The Nadim Center for Alternative Media Studies and Documentation (PSDMA) is wrongly assumed to be a library by many students. It’s no surprise that Nadim’s PSDMA is overflowing with books. Nadim accomplished a lot. Nadim is a center for studies and documentation that conducts studies and documentation such as talks, research, and alternative media gathering, as its name suggests. It’s a research and documentation center that focuses on alternative media.

This introduction to PSDMA Nadim became a topic of informal conversation at Universitas Islam Indonesia’s International Program of the Communication Department (UII). Ifa Zulkurnaini, a Nadim staff member and researcher, was invited to this teatime. Lani Diana, a 2018 IPC UII student, hosted the teatime on Friday, September 24, 2021.

Ifa revealed that one of them, Muzayin Nazaruddin, a UII Communications Lecturer (Lecturer specializing in Media, Disasters, and Semiotics) who was the Head of the UII Communication Science Laboratory at the time, started the PSDMA Nadim. “He wants a place where students may perform research, volunteer, share knowledge, and talk.” It’s strange that it doesn’t connect if it’s accommodated in the laboratory facility. As a result, PSDMA Nadim was created in 2008,” explained Ifa.

PSDMA Nadim’s collection includes more than only owned books; it also favors alternative media, which is media that is not widely available. The name NADIM comes from Ibn Al Nadim, a Baghdad bibliographer who lived in the 990s and cataloged thousands of manuscripts.

In addition to gathering alternative media, Nadim includes events that anybody may participate in, whether students or the broader public, such as monthly conversations. “It’s filled once a month by students or lecturers from UII and other universities.”