From July 7 to 11, 2008, a preservation conference with specialists from China and Japan was held in the National Library of Korea, in Seoul. From the National Diet Library (NDL), Ms. Kaoru Oshima, Director of the Preservation Division, Acquisitions and Bibliography Department, and Ms. Satoko Muramoto, Assistant Director of the same division, participated in the conference. Under the theme of “Preservation Cooperation and Update Conservation Techniques in Asia,” two presentations were made by the participants from each country; one about cooperative preservation work with other libraries and the other about case-study of conservation techniques.

Titled “National Diet Library’s Efforts in InformationSharing and Cooperation on Preservation (PDF [68KB]),” Ms. Oshima’spresentation introduced the NDL’s international cooperation as the AsiaRegional Centre for the IFLA/PACand domesticcooperation as a deposit library, especially through publication, trainingprograms, educational and awareness-raising events, and sharing information onresearch and survey results.

Conference on July 8

Ms. Muramoto introduced in her presentationtitled “Condition Survey on Japanese Books Held by the National Diet Library (PDF [239KB]),” a recent survey conductedto grasp the deterioration tendency of the paper and binding of the Japanesebooks published during 1950-1999.

This is the third conference on preservation with participants from the national libraries of the three countries. The first one was held in the National Library of Korea, in November 2004, with the theme of preservation of printed materials. In December 2005, the NDL hosted the Meeting of Directors of the IFLA/PAC Regional Centres in Asia and Oceania, with participants from China and Korea, where they discussed cooperation on preservation among the three countries. In January 2007, following another Meeting of Directors of the IFLA/PAC Regional Centres in Asia and Oceania, the second preservation conference of the three countries was held in the National Library of China, in Beijing. The three national libraries will continue to cooperate in the field of preservation.

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