Ikhtiar Anugrah Hidayat, the student of the Archives and Records Management Study Program (PARI) of DBSMB Vocational College UGM, won another achievement by winning the Firecom 4.0 2020 essay competition. This essay competition was held by the Department of Information and Library Science, Airlangga University. Registration for the competition started from June 20th to August 14th, with essay commissions started from June 22nd to August 28th. The competition themed “Strategi Pengembangan Perpustakaan menuju Era Society 5.0” (Library Development Strategy towards Society 5.0 era).
In an interview session with DBSMB PR Team on Tuesday, September 9th, Ikhtiar told the team that he started participating in the competition. He wanted to do more activities during the pandemic. He got the information about the competition when he was surfing on Instagram. The preparations were quite short; he only had three days to complete the essay. However, this became a challenge for the student who is taking his D4 transfer program.
In the preparation process, Ikhtiar used several methods, such as discussed with his friends to develop a topic he wanted to raise. Then, he did some consultation with the lecturer, practiced a presentation in front of his friends, and asked them to pretend to be the judges who would ask him about the essay. Therefore, he felt ready and confident to participate in the competition. In his article, Ikhtiar chose “Perpustakaan sebagai Pusat Informasi” (Library as the center of information) sub-theme. According to Ikhtiar, during this pandemic, information is near and needed by society. He also added the mental health issue to his paper because it was a problem that needs to be handled together, not only one particular discipline such as psychology. In his essay, he explained how the library as a center of information could be a tool and strategy to spread information about mental health.
Ikhtiar also told the team about his difficulties in participating in the competition during the pandemic. He cannot meet his friend and lecturer directly. Besides, he also cannot visit the library to take some videos considering that the library was closed during the pandemic. “At last, I only made the videos in front of UGM Library and Balairung; however, I still emphasized the library,” explained the 2019 class student.
In the last session of the interview, Ikhtiar said that it was not learning as you want, but learning is important, and one thing that we are all who are going through the COVID-19 pandemic are strong people, great people, and wonderful people. Covid-19 pandemic is not a barrier, but it is an opportunity for us to be productive because the limitation is not a barrier or obstacle to doing good things. So far, Ikhtiar has participated in approximately forty-one competitions, ten to twelve of them were essay competitions, and eleven to thirteen of them were international level competitions. “Friends, wish me luck, this week I also will compete in three more international competitions,” he added.
