(13 Jan 2020) The National Library of China (NLC) held the 2019 Southeast Asian Librarians Seminar in Beijing and Tianjin, China from 21t to 29 November 2019 with the support of the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration (CACTA). Mr. Sisomphou Keodouangta, Deputy Director of the National Library of Laos, Mr. Wan Mohamad Fazali Bin Mohd Salleh, Deputy Director of the National Library of Malaysia, Ms. Kay Thi Aye, Deputy Director of the National Library of Myanmar and 8 other colleagues from the national libraries of Southeast Asian Countries attended the seminar.
The theme of the seminar was “Construction and Cooperation of Digital Library”. The NLC invited 6 experts from 3 famous institutions in China, namely the National Library of China, National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University Library to give thematic lectures on general development, service innovation and overall planning of Digital Libraries in China. The NLC also organized 7 library visits for participants to the National Library of China, Tsinghua University Library, National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tianjin Binhai District Library as well as the Public Digital Culture Exhibition and the National Museum of the Classic Book in the NLC and Capital Museum. During the visits, there were 3 business exchanges and 7 speeches delivered by the Chinese and foreign representatives. The participants also visited the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin and some other culture sites. The main purpose of this seminar is to give all the attendants an all-round introduction of Digital Library development in China and the theoretical basis and practice instruction of the construction of Digital Libraries and discuss the direction for future cooperation in digital libraries between China and Southeast Asian countries.
Currently, the NLC is actively implementing a series of seminars under the framework of the Silk Road International Library Alliance, founded on 28 May, 2018 with the aim of serving the national libraries in the Alliance and build exchange platforms and finalize cooperation mechanisms, promoting the building of strategic cooperative relations among libraries in the Alliance. The founding of the Alliance has received active responses from countries alongside the Silk Road and it has successfully held 2 forums with 28 members.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Librarians Seminar is a good example of pragmatic exchange and cooperation under the framework of the Alliance The NLC plans to invite librarians of member libraries to China in the future for the seminars according to regions and batches. Through training, lectures and visits, the NLC would like to create exchange opportunities for participants in the areas of resources construction, ancient books conservation, digital library construction, etc., thereby improving the professional levels of library practitioners.
The news is from IFLA.
