continued with mainstream question “what department is that?”, “what are you going to study? What are you will be? Taking care of books? Until you heard worse and sad question “hah, I never heard that department?”

Actually, those questions are still normal as people asked you many questions show that they are awareness or maybe not familiar with this study program. To all college students or graduate students of the library science department are expected could explain about this major to public.

This department is considered as a rare department is not because of its age which reached more than 60 years. In Indonesia, librarian education began in 1952 marked by the opening of a Library Employee Education Course managed by the Library Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Teaching and Culture (Sulistyo Basuki: 2013). However, the establishment of the library science department through the Institute of Education manage by the University was taking place from1961 up to 1969. The University of Indonesia (UI) was the first university opened a library science department. Recently, there are around 32 institutions in Indonesia that run library and information science education, starting from diploma 2, diploma 3, undergraduate 1, and undergraduate 2 which spread in many universities and colleges both (public and private) in Indonesia. In the year of 2012/2013, University of Gajah Mada (UGM) Yogyakarta was the only university in Indonesia which opened Doctoral Degree of library science department in the study program of Culture Media and the Faculty of Cultural Science. For Master’s Degree, there have been five universities of library science, namely: University of Indonesia, University of Padjadjaran, University of  Gadjah Mada, University of Bogor Agricultural Institute and University of Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Yogyakarta (Wahid Nashihuddin: 2014)

What will you study in this department? This department is the only one study program which established to meet the needs of professional labor in the field of library management which make library as their object of study, ranging from the activities of library technicians, management until information technology applications. In this department, you will also learn about library, documentation, and information (pusdokinfo). The goals of this department are to produce an expert student in all types of libraries, information institutions, documentation or in the archives and record management institutions too.

What is that means? It means a promised job opportunity. It was proved by almost all institutions/ministries and local governments from Sabang to Merauke had formation for librarian or archivist when they open civil servant vacancies. In a simple word, we can say that since every public or private company are still issued a document, there’s still a big opportunity for librarians and archivists. For that reasons, all sources of information such as organize, process, disseminate, serve, and preserve will greatly assist career development. Trust me, it works.

DAFTAR PUSTAKA

Sulistyo Basuki. 2013. Ilmu Perpustakaan dan Informasi : Perkembangan dan Tantangannya di Indonesia. https://sulistyobasuki.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/ilmu-perpustakaan-dan-informasi-perkembangan-dan-tantangannya-di-indonesia/.

Wahid Nashihuddin. 2014. “Perkembangan Pendidikan Ilmu Perpustakaan Indonesia: Dari Masa Ke Masa” . Jurnal Pustakawan Indonesia Volume 13 No. 1