• Open seminar on the documentary heritage damaged by the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the meeting of Directors of the IFLA/PAC Regional Centres in Asia and others
• Creation of the directory and mailing list of the preservation organizations in Asia
• Acceptance of a trainee from the Nepal National Library
• 17^th pH Survey of new publications

Open seminar on the documentary heritage damaged by the Indian Ocean Tsunami

The National Diet Library (NDL) held the seminar on December 6, 2005 at the Tokyo Main Library and 168 people participated. As it was one year since the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck the surrounding countries, it was held to figure out disaster prevention of documentary heritage and how to support the recovery from the damage.

From the affected countries, directors of the National Library of Indonesia and Sri Lanka delivered reports on the actual situation of damage and recovery in each country with photographs. They are still in the phase of recovery of local infrastructure, and recovery of library and conservation of damaged documents has not been started yet. Support of many kinds including financial backing is strongly required. As the supporter, the International Focal Point and the Regional Centre for Asia (National Diet Library) of IFLA/PAC reported activities in response to the disaster, other usual activities and future directions. The Centre for Oceania and South East Asia (National Library of Australia) also gave comments on this matter. Mr. Isamu Sakamoto, who is engaged in the restoration of damaged documents on-site, had been expected to deliver a report on his support activities. Because he was dispatched to Indonesia again and could not participate in the seminar, an NDL staff member read the report for him.

Program
-Keynote address: Disaster Programs of the IFLA PAC, by Marie-Thérèse Varlamoff
-Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan for Libraries and Documentation Centers in the Province of Aceh, by Dady P. Rachmananta
-Tsunami Affected Libraries in Sri Lanka: Rebuilding Process and Challenges, by Upali Amarasiri
-One Step Forward – Relief Work for Damaged Documents at Aceh, Indonesia, by Isamu Sakamoto
-Recent activities of the IFLA/PAC Regional Centre for Asia, by Masaki Nasu

Meeting of Directors of the IFLA/PAC Regional Centres in Asia and others

On the next day, December 7, the Director of the International Focal Point and the directors of three regional centers in the Asia region (centers for Oceania and South East Asia, for China and for Asia) had a meeting to discuss future directions of IFLA/PAC core activities. It was the first attempt for IFLA/PAC to have a directors’ meeting within a certain region. A preservation specialist from the National Library of Korea and directors of the National Library of Indonesia and Sri Lanka who had delivered reports at the seminar held on the previous day also attended the meeting. The topics discussed there were: cooperation among regional centers, establishment of new center(s) in South East Asia and South Asia, support for and cooperation with preservation activities in the area, direction of disaster prevention and support for reconstruction, and others. The results of the meeting will be reflected in the next PAC strategic plan (2006-2008) and applied in future activities in Asia.

See also: an article to be given in the International Preservation News, No.38

There are three national libraries designated as IFLA/PAC regional centres in the Asia-Oceania region: The National Diet Library, Japan, is the regional centre for Asia, the National Library of Australia is the centre for Oceania and Southeast Asia and the National Library of China is the centre for China. The centre at the National Diet Library is responsible for the whole Asian region while the National Library of Australia is for Oceania and Southeast Asia and the National Library of China is domestic. Although the National Library of Australia disseminates PAC publications around Southeast Asia and the National Diet Library does so around the rest of Asia (the National Library of China takes charge of its domestic dissemination), apart from this, the National Diet Library works for Southeast Asia in cooperation with the National Library of Australia.

The centre at the National Diet Library wishes to develop closer contacts with the major preservation organizations in Asia and facilitate the information sharing on preservation through the centre actively gathering and disseminating the information. This is the reason the centre is now creating a mailing group for the whole Asian region.

The centre at the National Diet Library will be grateful if each attending country here will send e-mails to the following address giving the names and e-mail addresses of the people who are in charge of preservation in major organizations.
pacasia@ndl.go.jp
Mr. Masaki Nasu, Director, IFLA/PAC Regional Centre for Asia

The centre at the National Library of Australia and the centre at the National Diet Library conducted a joint survey on preservation needs in Asia in 1992. It is assumed that the needs of each country must have changed since then in step with the altering information environment. Another survey should be done in the near future. In the meantime the centre at the National Diet Library asks each national library to send e-mails to the above address and let it know any substantial changes, the status reports and any request to the centre.

The IFLA/PAC Regional Centre for Asia made an arrangement with the Nepal National Library for preservation training in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and received Mr. Pradeep Battharai, a staff member of the Library, from October 18 to December 1. The main focus of the curriculum is cultivating the staff to play a key role in managing preservation work at the Nepal National Library.

Related articles:
·Training programs for the staff of the Nepal National Library:a collaborative project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the IFLA/PAC Regional Centre for Asia by Masaki Nasu, CDNLAO Newsletter, No. 51, November 2004.
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/cdnlao/051/514.html

·To Protect Irreplaceable Documentary Heritage at the Foot of the Himalayas -- Report of Visit to Nepal by Takao Murayama, National Diet Library Newsletter, No. 139, October 2004.
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/392.html

The Preservation Division gave out recently the result of the 17th pH testing of current Japanese publications published in 2002 and held by the National Diet Library, which was conducted in October 2003.
By random sampling, 1,658 items from 98,465 monographs and 1,516 items from 48,299 titles of periodicals were picked out. We selected 2,428 items of the 3,174 items, excluding items in use and materials printed on coated paper. The rate of acid-free paper use was 94.6 % in monographs, 86.9 % in periodicals and 91.4 % in total.
Generally speaking, the rate of acid-free paper use is increasing steadily and comes up to our expectations.

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