Bronny Lawrence Nawe

Bronny Lawrence Nawe is a Bidayuh who hails from Tebedu in Serian Division. He graduated from MARA University of Technology with a Master’s Degree in Information Science.

Working Experiences

He got his job in 1990 as an Assistant Library Officer at Kuching Polytechnic. There, he managed to set up the library and commenced its services for the campus community. He was deeply involved with the office management of the library and the acquisition, organization, storage and retrieval of information resources. Since there was no integrated library management system installed at the library at that time, acquisition, cataloguing, classification and assignment of subject headings; and circulation were done manually.

In 1995, he was transferred to the Library Division of the Ministry of Environment and Public Health of Sarawak. His initial task was to manage and administer the processing and distribution of information resources to libraries throughout Sarawak. From then on, he was assigned the job of identifying, selecting and acquiring a suitable integrated library management system for the library. Managing and administrating the library management system, which included database server and network management became a major part of his job. Besides that, he managed the library’s web homepage and web server.

At the Ministry of Environment and Public Health of Sarawak he was exposed to ISO 9003: 1994 standard. He took a major lead in getting the Library Division certified to the international standard in 1999.

With Pustaka Negeri Sarawak

The year 2000 saw the completion of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, the new State Library of Sarawak, with its then state-of-art ICT infrastructure and facilities. He was among the nine pioneering government officers assigned by the Sarawak State Government to organize and commence its initial services. Subsequently, he was seconded to Pustaka Negeri Sarawak as a Senior Assistant Library Officer in August 2000.

During his first two years with Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, he was busy assisting the ICT contractor in stabilizing and fine tuning the ICT network infrastructure, the dedicated server system, backup system and support services. At the same time, he was also given the task to assist in stabilizing the integrated library management system - Angkasa. From then on, everything was about system improvement and enhancement. In addition to that, he was also part of the team that successfully completed few small ICT facilitated library projects throughout Sarawak. These libraries were

• Sri Aman ICT Facilitated Public Library;
• Mukah ICT Facilitated Public Library;
• ICT facilitated mobile libraries in Lawas and Sarikei; and
• ICT facilitated village libraries at Pueh in Sematan, Rayang in Serian, Selalang in Sarikei, Durin in Sibu, Beluru in Miri, Long Lama in Baram, Trusan and Kuala Lawas in Lawas.

In 2003, he was among those involved in identifying and selecting an integrated archives management system for Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, which is also entrusted with the responsibility of being the Sarawak State Records Repository.

From 2005 until 2011, he was involved with reading promotion and reader development programs. These programs gave him the opportunity to study the demographic profiles of the rural and suburban populations of Sarawak; to determine and design appropriate programs; to define and design suitable information literacy skill modules for different target groups; to initiate and arrange outreach programs; and to deliver the program contents to the target groups. He took a major lead in visiting villages and rural community centres to promote reading and information literacy skills.

To ensure the success of the programs, working closely with other related organizations was crucial. he had the opportunity to work with all the public libraries under the local authorities in Sarawak. He had successfully delivered trainings on the handling of reading promotion and reader development activities; establishment and reviews of library key performance indicators; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) guidelines for public library development; collection development and management; and simple computer troubleshooting to staff of these public libraries. Giving consultation services pertaining to public library development and management was a core routine of his job.

He is currently heading the Knowledge Management Division.

Paper Presenter

He had co-authored and co-presented four papers at national level seminars. These seminars were organized by the Librarian Association of Malaysia, local universities and other state libraries. The seminar papers are now part of Sarawak State Government knowledge repository. At international level, he presented a conference paper at IAFOR Asian Conference on Education in Kobe, Japan in 2016.