On Friday, October 27, 2023, a socialization of UGM and Faculty Biology UGM library services was held. The event took place from 13:30 to 15:30 WIB and was attended by faculty members, staff, and students in Classroom 4A of the Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The event began with the singing of the Indonesian national anthem, followed by a group photo session. The event continued with welcoming remarks from the Head of the Faculty of Biology Library, Drs. Ign. Sudaryadi, M.Kes. This event was guided by Delia Sawanda Syarifatullah.
The first presentation was given by Aris Setiawan, S.IP., a librarian from the Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The presentation covered the library’s service hours, the BIODIGILIB digital library application, and both physical and online library services. The Library’s service hours are from Monday to Thursday, from 07:30 to 16:00 WIB, and on Fridays from 07:30 to 15:00 WIB. The BIODIGILIB application can be accessed at any time using either Android or Windows operating systems. The physical services provided by the Faculty of Biology Library include circulation services such as borrowing, renewing, and returning books. Students can borrow a maximum of 5 books. The library also offers online services for students planning independent studies, submitting final project files, and extending book borrowing periods. Facilities such as discussion rooms and an Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETD) room are also available. Students can request to use a discussion room, with a minimum of three participants in the discussion. The ETD room offers facilities to help students access the theses and dissertations of fellow students who have completed their final projects. However, students are only allowed to take notes on the content and are not permitted to copy the files using a flash drive or take photos of them. Other activities provided by the Faculty of Biology Library include open recruitment for library volunteers, training for library volunteers, literacy management classes for new students, book reviews, and community service.
The event continued with a presentation from a librarian from the Main Library, Mr. Sarwono, SIP., M.A. covered various rooms and services available at the Main Library of Universitas Gadjah Mada. The Central Library of Universitas Gadjah Mada, located north of the Grha Sabha Pramana Building, houses a collection of 423,979 print titles in the circulation area and 42,902 titles in the reference area. Students can visit the Central Library from Monday to Friday, from 08:00 to 20:00 WIB, and on Saturdays from 08:00 to 12:00 WIB.
Several physical facilities are available for students to use, including the “Window of the World” room, the kids corner, seminar rooms, study rooms, the Gade Creative Lounge, periodicals and reference rooms, circulation and book return rooms, Hatta Corner, self-study rooms, a prayer room, a cafeteria, and a gazebo. The Central Library of Universitas Gadjah Mada allows students to borrow a maximum of 10 books. An ETD room is also available at the Central Library, where students can take photos of accessed manuscripts. However, students are still not allowed to copy the manuscripts.
Some interesting information about services provided to students includes Individual Academic Consultation (IAC) services, which assist students in seeking a second opinion on their ongoing research. These consultations can last for 30-60 minutes. In addition to IAC, there is also Individual Student Support (ISS) available. ISS assists students who want to consult on the process of publishing their academic work at the international level. The Central Library of Universitas Gadjah Mada also provides a service for checking the plagiarism level of students’ academic work using the Turnitin application.
Students from Universitas Gadjah Mada can also request copies of theses, dissertations, and final projects from the Main Library. Students are allowed to request a maximum of 5 documents during their period of study. The Main Library also offers miniclass tutorials on e-resources, reference managers, self-upload, and bibliometric analysis. These tutorial classes are open to all members of the academic community at Universitas Gadjah Mada.
The event became even more engaging with a discussion session. Five students who asked questions to the speakers also received door prizes in the form of vouchers and interesting souvenirs. The event concluded with closing remarks from the MC. It is hoped that through this dissemination activity, more students will become aware of the various facilities and services available at the Faculty of Biology Library and the Main Library of Universitas Gadjah Mada.