KUCHING: Sarawakians are encouraged to publish books written by them through the State Library.
In making this call, Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah noted that the number of books deposited to the State Library this year is rather low.
As Sarawak aspires to become a developed state by 2030, she said the record can be said to be far behind.
“This caught my attention, the total number of deposited books to the State Library was 200 books.
“If we were to follow the benchmark for developed countries, the number of deposited books should be as much as 1,000 books per million population.
“But I believe, a lot could be done to improve this number,” she said.
She said this upon receiving a courtesy call from the Sarawak State Library delegation on the Sarawak Authors Festival (SAF) at her office here last Thursday.
As such, Fatimah said that her ministry, together with the State Library, is encouraging local authors, retired personnel, children, and so on to write books and publish them through the State Library.
She added that any type of book can be published, including school magazines, comics, children’s illustration books and more.
“Everything that is published, and documented, can be a legacy and reference material for future generations.
“Those who have had extraordinary experiences, such as cancer survivors or former prisoners who have changed their course of history, can also share their stories through writing.
“Even ordinary people can also publish books based on their experiences,” she said.
On the same note, Fatimah revealed that her ministry, through its early childhood education and care institution SeDidik, will work with the State Library to encourage children in book writing.
“In 2023, we will execute our plan on the matter. We are going to have a workshop this year before carrying out the work on book writing and publishing.
“This programme will be announced during the SAF which will be held at the end of this month,” she said.
