-Trilateral Cooperation in a Digital Archiving Project
between NLC, NLK and NDL-

A meeting with delegations from the National Library of China (NLC), the National Library of Korea (NLK) and the National Diet Library, Japan (NDL), was held in Tokyo and Kyoto on October 23 and 24, 2008. The focus of the meeting was to discuss “Trilateral Cooperation in a Digital Archiving Project between NLC, NLK and NDL,” which was first proposed by the NDL Librarian Dr. Makoto Nagao in August 2007, in Durban, South Africa. With the approval of the two national libraries, the NDL had done since then some preparative work including proposing a schedule and conducting a survey to share the each country’s situation regarding digital archiving.

Discussion session in Tokyo, Oct. 23

The NDL and NLC have a long relationship through a mutual visit program, taking turns sending staff to each other every year. The same goes for the NDL and NLK. This year, the special occasion of gathering delegates from three libraries took the place of the bilateral visit programs.

Following the 16th CDNLAO held from Oct. 19 to 22, the meeting brought together the following participants from the three national libraries in East Asia:

National Library of China

Ms. Yafang ZHANG, Deputy Director
Dr. Bin WU, Technical Executive, IT Department
Ms. Xiaojuan SHEN, Deputy Director, Division of Library Service and Operations

National Library of Korea

Ms. Sook-Hyeun LEE, Director General, National Library for Children and Young Adults
Mr. Jin Ho PARK, Senior Researcher, National Digital Library Project Team
Dr. Hee-Kyeung RYU, National Digital Library Project Team
Ms. Jae-soon JO, Library Management and Cooperation Division

National Diet Library

Dr. Makoto NAGAO, Librarian
Mr. Mikio WANAKA, Director General, Kansai-kan
Mr. Takehiko SATO, Director of the Digital Library Division
and others

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The schedule started with a discussion in the Tokyo Main Library on October 23. Dr. Nagao opened the meeting stating that the cooperation among the three countries, each of which has a cultural heritage based on Chinese characters, making use of the latest information technology, will bring mutual benefit to them and would also help development in other countries. The participants confirmed what had been done in the last year and a proposal of the future work plan. Then the NDL presented some possible issues to be discussed before making a full-fledged start of the cooperation.

Discussion session in Kansai-kan, Oct. 24

On October 24, the delegates visited the Kansai-kan of the NDL, where the Digital Library Division, in charge of the cooperation project on a practical level, is located. They entered into detailed discussion on the issues presented on the previous day, covering standardization of metadata standards, integrative information providing service, cooperation for long-term preservation of digital contents, and other topics. After having an active discussion and exchanging current facts, the future direction was determined for each issue and the work plan was confirmed. The agreements reached at the meeting will be subject to final confirmation by the three libraries.

We are considering publishing the future progress and outcomes of the trilateral cooperation in some way to make it useful for other countries as well.

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