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7th CDNLAO Meeting: Vietnam Country Report

The National Library of Vietnam in the Country's Development

Tran Anh Dung, Acting Director

Background

The forerunner of National Library of Vietnam (NLV) is the Indochina Central Library founded in 1917 by the French colonial government. As a public library with document resource of different scientific fields, the library has contributed to disseminating advanced knowledge and ideology for a number of Vietnamese intellectuals.

As a result of the 1945 August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam came into being and right after, the revolution government decided to change the Central Library into the National Library of Vietnam. In January 1946, President Ho Chi Minh signed the decree on legal deposit and put the NLV in charge of collecting deposited publications . The above mentioned events have laid the solid foundation of the NLV's development at present.

Undergoing several decades of war, the collection of the library has been preserved intact. In 1976, the library became the National Library of the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam and now it is in the process of developing into a modern National Library.

Principal activities

National libraries of every country play an important role in the development of economy, society, science and technology, culture and education of its country. This role is manifested by various activities in the implementation of library's key functions.

Building up a national storage of domestic publications

So as to implement this function, NLV reserves the right to deposit. According to the Publishing Laws issued in 1993, each publication has to be deposited into the library in form of 4 copies. Tapes also have to be deposited into the NLV by Publishing houses. Video tapes are deposited into Studies Institute and National Film Archives.

Of the copies deposited into the NLV, one is for permanent deposit and the rest is served to the readers.

To serve well the study of the people nationwide, the NLV also formulates a selective foreign collection of different fields, of which materials on Vietnam published offshore, materials on science, society and humanities, comprehensive reference documents are of our priorities.

Annually, the total input of new materials into the NLV is approximately 12,000 book titles and 1,500 titles of journals and newspapers. Through these activities, the NLV plays a key part in the preservation and conservation of written cultural heritage.

Bibliographical information centre

Building our collection is coupled with bibliographical information activities. This has been traditional activities of the NLV for many years based on domestic deposit publications.

The most important bibliography product is the National bibliography annually and monthly published in order to provide the users with the quickest and fullest information.

Since 1987, the NLV has been computerizing its Vietnamese materials processing, formulating a database of the NLV . At present, the entire process of compiling National bibliography is manipulated with computers and the search for and the supply of bibliographical information are fully automated.

To create a powerful foundation of these information activities, the NLV has also input retrospectively, materials published in Vietnam from 1954 up to now, into database of National bibliography. The bibliography records in the system are up to approximately 100,000. With this database, the NLV is able to provide regular and periodic information for users or by requested for other libraries nationwide through a network.

To serve readers with reference documents and receiving information at the library

There have been more and more readers joining the library. As the seats are not available, the library only grants regular library cards to researchers and undergraduates. Apart from that, any citizen demanding materials that only our library acquires is still given separate services following their requirements. In addition to the service of providing materials, the NLV also extends reference and information activities as requested by the users and considers them to be activities of special importance for the NLV.

Another field of special attention and considered a focal point in the information activities of the NLV is culture and art. In regard to this, the NLV operates as a specialized information centre.

Providing guidance and the best conditions to readers in using materials and getting information on important issues for the country's development is the focal point of the services to the library users by the NLV.

NLV as a head of the Public Library system

In Vietnam, the NLV is the head library of the public library system in charge of operating as a library studies centre and providing professional skills to the whole library system throughout the country. For over recent years, the NLV has contributed to establishing and developing the system of public libraries in Vietnam by issuing regulations and instructions on organization and activities, as well as professional skills to libraries of different types; by compiling and issuing documents on professional skills and helping train and improve the library's staff corps.

Those referred to above are principal activities of the NLV at present.

Modernization of the library

To be able to serve competently the cause of the renovation and the development of the country geared towards industrialization and modernization, contributing to setting up a Vietnamese advanced culture with its own identity, the NLV is in the process of modernizing its activities.

The focal point of the modernization is to apply information technology to the whole operation of the library, to continue automating and networking all activities of different libraries. In this matter, the NLV plays a key role.

Another important duty is that by the year 2000, the project of upgrading and constructing a new library building will be accomplished, with a tripled scale of stocks and reading rooms. In a new structure, the preservation and conservation of materials as well as service methods will be equipped with modern facilities.

A decisive factor of the modernization is to build up a professional staff corps with great capabilities and able to access the modern technology. Further more, the NLV is also aimed at renewing the library management system to meet the demands for information in the 21st century.

In the development process, we are very interested in foreign co-operations, strong integration into the globlizing library and information cause. On this occasion, we would like to express our sincere thanks for co-operations and help from regional colleagues and ensure our readiness and enthusiasm for co-operations.


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