Wednesday, Semarang (18/05/2022) – At 13.00 GMT+7 in Building A, 2nd floor at the Senate Meeting Room of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro, FISIP UNDIP warmly welcomed a visit from the KITLV Jakarta – Leiden University. It was attended by several representatives from the departments, the Head of the Politics and Governance Studies Department, the Head of the Communication Science Department, the Business Administration Department, and the Department of International Relations.

KITLV Jakarta is an institution under the Leiden University library. Their visit was aimed to establish cooperation. In this collaboration, the two institutions can contribute writings to each other in the form of journals, books, articles and so on.

The Dean of Undip FISIP, Dr. Hardi Warsono, MT., said in his speech that FISIP UNDIP was a Faculty at the University that carried out the Tri Dharma of Higher Education, one of which was research. So later on, the publication of research conducted by lecturers at FISIP Universitas Diponegoro could gain a global reputation.

Meanwhile, Verina Maria Oktaviane who was representing the Leiden University – KITL Jakarta also presented an overview of the KITLV Jakarta. Since 1851, the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal -, Land – en Volkenkunde (KITLV) had been conducting activities to collect the source materials of information, and development of research on the former Dutch colonies areas and the surrounding.

KITLV, which is based in Leiden, opened its representative office in Jakarta in 1969. KITLV-Jakarta cooperated with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in organizing various scientific activities and publishing scientific works on Indonesia and Southeast Asia in general.

On July 1, 2014, the KITLV Library in Leiden merged with the Leiden University Library and KITLV-Jakarta was transferred under the auspices of the Leiden University Library with a legal entity form as a Foundation. KITLV-Jakarta has a library with a collection of library materials in humanities and social sciences that focuses on Indonesia.

On October 1, 2015, KITLV-Jakarta also became the permanent representative office of Leiden University in Indonesia. It was expected to enhance academic cooperation with various partner institutions in Indonesia and to become a centre of information regarding the Leiden University study programs offered.

In addition, Verina Maria Oktavi also said that KITLV-Jakarta as Part of the Leiden University Library – as an important source of information for research, the Leiden University Library had various collections of information resource materials in humanities and social sciences with the main focus on Southeast Asia. The collections were in the form of printed publications such as books, magazines, and research reports obtained from government agencies, the private sector, universities, or other sources, as well as in digital and microfilm forms. There was also a special collection that stored various source materials in their original forms, such as lontar and ancient manuscripts. Meanwhile, its main activities were acquisition, cataloguing and digitization. In addition, KITLV also organized Leiden University Library Collection Exhibition, Academic Writing Publishing, book launches, and webinars.

The Vice Dean for Resources, Ika Riswanti Putranti, PhD, said that the collaboration between FISIP UNDIP and KITLV Jakarta Leiden University would provide positive benefits for increasing the publication citation of FISIP lecturers because the Leiden University library had a good database.

The activity was closed with the symbolic handing over of books between the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and the KITLV Jakarta Leiden University which were handed over directly by the Dean of FISIP UNDIP, Dr. Hardi Warsono, MT and continued with a photo session.

Reporter: Maskur