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60 seconds with … Rohani Rustam

5 August 2009

Name: Rohani Rustam
Division: Library and Learning Commons
Title: Chief Librarian
Campus: Sunway campus, Malaysia

How long have you been with Monash University?

For about a month.

Prior to working at Monash, where were you located and what was your role?

I was the director of publishing at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka or The Institute of Language and Literature in Kuala Lumpur, in charge of coordinating the publication and distribution of books nationwide. Quite early in my career I discovered that Malaysia did not have a reading culture. I started campaigns throughout the 80s and 90s to transform Malaysia into a reading society. Luckily I got much needed support from the government as they started setting up more libraries and book fairs around the country. We're still not reading as much as I hoped but I can see the progress taking place.

What challenges are ahead in your current role?

I look forward to expanding the resources at our library. We have excellent academic references for students and staff but I would like to encourage them to read outside their field, for leisure and to expand their general knowledge. To be a well-read and knowledgeable person, you need to read a bit of everything. My challenge is to stock the Library and Learning Commons with books from all disciplines, first to support the courses taught, and then to encourage the Monash community to expand their knowledge horizon.

What is it about your job that holds your interest or is particularly satisfying?

That I get to hold a book every day is particularly satisfying for me and in my line of work. It's all about classifying knowledge, being the first to receive new titles and sorting them into perfect order. Even in a library, we get exposed to new technologies every day. The fact that a student can access the online Monash database in Australia is truly remarkable.

What is your favourite place in the world and why?

I am at peace whenever I visit Hay-on-Wye in Wales with its great lakes and mountains. It's a thousand-year-old book village that is famous for its book trade and old book stores. My most exciting finds were a first edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and a very old Malaysian manuscript.

What is the best piece of advice you have received?

Make friends with books and you can never go wrong.

What is something about yourself that most of your colleagues wouldn't know?

My late grandfather, my late husband's grandfather, my son and my late husband were all excellent writers and avid readers. In fact it was my late husband, a poet, who got me addicted to reading and that's how I developed an unending love for books.

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