Look Everything Closer, then You Will Understand

A friendly librarian of English Department 

Do you often go to the library? Do you greet the librarian before you go to the bookshelf? Maybe this one never comes across your mind, but a ‘Hello’ or smile from you means a lot to them.

A 27-years-old friendly librarian, Sonny Marlia Putri whom everybody calls as Mba Sonny. She arrives at campus at about 8 a.m. everyday and always in a hurry walking to the library, a place where she spent most of her time. She is a train users and it takes almost two hours from Bintaro where she lives to UNJ.

Sonny is a key holders of English Department’s library in UNJ. The first thing she does as she opens the door is sweeping the floor and spraying a fragrance throughout the library. “Wait a minute. After I finished cleaning up,” she said to the students who wants to do their assignment at the library in the morning. Sonny is a clean and neat person. She prepares the best for the visitors.

This year is her eighth years of being a librarian. Like most of people who don’t plan to be who they are now or what job they will take in the future, Sonny too, being a librarian is not in her plan. She studied at UIN (Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah) majoring in English Education. In a mid-way of her college life, unfortunately her score was not so good, therefore according to her campus’s rules at that time she had to choose between two subjects as a transition if she want to passed. One of them was Library and Information studies.

She couldn’t make a decision. Her parents and neighbor said to her “Just take it, Sonny.” So, she took Library and Information studies. Finally she got her bachelor degree. “I don’t know. I just live the path, but my blessings is in here,” she said after passed through her fear of her future career in taking the Library and Information studies.

Sonny, with her daily routine

In eight years of being a librarian, Sonny gained many valuable experiences. One of them is she gets to meet new people from the prominent people to the students who visit the library. The other things is she becomes to love books “I used to not like reading books, but now, I love it,” said Sonny.

“When I was watching TV, and I was like O.. I know this book, or it was written on that book,” Sonny said excitedly. She is rich in knowledge along as she become a librarian. As a common people, we may think a librarian is a book keeper or a librarian is someone who tidying up the book on the table and returned it to the bookshelf.

In fact, a librarian do a lot of jobs we don’t know. Even if Sonny sits in front of the computer, she is actually not only take notes on the coming users. You know what, you can ask her many links that will be useful for your assignment as the student or as the lecturer. Students often find it so hard to get the right link for download an e-book. A librarian know it so well.

The saddest part of being a librarian is being underestimated with some people, even until now. “We are the same with others, let’s say finance or administration” said Sonny chuckling. If you are users in campus, actually not only the administration who can help you with anything you need, but a librarian also can help you. That was their potency as an information provider.

Unfortunately, a librarian’s salary is not comparable with their job, because many people think that their job is not as much as other occupation. It is not easy to be a librarian, besides the spesific knowledge that must be achieved, a librarian must be creative, initiative and knowledgeable, so the users will feel comfortable with the help of the librarian. We can find those characteristics in Sonny, a librarian who loves to sleep and travel.

Sonny is dressed very simple, but her dream is not that simple. She has a big dream to study abroad someday. ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ is her way of life. As a human being, we can appreciate everyone, even if we don’t know how far is their contribution. Maybe we cannot give them a reward, but we can start being aware with the presence of everyone around us. “I hope someday my dreams will come true, but now I’m still trying to do my best,” said Sonny, a woman who always grateful with her life including her job as a librarian. 

By: Jessica Nathania.