Traditional Costumes as Librarians’ Uniforms for Work at Public Libraries of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is a country that is rich in culture and traditions and therefore, there are a lot of traditional costumes for various cultural activities. As one of the provinces in Indonesia, Yogyakarta is culturally rich. Yogyakarta is also the only province with a king as governor. However, due to the daily activities and works, nowadays people seldom wear those traditional costumes. Being aware of the situation and was concerned with the possibility of the disappearance of traditional costumes, the governor finally passed regulation Number 87 concerning with the traditional costumes to be worn for work on certain day every month. This regulation also affects librarians to wear traditional costumes when serving users. This study was aimed at finding out the librarians’ view of traditional costumes for work in the library. It was also aimed at finding out if traditional costumes affect their performance in the Public library. This was a descriptive analytic study on traditional costumes for work at the Public Libraries of Yogyakarta. Out of 172 librarians in the study showed that the majority of librarians felt convenient and proud to wear the traditional costumes and only 5 percent of them felt inconvenient. The library users were also impressed with the librarians’ costumes and they even inquire the librarians about the traditional costumes they worn.