National Library of Australia  - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 72 | December 2004


Conference of Directors of National Libraries

The Director-General, Jan Fullerton, completed her four-year term as Chair of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) at the 31st meeting held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 25 August. CDNL is held during the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) annual conference and is traditionally hosted by the local national library. During the Director-General’s term as Chair the National Library of Australia has provided the secretariat for CDNL and has organised meetings in Boston (2001), Edinburgh (2002), Berlin (2003) and Buenos Aires.

CDNL provides directors of national libraries with an opportunity to discuss issues affecting national libraries and, where appropriate, to agree on collaborative activities at the international level. CDNL has a close link with IFLA and strongly supports IFLA’s core activity programs. Most recently members of CDNL have formed a new core program, the IFLA/CDNL Alliance for Bibliographic Standards (ICABS) which addresses issues related to the collection, preservation and provision of access to digital materials. The National Library of Australia is a member of ICABS and takes responsibility for web archiving matters.

Members of the IFLA Governing Board attend CDNL to discuss IFLA activities and to receive feedback on issues of importance to national libraries. At the meeting in Buenos Aires the IFLA Governing Board stressed the importance of advocacy in international forums. The IFLA President-Elect, Mr Alex Byrne (University Librarian, University of Technology, Sydney), spoke about the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the influence that libraries have been able to exert on the WSIS agenda. As a result, WSIS has now recognised the importance of dealing with the core issue of ‘information inequality’, also described as the ‘digital divide’. Mr Abdelaziz Abid, Senior Programme Specialist, Information Society Division, UNESCO also spoke about WSIS priorities which include information literacy for lifelong learning. The new President of IFLA, Mrs Kay Raseroka, and the new Secretary General, Mr Ramachandran Rasu, also attended the meeting.

Members of CDNL were welcomed to the 31st meeting by Mr Elvio Vitali, Director of the Biblioteca Nacional de la Republica Argentina. Mr Vitali spoke about the importance of national libraries in South America and their role in promoting the values of democracy. Mr Eliades Acosta Matos, Director, Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti, Cuba and President of ABINIA (the Association of Ibero-American States for the Development of the National Libraries of the Countries of Ibero-America), also spoke about the important role played by national libraries in South America and, in particular, the work of ABINIA in assisting members to address issues such as information literacy and to promote the role of national libraries to their governments.

There was also a lively panel discussion on issues affecting national libraries in the twenty-first century with brief presentations from Dr Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress, and Dr Jean-Frederic Jauslin, Director, Schweizerische Landesbibliothek. Presentations were also made during the meeting on the following topics: the Economic Impact Assessment of the British Library (Ms Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive Officer, the British Library); the recent merger of the national archives and national library in Canada to form Library and Archives Canada (Ms Ingrid Parent, Assistant Deputy Minister, Documentary Heritage, Library and Archives Canada); and the European Library (Dr Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General, Die Deutsche Bibliothek).

Members elected a new chair, and two new vice-chairs to replace Dr Christopher Chia who had completed his term as Chief Executive of the National Library Board of Singapore and Dr Wim van Drimmelen, Director General, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, who had filled the position of CDNL First Vice-Chair for eight years. The new Chair is Dr Celia Zaher, Director, National Library Foundation of Brazil and the Vice-Chairs are Dato’ Zawiyah Baba, Director-General, National Library of Malaysia and Mr Erland Kolding Nielsen, Director, National Library of Denmark. On behalf of the members of CDNL, Dr van Drimmelen thanked Jan Fullerton for her ‘fair leadership, openness towards cultural differences and very high level of professionalism’ as Chair of CDNL. The 32nd meeting of CDNL will be held in Oslo, Norway during the IFLA conference in August 2005.

Postscript: Leaving the National Library of Argentina at 5.00pm on 25 August, Jan Fullerton, Jasmine Cameron (newly ex-Secretary of CDNL), Erica Ryan and Tom Ruthven (NLA helpers extraordinaire on the day) headed to the closest café for a modest celebratory beverage).
—Jasmine Cameron, Executive and Coordination Support

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