No silence please: is this open-air park in Indonesia the world’s most quirky library?
- Sandwiched between two roads and underneath a flyover, the Kolong Community Reading Park is not your average library
- Aimed at children, it is one of many projects aimed at boosting literacy in a land where stories are traditionally passed on orally rather than written down
The Kolong Community Reading Park in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta must be one of the most quirky libraries in the world.
Loud noises and laughing are normal – and in fact encouraged. That’s because this open-air park is located directly under a towering flyover and sandwiched between two large roads where vehicles and motorcycles honk, rev their engines and emit exhaust fumes – very unlibrary-like.
“Oh yeah. That is our challenge. Any kind of sounds – traffics, smell, exhaust – we have to deal with it and carry on,” said Victoria, the reading park’s director.
But there is a method to the madness of the library, which also organises sports games and arts and craft classes in a small but beautiful patch of artificial grass, trees and plants, and a quaint brick building that houses the books: the park caters solely to children, including homeless kids.
There’s another, even more important, point to the library: Indonesians – adults and children alike – have an obscure aversion to reading.
