UNAIR NEWS – During a visit to Japan, Faculty of Humanities Universitas Airlangga had some agendas. One of them was a visit to the Chiba University Library on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.
The visit to Chiba University Library was made after a public lecture held on the same campus. The visit to Chiba University Library aims to get an insight regarding the management and facilities of the library.
In his explanation to UNAIR NEWS, Dean of FIB UNAIR Prof Dr Purnawan Basundoro MHum explained that the visit was received by Vice President of University Librarian Prof Hiroya Takeuchi, who is also Director of the Academic Link Center.
Starting the conversation about library management, Prof. Hiroya said that Chiba University Library is somewhat different from libraries in Japan. In general, library visitors in Japan should not be noisy, but the management of the Chiba University Library did the opposite.
“Visitors are allowed to be noisy as long as it is for the sake of discussion and doing group assignments,” he explained.
According to him, Chiba University Library is always busy with visitors every day. On almost all floors, students can be seen studying diligently and studying in groups. On the third floor, there are facilities for discussion and working on group assignments.
“Uniquely, in this room, there are volunteer librarians who are tasked as resource persons for students working on their assignments,” he explained.
The volunteers, he explained, were postgraduate students (S2) who were given a schedule to become resource persons according to their field of knowledge. On Monday from 15.00 to 17.00, for example, there will be a volunteer for History.
“So, at that period, all students of the History Study Program gather and do their assignments. Those who have difficulty answering assignments given by lecturers will consult with volunteers on duty at that time,” he explained.
The book collections of Chiba University Library are fantastic compared to the collections of university libraries in Indonesia, which reach over two million copies of books. “However, several universities in Japan have a much larger collection of books,” he concluded.
Author: Nuri Hermawan
