No. 171, Feb. 2010

The 1st Mutual Visit Program between the National Diet Library,
the National Assembly Library of Korea and the National
Assembly Research Service

NAL and NARS delegation and NDL executive members (from left: Dr. Nagao (Librarian), Dr. You, Ms. Oh, Mr. Yoshinaga (Deputy Librarian), Mr. Yamaguchi (Director General, Research and Legislative Reference Bureau))

The first mutual visit program with the National Assembly Library (NAL) and the National Assembly Research Service (NARS) of Korea was held from December 14 to 20, 2009 at the Tokyo Main Library of the National Diet Library (NDL). Two staff members from each organization, Ms. Hyun-Sook Oh, Deputy Director, Law Library Division, Parliamentary Information Office of NAL, and Dr. Woong-jo You, Legislative Researcher, Foreign Affairs and Security Team of NARS, visited Tokyo for the program.

Started in 2000 as a staff-training program, the mutual visit program between the NDL and the NAL had been conducted every year since 2003. With the organization reform of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, NARS was established in 2007 to strengthen the legislative service for the assembly. In response to this, NDL, NAL and NARS agreed to have a mutual visit program, further developing the program being conducted between NDL and NAL. As the two-year agreement for the mutual visit program between the two parties expired in 2009, a new agreement between NDL and NAL, NDL and NARS was concluded for the next four years in autumn 2009.

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In 2009 program, staff from each organization visited the NDL and the following main sessions were successfully completed.

In Session I, Ms. Oh introduced the acquisition and utilization of Internet materials and services in NAL which answer the needs of assembly members. Mr. Nagasaki presented issues of the discontinuation of publication of foreign materials acquired by international exchange and deposit, and reported about the collection of Internet resources based on legislation by NDL. These reports were followed by a question-answer session where they discussed role sharing between NAL and the National Library of Korea on digitization of materials, and issues of risk caused by acquiring digital materials as substitutes for paper materials.

In Session II, Dr. You outlined the present state and challenges of ODA in Korea, and Mr. Ueda reported the character and challenges of ODA in Japan after defining ODA. Based on these two reports, questions were actively asked about various issues such as the difference of the principle of ODA in the two countries and the position of Republic of the Korea on assistance to North Korea.

In addition to these sessions, the delegation had meetings with the staff of the Parliamentary Documents and Official Publications Division (Ms. Oh) and the Trade and Industry Division, Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division (Dr. You). At the end of the program, the delegation and the NDL staff talked about future programs.

The next program is scheduled to be held in Seoul with two delegates dispatched from the NDL.

• ►Reports of past programs in the NDL Newsletter

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