Empowering Children in Remote Areas Through Digital Library

Children in Indonesian remote areas often lack access to books. Shipping books from other places, however, is not the best solution to the problem due to the high shipping costs. Moreover, Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Kementerian Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral/ESSDM) stated that there are estimated to be 30% areas in Indonesia that don’t have access to stable electricity and internet connection.

Realizing the fact that these children deserve better, Daniel Patricko Gemeno Hutabarat, S.T., M.T., a lecturer and faculty member from BINUS UNIVERSITY initiated a digital library to tackle this issue through a digital approach.

The digital library has a collection of books in digital format and accessible through a computer. Aside from books, the collection also consists of short films, audio, and video tapes. The digital library was developed by a team of lecturers from BINUS UNIVERSITY Computer Engineering, involving Computer Engineering students as well.

The team hopes to educate and empower children living in the remote areas by providing access to book and other media. The team also wish that these children have the same opportunities as others to gain more knowledge and grow, so later in the future they can contribute back to the society.

The features are built for children to access storybooks and science books. The digital library database can be updated from a flash drive without relying on the internet connection, therefore many remote regions without stable internet connection can benefit from it.

The digital library has been accessed by over 1,000 children from remote villages from different parts of Indonesia including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Maluku, and Papua.