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9th CDNLAO Meeting: Vietnam Country Report
Update on the National Library of Vietnam
Mr Pham The Khang, Director
Library Administration
1. Libraries of Vietnam are divided into 4 systems (over 20,000 libraries and bookcases).
- Public Library System consists of the National Library, 61 provincial libraries, 540 district libraries and 7,500 commune and village libraries.
- Education library system consists of 250 academic libraries and13,500 school libraries.
- Special library system: 300
- Military library system: 1000
Though the Library Association of Vietnam has not been formed, the National Library of Vietnam is stipulated in the Ordinance on Librarianship promulgated in April 2001 to work as the Central Library throughout the country and have the following responsibilities:
- Exploit domestic and foreign sources to meet the readers'
needs;
- Collect legal deposit publications;
- build up and preserve the National collection;
- compile and publish the National Bibliography and General Bibliography of Vietnam;
- Provide readers with library services;
- Cooperate and exchange materials with domestic and foreign libraries;
- Study information-library science and technology;
- Improve expertise and professional skills for librarians, provide
professional guidance on library.
2. For the last several years, over 1,500 establishments of libraries
have been formed, the majority are Cultural Village Bookcases and Bookcases of
Commune Cultural Post Offices.
3. Visitors pay much attention to academic libraries and specific libraries such as libraries for the blinds, mobile libraries.
4. Though Vietnam librarianship has made progress, in general Vietnam
libraries ar still poor and slowly renovated. A typical new feature
incorporated with libraries is a combination of libraries' operation with other
activities such as:
- Commune library - School
- Bookcases -
Cafe
- Bookcases - Commune Cultural Post-offices
- Commune libraries
- Frontier posts
Collection Profile
Total volume of collection at the national level:
- Books:
1,000,000 volumes
- Sinonom books (rare books): 2,700 volumes
-
Doctoral thesis: 9,000 volumes
- Periodicals: 8,000 titles.
National bibliographies are monthly and annually published.
National Databases:
- Books: 130,000 records
- Periodicals: 6,000
records
- Periodicals of old periods: 1,700 records
- Thesis: 3,000
records
Infrastructure
Library automation began in the NLV in 1986 with assistance in facilities and staff training from the National Library of Australia. The initial outcome is the 1987 National Bibliography based on database.
In May, 1994, the NLV received investment and equipment from the Ministry of Culture and Information, and became the Information Centre of the whole country, including a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN).
The LAN is linked up with all divisions in the NLV.
The WAN is connected with 61 provincial libraries to conduct OPAC and Union Catalogue.
Connectivity at the National level is Direct Phone Line.
Service
Reference services: new initiatives are not available, traditional catalogue and OPAC are popular.
Lending services are not conducted, only on-site reading is provided.
Monthly and annual National Bibliographies, bibliographies of local documents are periodically published, also specific bibliographies are produced when required.
Training
Number of librarians in Vietnam is 23,000.
Number of library training schools: 4 colleges and 15 professional librarianship schools.
Copyright
Number of copyright centres: 2 national centers.
Vietnam signed the Treaty on copyright with the United States of America in 1998 and with Switzerland in 2000.
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Last updated
Thursday 13-Nov-2003 |