ROLE of RURAL LIBRARIES 12 2.1 Purpose of Rural Library Service 13 2.2 Rural Libraries in the Promotion of 14 Functional Literacy
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J ., a I a~~9a Mel,~ johore -- SC.ALE : 3,400,000 MIL.ES so o 50 :1.'50 ·WEST MALAYSI A RURAL LIBRARIES IN WEST MALAYSIA WITH RECOMMENDATIONS BY NOREHAN AHMAD A Master's Degree Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master's Degree in Library Stud ies of the Loughborough University of Technology. September 1980 Supervisor : .. Mr, ,K., A. StpclQ1am, .. Department of 'Library and .. ·Inro~tion St~dies... • @ by Norehan Ahmad, 1980 TO MY DEAR AYAJl - who has given me all the encouragement and motiva tion, throughout my academic years. (ii) Title Sheet (i) Table of Contents (ii) List of Abbreviations (v) List of Tables (vi) List of Photographs (vii) List of Appendices (viii) Aoknowledgements (ix) Abstract (x) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPI'ER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Definitions 1 1.2/Social conditions of rural communities 2 in developed and developing countries. 1.3 Rural community in West Malaysia 1.4 Rural community in the state of Selangor 2 ROLE OF RURAL LIBRARIES 12 2.1 Purpose of rural library service 13 2.2 Rural libraries in the promotion of 14 functional literacy. 2.3 Attempts at functional literacy cam 19 paigns by rural libraries in some countries (iii) 3 DEVEIDPMENT OF RURAL LIBRARY SERVICES IN 26 WEST MALAYSIA 3·1 General development 26 3·2 Agencies providing rural library 28 services 3·3 Mini9try of Agriculture and Rural 29 Development. 3.4 Community Development Division cr KEMAS 30 ).4.1 KEMAS and rural libraries 30 ).4.2 KEMAS and Adult Education 32 Programmes. 3.4·3 KEMAS and administration of J4 3·5 rural libraries 3·5 Federal Land Develcpment Authority 46 (FELDA) 4 PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES TO RURAL AREAS IN 52 liEST. MALAYSIA 4.1 Brief history of public libraries 52 4.1.1 Legislative provisions 53 4.1.2 .State Puclic Library Corporation 54 4.1.3 National Library 55 4.2 Selangor Public Library services to 56 Rural Areas 4.2.1 Brief history of Selangor Public 56 Libra.-y Corporation 4.2.2 Selangor Public Library - Functions 57 4.2.3 Selangor Public Library - rural 58 library services 4.2.4 Organisation of rural library 58 services 4·3 Kedah Public Library Services to Rural 65 Areas 4.3·1 Brief history of Kedah Public 65 Library Corporation 4.).2 Kedah Public Library - Functions 66 4.3·3 Kedah Public Library - rural 66 library services. (iv) 4.3.4 Organisation of rural library 67 services 5 PLANNING RURAL LIBRARY SERVICES : 77 RECONMENDATIONS 5.1 Problem: Organisation of rural 77 libraries . 5.2 Recommendations 78 6 CONCWSION 87 LIST OF AB.BREVIATIONS BBR BUik Bacaan Rancangan FELDA Federal Land Development Authority KEMAS Kemajuan Masyarakat LAS Library Association of Singapore MlG ~~layan Library Group MPLA Malayan Public Library Association PPM Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia UNDp· United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (vi) LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE r Population by state in 1975 in West Malaysia. 5 II Population by community in Malaysia. 5 III Population by state capitals in West Malaysia. 6 IV Percentage of illiteracy in West Mal~sia. 6 V Total population in 1970 in Selangor. 9 VI Project I Rural Libraries (Kemas). 37 VII Development of KEMAS rural libraries in the various states in West Mal~sia and the number it serves. 39 VIII Collection of books in branch / mobile libxaries of the Kedah Public Libxary. 71 (vii) LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS (a) Kedah Public Library Corporation's headquarters at Alor star. 67 (b) View of the Sungei Petani branch library 68 (c) as above. 69 (d) A model of a mobile van 'Mercedes Benz ( 0309D / 35 ). 69 (e) Library collection at the Alor star Public Library. 70 (f) Library Assistant at the counter at the Sungei Petani Branch library. 70 (g) Reading or reference areas of two branch libraries in Kedah 74 (h) as above. 74 (viii) LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX • 1 Capital Expenditure of KEMAS for 1980 104 2 Operating Expenses of KEMAS for 1980 105 Organisation of 'Kemas' rural libraries I 3 1 list of duties of library attendants. 107 4 Summa.ry of the main recommendations of the Blueprint to Public Library Develop- ment. 109 5 Selangor Public Library, branch libraries and mobile library stops and routes. 115 6 Kedah Public Library"branch libraries and mobile library stops and routes 116 (ix) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank all those people who have assisted me so gene rously in the compilation of this dissertation, without whom the com pletion of this work would not have been possible. Mr. K. A. Stockham, my supervisor, who has sacrificed his pre cious time in providing me with constructive criticisms and sugges tions, all the way. My special thanks too, to my colleagues in the Selangor and Kedah Public Libraries, Malaysia and to Miss Nor Alkaff, a librarian from Tunku Abdul Rahman College, Kuala Lumpur, whom have spared their time in gathering the relevant materials on this topic. Not forget ting, of course, all my good friends at 51, Oxford street, in Lough borough, Leicestershire. To my dear father, who from 7,000 miles away, has given me the moral support I most needed to complete this dissertation. Lastly to Mr. Abdul Razak bin Abdul Majid, who did all the ty ping for me. (x) ABSTRACT In recent years, there is a growing interest in rural libraries development by various authorities in West Malaysia. Many problems such as poor coordination, shortage of funds and staff, are being en countered in their attempts in establishing libraries in the rural areas. The various types of services and problems faced by the govern ment agencies and the state Public Library Corporation are being dis cussed. Recommendations are provided and hopefully the state Public Library Corporations will absorb the various rural libraries already established into their own system as soon as it is feasible to do so. \ . 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Defi~tions. In most if not all the developing countries, the bulk of the po pulation live in the rural areas. In Malaysia about 72% of its 12 million people are categorized as 'rUral,.l The Encyclopedia of Social Science defines rural society as com prising all persons residing in the open country or all persons con nected directly with agricultural occupations or all persons residing in administrative units of less than a given size. A 'DictionarY of the Social Sciences' by Gould and Kolb gives the following definition: 'A society or community may be classified as 'rural' by the following criteria which denotes areas of a continuum: lower population density; less social differentiation; less social and spatial mobility; slower rates of social change; agriculture as a major occupation and the cen tering of politico-economic system in the holding of land.' In Malaysia local units having a population of less than 10,000 people are defined as rural and these are widely scattered. The rural population in the country is predominantly engaged in agriCUltural oc cupations as agriculture occupies a very ,dominant position in the r~ tion's economy. This is evident from the fact that it produces about 2 one-third of the entire national product, provides one-half of the emp loyment for the labour force and supplies almost two~thirds of Malaysia's exports. In the United states of America, the basic classification used by the Bureau of the Census is that according to residence. The 'ru ral-nonfarm' population includes all persons living outside urban areas who do not reside on farms. It would include persons living in non farm houses in the open country, persons residing in villages and ham lets of less than 2,500 and in the areas su=ounding smaller cities.2 1.2 Social conditions of rural communities in developed and develo- ping countries. Farmers normally reside on the land they till. This agricultu ral occupation in many cases limits their life and channels of commu nication. Their social interaction is within a na=ow scope. Soil, insects, animal breeding, domestic routine, tools, weapons that they use influence their attitudes, interests, transaction systems, their income and expenditure, politics, racial, social relationship, educa tion and hygiene, language etc. Common characteristics of rural community deprivation are the poor supply of water, lack of hospitals and libraries, unreliable electricity and poor communication facilities. These are particularly apparent in most developing countries such as those in Latin ,America, Africa and South-East Asia. 3 In developing countries there often exists rural to urban migra tion. This is initiated by the priority of national development in urban areas, given by the government. Governments.have begun to·rea lize such conse'l.uences of concentrating on the urban areas only and so, now have spread industrial activities to rural areas as well. In Malaysia, the government has started to open up industries in the ru ral areas so as to create employment. In the U.S.A., France, Britain and other developed countries the differences between the living conditions of the town dweller and those of a rural man are not so great.