Documentary heritage is a unique and irreplaceable window into our history, offering a connection to the thoughts, culture and lived experiences of the past. Our collective efforts to enhance the preservation and accessibility of this heritage must continue. I congratulate the National Library of Indonesia on winning this Prize.
Audrey AzoulayUNESCO Director-General
In its recommendation, the international jury of experts recognized the Library's dedication to the preservation and accessibility of Indonesian manuscripts through extensive programmes including national manuscript festivals, extensive publications, and educational initiatives for children and young people.
The Library will be presented with the Prize in a ceremony in Cheongju, Republic of Korea, on 4 September, on Jikji Day.
The National Library of Indonesia
The National Library of Indonesia, established in 1980, has preserved significant Indonesian collections of manuscripts that reflect the antiquity and diversity of manuscript traditions in Indonesia. With the enactment of the Indonesian Library Act of 2007, the Library has implemented manuscript management programmes throughout the country, including advocacy, inventory and acquisition, preservation, accessibility, research and publication, capacity building and restitution.
Acting Director E. Aminudin Aziz highlighted, "Creating a robust ecosystem for sustainable manuscript preservation and accessibility programmes is critical. This ecosystem, which includes advocating for manuscript owners, enhancing the preservation and increasing accessibility through various methods, is challenging to establish. However, it is a highly rewarding endeavor to enable more people to benefit from and enjoy the documentary heritage."
The UNESCO / Jikji Memory of the World Prize
The UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize commemorates the inscription on UNESCO Memory of the World International Register of Buljo jikji simche yojeol, a Korean work considered to be the oldest book printed with movable metal type. Endowed with $30,000, funded by the Republic of Korea through the City of Cheongju, the Prize recognizes efforts to contribute to the preservation of and accessibility to documentary heritage as the common heritage of humanity.
UNESCO established its Memory of the World Programme in 1995 to help preserve the world's documentary heritage - a rich repository of our collective memory. Documents, whether written, audio or visual are fragile and require carefully coordinated global collaboration to ensure their survival and continued access for future generations.
In close partnership with governments and private bodies, UNESCO works to protect and store the original, unaltered documents, and make them accessible to everyone. The programme comprises a worldwide network of national committees and local archiving institutions. It focuses particularly on areas impacted by conflict or natural disasters.
