CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 71, July 2011
The 19th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNL-AO) took place on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at the International Conference Hall of the National Library of Korea (NLK). CDNL-AO has held to discuss current issues for strengthening networks and promoting cooperation between national libraries within Asia and Oceania since 1979.
CDNL-AO 2011 participants
In this conference, twenty-four delegates from 18 countries were in attendance. Under the theme of "Envisioning the Future: the Role of National Libraries in the New Era," the conference focused on a variety of current issues being addressed by national libraries such as legal deposit of a range of information resources, standards for digitization, and international cooperation projects.
The official opening of the conference was marked at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by a welcoming speech from WOO Jin Yung, chief executive of the National Library of Korea and representative of the host country. This was followed by the introduction of the participants, approval of minutes from the 18th conference, and presentation of country reports about key library activities.
A discussion followed, centered on the cooperative fields of libraries and other matters. Specifically, the delegates held discussions in a lively manner and exchanged opinions on the legal deposit act, standards for digitizing audiovisual materials, open access, and unified search. Regarding the legal deposit of publications, practices of Thailand, Nepal, and Korea were presented. In Thailand there is no the related act but legal deposit carries out under the Press Act as it was amended in 2007. Nepal is the same issues with Thailand. Korea collects online digital files by law and legal deposit of digital files for use by people with disabilities. One delegates stressed the legal deposit act is crucial to have successful function of national library. With standards for digitalizing audiovisual materials and open access, subjects proposed by the National Library of Singapore, the Singaporean participant argued for the need to devise measures to allow library users easy access to audiovisual materials through digitization. It was emphasized that the most pressing current issue was to facilitate open access to key digitalized research materials. Participants from member countries also discussed difficulties in realizing open access to research materials and digitization due to copyright issues.
As one of the special subjects, the delegate from the National Diet Library of Japan reported on damage resulting from the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan and the recovery operations underway. China, Japan, and South Korea each presented the current status of the China-Japan-Korea Digital Library Initiative (CJKDLI) agreed upon by three national libraries in August 2010. Besides, a presentation was offered by the National Library of Korea on a case study of establishing The National Library Support Center for the Disabled and its service.
In addition, all members were asked to participate in the meeting of new 'National Information and Library Policy Special Interest Group (NILP SIG)' of IFLA to be held at the WLIC 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 18. It was organized jointly by the National Library of Korea, the Presidential Committee on Library and Information Policy, and the Library Policy Bureau under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Finally, Malaysia was selected as the host nation for the 2013 CDNL-AO. The conference was officially closed with a speech by the head of the National Library of Indonesia, the host for the upcoming 2012 conference. Upon conclusion of the session, participants visited the main building of the National Library of Korea and the Digital Library.
CDNL-AO Meeting
Through the meeting, a consensus was achieved as to the need for modernizing the Library Act and for actively discussing standards responsive to the evolution of media in order to realize the future vision of national libraries in the digital era. The conference provided an opportunity to strengthen networks and promote cooperation among participating nations for the mutual development of national libraries across Asia and Oceania.
In addition, an open seminar entitled "Leadership, Governance and Policy in National Libraries" was held on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 in commemoration of the 19th CDNL-AO. The seminar, taking place at the International Conference Hall of the National Library of Korea, enjoyed great success through the participation of about 300 attendees, including CDNL-AO delegates.
Open seminar entitled "Leadership, Governance and Policy in National Libraries"
At the seminar, Daegu University professor Hee-yoon Yoon delivered a keynote address on the 'Basic Scheme and Orientation of Library Policy in Korea.' This was followed by a presentation of themes from six national libraries: those of Australia, Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as follows:
- Reimagining Libraries - leadership and collaboration in the digital age by Anne-Marie Schwirtlich of National Library of Australia
- The role of the National Diet Library of Japan in developing academic information basis by Mitsuaki Amino of National Diet Library of Japan
- Towards the National Literary Heritage Centre by MYA Oo of National Library of Myanmar
- Ubiquitous access to cultural and heritage Content: the National Library of Singapore's perspective by Ngian Lek Cho of National Library of Singapore
- National Library of Thailand and Press Act 2007 (B.E. 2550) by Wilawan Sapphansaen by National Library of Thailand
- Building Cultural Environment – The National Library of Vietnam to Become a Reading-Friendly Destination for Domestic and International Readers by Phan Thi Kim Dzung of National Library of Vietnam
After the presentation, a question and answer session was organized with experts and officials from academic and library fields who attended the seminar in order to promote in-depth discussion and exchange information on the leadership and cooperation schemes of libraries as well as projects being pursued by each library.
Open seminar entitled "Leadership, Governance and Policy in National Libraries"
Through the seminar, participants presented the leadership and future projections of national libraries in response to the rapidly evolving digital environment and patterns of information usage, together with sharing the leadership and policy efforts being made by each national library.
Copyright (C) 2011 National Library of Korea
