Yogyakarta, August 28th 2020—The ongoing pandemic, which houses not only workers, but also students, has also made many adjustments that have been made quickly by the University and Faculty to continue serving teaching and learning needs. One of them is the need for access to borrow books from the campus library. Answering this problem, the UGM Library held a small talk session on the Menyapa Library channel (Instagram: @perpustkaan_ugm) which used the Instagram Live feature. In this session, the Menyapa Library was held for the 10th time with the main topic being related to the library services of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and Faculty of Law in the new normal era. Each faculty was represented by Sunarno, S.IP., M.A. (Faculty of Law) and Yuli Hesti, S.IP. (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences).
As a representative of the Faculty of Law, Sunarno explained that in the middle of April 2020, the Law Faculty library administrator was given the mandate to look for book titles of the source book that were most widely read. This task is carried out with the aim of preparing efforts to digitize reading materials so that later it can be easier for students to access it online. To the audience, Sunarno also explained that the Faculty of Law would also immediately facilitate e-book services as a form of adjustment in difficult times like this. The library service of the Faculty of Law has actually been opened since June 2nd, 2020. However, the operation of this service also observes standard health protocols. Which after being redefined, per August 24, 2020, library services operate within seven hours a day. The first session is open from 08.00 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and the second session is open from 11.30 a.m. to 03.00 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, as confirmed by Yuli, chose not to open a library. Students are facilitated with online library access through social media, namely Instagram owned by @perpusfisipolugm. As for the presence of this channel, it is intended to be a medium of communication between students and librarians regarding the need for borrowing books. FISIPOL library services also not only operate for online access activities, but students can also borrow or return books offline on campus provided that they have made appointments or communicated with librarians or library workers using the direct message feature on Instagram of @perpusfisipolugm.
Not only that, the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences has also released a digital library (digilib) which students can use to access reading references for their final assignments, such as theses and dissertations, only by accessing the digilib website (http://lib.ugm.ac.id/). The form of digitization carried out by FISIPOL is an effort to minimize the spread of new clusters within the faculty. Therefore, students are expected to be able to take advantage of the social media of the FISIPOL’s library to access book lending or ask questions that are relevant.
The digitalization efforts carried out by the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and Faculty of Law are a concrete form of answering student needs regarding access to borrowing reading materials or literature during the pandemic period. The happy news is that these two libraries also exempt fines for borrowers who have not returned or are late to return them during the pandemic.