Abstract
The acquisition of Indonesian publications by overseas libraries is not easy for various reasons. One is the nature of the Indonesian book publishing industry, which has little political or economic significance in the country. This article focuses on five areas of interest: (1) publishing output, particularly the decline in recent years and possible reasons for this; (2) publishers and their product, including distribution, marketing, the role of government in the book trade (including measures which appear to have disadvantaged the trade and suggestions for more positive steps); (3) copyright, including problems of widespread pirating; (4) reading habit, in particular the general low level of interest in reading among the population; and (5) magazine publishing, including the flourishing trade in popular magazines as well as increases in newspaper sales. The article concludes that, given the static state of Indonesia’s publishing industry, overseas libraries will continue to face problems of acquisitions.