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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 39 | June 1999


NLA at work

National Libraries of the Asia–Pacific

http://www.nla.gov.au/lap/

Have a look at the treasures of the National Library of Mongolia. Find a book on the National Library of Singapore’s catalogue. Check the opening hours for the National Library of Papua New Guinea. Do all this and much more without leaving your seat. It is all possible on the new Web site for National Libraries of the Asia–Pacific.

The site, developed and hosted by the National Library of Australia, was created to fill an information gap in our region. It was initiated by the Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNLAO) which meets on a three- yearly basis to discuss common library issues. The goal of the Web site is to be a single access point for retrieval of information about the functions, services and collections of the Asia–Pacific National Libraries.

At the 7th CDNLAO in Port Moresby, hosted by the National Library Service of Papua New Guinea in November 1998, the Web site was demonstrated for the first time to the conference delegates. The response was extremely positive and ideas for improvements, including access to national library Acts and contact information for interlibrary lending, were incorporated as a result.

National Library of South Korea Seoul

The National Library of South Korea in Seoul

The Web site consists of three main elements.

Member libraries
This is the major section of the site and gives Web presence to all the CDNLAO member libraries in the Asia–Pacific region at present. Over time, the scope will be expanded to include other libraries as well. Each library page includes information about the functions, services, collections and legislation of that library, and links to the library’s own Web site if it has one. Most library information has been recently updated in response to our region-wide request for new details.

Each library page has a country flag that is a link to the World Wide Web virtual library for that country. This allows viewers to go directly to a range of country-specific information. In essence, each library page acts as a gateway to information about that country, through the virtual library or through the library’s own Web site.

Meetings
This section of the site provides the reports and recommendations, where possible, for previous CDNLAO meetings, and information on forthcoming meetings as it becomes available. Included are online versions of country reports delivered at the meetings. These provide an insight into the activities and directions of libraries in the region.

Other useful resources
Finally, this section provides links to other Web sites that may be of interest, including the Calendar of Asia–Pacific Library Conferences and the IFLA Universal Availability of Publications Core Programme. This section of the site will be expanded to include library associations and other library bodies active in the region. Please visit the site at http://www.nla.gov.au/cdnlao/ [NB the site has now been replaced by Libraries of Asia Pacific and is located at http://www.nla.gov.au/lap/]. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |

Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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