Public Libraries and Open Government: a case study in Republic of Indonesia

Public Libraries and Open Government: a case study in Republic of Indonesia

The issues raised by the open government movement have spread around the globe. Open government movement also demands the Indonesian government adopt open government into Indonesian government system. In 2007 the Indonesian government established a Library Act and in 2008 it established the Public Information Freedom act, those two acts should create a good connection and collaboration between public libraries and government agencies to publish public information in libraries. Indonesia is the largest nation in democracy with very diverse ethnicities, religions and communities. The Indonesian government is dealing with the challenges of working, and experimenting with new ways to continue serving the people of these diverse communities, in densely populated cities, remote rural communities, or in scattered island communities. This paper examines connection and collaboration between public libraries and open government implementation in Indonesia; but the paper also looks at barriers and problems experienced by public libraries in serving open government in Indonesia. The methodology of this paper was to survey 33 public libraries in Indonesia. A questionnaire and deep interview were used to evaluate open government components such as transparency and creating public participation. The paper finds the involvement of public libraries in implementing open government is still low, most public libraries have low quantity and quality of government publications on their region. This paper finds that public libraries are not involved in open government in Indonesia. Many libraries are not providing assistance with government programs, such as applying for unemployment benefits or filing taxes, or providing traditional information sources, such as statutes and government information publications. Community participation in the open government program is low due to inadequate functioning of public libraries as a public space. The paper finds that there are some barriers to connecting public libraries and open government in Indonesia.