• Index of this issue

No. 68, July 2010

Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNL-AO) is a regional forum of national libraries founded in 1979. The first meeting of the conference held in Canberra, Australia from 14 – 18 May of the same year. CDNL-AO also acts as regional chapter of the conference of Directors of National Libraries which is global forum of National Libraries. To exchange information, promote cooperation and assist libraries in less developed countries in the region through cooperation are the main objectives of the conference. The objectives of the conference are pursued through annual meetings held on regular basis since 2000 in various countries of the region hosted by National Libraries of respective countries. Singapore alone has hosted four conferences since establishment of the conference.

This year's conference was to be held in Pakistan as National Library of Pakistan agreed to host 18th conference in Islamabad. The venue of 18th CDNL-AO was announced during 15th conference which was held in Bali, Indonesia on 17th May, 2007 but the circumstances changed and Pakistan became front line state on war against terrorism. Some members of CDNL-AO showed their concerns about security situation in Pakistan. National Library Singapore rose to the occasion and offered to host the 18th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania in Singapore. All the member countries agreed to hold the conference in Singapore and Pakistan accepted the change of venue.

18th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania began at 9.00 am on 13th April, 2010 in Gnosis Room, National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore. Syed Ghyour Hussain, Deputy Director, National Library of Pakistan chaired the meeting whereas co-chair was Ms. Ngian Lek Choh, Director, National Library Singapore. The theme of the conference was "Towards collaboration in Asia-Oceania". The chair in his opening address said, "We have a firm believe that present century is offering unbelievable opportunities to Asia and Pacific nations. At the same time, this is an era of global knowledge renaissance. Progress and prosperity of the nations depends on the mobilization and efficient use of knowledge resources. National Libraries being the largest knowledge repositories of our nations are to play pivotal role in the progress of human civilization. We alone are unable to meet the challenges of information society and the only way forward is the close collaboration and co-operation at regional and international levels. It is even the question of being relevant to our societies and survival as National Libraries". He also thanked Dr. N Varaprasad, Chief Executive, National Library Board Singapore for his support in holding the 18th Conference and his presence during the meeting which shows his personal conviction for the success of the conference. After opening address, Ms. Ngian Lek Choh, Director, National Library Singapore/Co-chair of the conference greeted participants and welcomed them to Singapore and wished them happy and pleasant stay.

The delegates from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam introduced themselves and welcome to new members. Sixteen delegates from ten member countries participated in the conference. Some library and information science professional from National Library Board Singapore also attended the meeting as observers. The chairman approved the minutes of 17th CDNL-AO meeting held at 20th April, 2009 at Hanoi, Vietnam with the consent of the members countries present at the occasion.

The conference discussed final statutes and rules of procedures for CDNL-AO drafted by National Library of Australia and approved them after thorough deliberations and minor improvements. Mr. Shin Yong-Eon, Director, National Digital Library of Korea introduced Dibrary portal of National Library of Korea and invited the member libraries to participate in the project. After tea break, the conference adopted "IFLA statement of principles on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives" which can be viewed online at http://www.ifla.org/files/clm/staements/statement-of-principles-sccr20.pdf. Report on Questionnaire survey on web-archiving by National Diet Library, Japan, report on implementation status of Resource Descriptions and Access (RDA) by National Library Australia and presentation on the National Library Australia's new discovery service i.e. trove were presented in the same session. National Diet Library, Japan announced CDNL-AO website. The website is hosted by the National Diet Library, Japan. Discussion forum in CDNL-AO website was also introduced. Some of the themes for discussion forums proposed during the course of the meeting include, "Open source software, Digital preservation, National Libraries Global and Web archiving". CDNLAO discussion forum will be operated through username and password mode which will be maintained by National Diet Library, Japan. Delegates from participating countries presented country reports in the same session and outlined the recent developments in their libraries and main activities of National Libraries of the region during the year 2009.

Discussions on possible areas of collaboration among the libraries of Asia and Oceania were the main item on agenda during second half of the meeting's day. National Library Singapore gave presentation on Singapore memory project and tabled proposal on exposing metadata of member libraries to discovery services. The proposal aimed at building of virtual consortium library catalog to provide a unified search for all the resources stored in the various national libraries in Asia and Oceania. National Library Board also showed its willingness to maintain a metadata depository of all the metadata harvested from the participating libraries. The proposal was appreciated and agreed upon to implement within due course of time. National Library of Korea confirmed to host 19th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania during the year 2011. At the end of the meeting, the chair and co-chair thanked the delegates for their active participation during the meeting who traveled long and spared their valuable time for the conference.

National Library Board Singapore hosted a marvelous dinner at Wave House, Sentosa in the evening. Sentosa is an island which is one of the main tourist attractions in Singapore. It seems to be dream island or magic island. Sentosa presented a look of fairyland. It was excellent experience to be there in Sentosa on a cloudy evening on 13th April, 2010. All the participants enjoyed the dinner very much at Wave House, a restaurant on the beach with artificial waves for surfing. The other social events include visits to various libraries. One of the main events after the conference was a seminar on "Challenges and issues for libraries in Asia" on 14th April, 2010. The seminar held in Imagination Room, National Library Building, Singapore in the morning. The invited speakers included Mr. Dady Rachmananta, Secretary General, Congress of South East Asian Librarians (CONSAL), Mr. Raslin Abu Bakar, Director General, National Library of Malaysia, Mr. Shin Yong-Eon, Director, National Digital Library of Korea and Syed Ghyour Hussain, Deputy Director, National Library of Pakistan, Islamabad. Ms. Ngian Lek Choh, Director, National Library of Singapore mediated the seminar. Dr. N Varaprasad, Chief Executive, National Library Board presented gifts to the speakers in the end. Services of Mrs. Keat Fong and other staff of the National Library Board, to make the conference, seminar and other events a real success, will also be remembered for long time.