“Read Me a Book” is a reading aloud program strongly implemented by the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) during the last time to celebrate the Viet Nam Book Day 2020 and spread the values of experiencing reading with children, especially in the days when the whole country is implementing social isolation to prevent Covid-19 pandemic. The “Read Me a Book” campaign organizes reading promotion events and sharing posts of photos and video clips of reading aloud programs led by storytellers on social media with the view to create an overall and tangible effect, contributing to the promotion of reading culture, encouraging reading movement, expanding the reading aloud activities to all people, especially among children, thereby help them access to each book, develop their thinking, imagination and realize the value of companion with book, promote the reading enjoyment, arouse the love for books and develop the reading culture.

On March 27, 2020, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) held a meeting to implement the projectof developing the National Standard TCVN: Information and Documentation – Open systems Interconnection – Interlibrary Loan Application Service Definition, led by MAKieu Thuy Nga, NLV Director. The project is developed on the basis of accepting ISO 10160:2015 Information and documentation– Open Systems Interconnection– Interlibrary Loan Application Service Definition.The development of this standard derives from the actual needs,when the industrial revolution 4.0 is taking place strongly, in which “connection” and “linking” of data information is the key factor, becoming solutions to connectinformation systems for e-government and for automated information analysis systems… In library activities, interlibrary loan is an important service for library users as well as for each library-information institution in Viet Nam when budget for acquisition activity is limited and it is necessary to strengthen the ability to exploit the available sources. Interlibrary loan service and data communication among libraries and between libraries and other information systems in Viet Nam are very few and limited due to the lack of consensus on understanding and specific regulations and guiding documents for implementing this service.

Within the framework of activities to celebrate the founding day of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, on February 3, 2020, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) was honored to welcome comrade Nguyen Xuan Phuc – Politburo Member, Prime Minister to visist the Book Exhibition celebrating the 90th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications, in collaboration with the Central Propaganda and Training Department and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Also attending the visit were Mr. Vo Van Thuong – Politburo Member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of Central Propaganda and Training Department, Mr. Mai Tien Dung – Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Office of the Government, comrade Nguyen Ngoc Thien – Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, comrade Nguyen Manh Hung – Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Information and Communications, comrade Hoang Vinh Bao – Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, President of Vietnamese Publishing Association.

On February 2, 2020, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) hosted and coordinated with the Central Propaganda and Education Commissionand the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organize a book exhibition celebrating the 90th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of VietNam (February 3, 1930 - February 3, 2020) at the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV). Attending the exhibition were comradeVo Van Thuong – ​Memberof the Politburo, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of Central Propaganda and Education  Commission; comrade Nguyen Manh Hung - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda and Education Commission, Minister of Information and Communications; comrade Nguyen The Ky - Member of the Party Central Committee, General Director of the Voice of Viet Nam, Chairman of the Central Council for the Theory and Criticism of Literature and the Arts; Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Nghia - Member of the Party Central Committee...

Implementing the 2019 plan, from December 9-12, 2019, the Vietnamese Library Association of Southern Academic Libraries in collaboration with the University of Finance and Marketing Library organized a training course on using the cataloguing rules Resource Description and Access (RDA) – Vietnamese edition with the National Library of Viet Nam as the trainers. Attending the training course were managing officials and cataloguers of universities and colleges in the Southern region. The training course introduced important knowlege about RDA cataloguing rules, such as: overview about RDA, structure and management principles; relationships with other standards on resource description and access; usage of guidelines and instructions in RDA to record attributes of manifestations and items, attributes of works and expressions, attributes of persons, families and corporate bodies, attributes of concepts, objects, events and places; the basics of relationships between entities in RDA...

On December 10, 2019, a Book presentation ceremony from the National Library of Korea to the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) under the “Window on Viet Nam” – a component of the “Window on Korea” project took place in Ha Noi. Attending the ceremony were Ms. Park Hyejin– Director of Korean Cultural Center in Ha Noi, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung – Deputy Directors of the NLV and managing officials of the library divisions, students of Korean studies – university of social sciences and humanities (Ha Noi National University). With the experience of implementing major projects in receiving books, the NLV has been actively maintaining and expanding the exchange and cooperation relations with libraries and information centers at home and abroad to supplement and enrich the foreign language resources of the library. Since 2005, the “Window on Korea” project has been officially launched at the NLV. Over the past ten years, many books have been donated by the National Library of Korea to the NLV’s readers. So far, the total number of books received by the NLV has reached to over 9,000 items.

On November 26, 2019, a presentation ceremony of theGuamán Poma de Ayala Artworks by Embassy of the Republic of Peru to the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) took place at the NLV. Attending the ceremony were Mr. Tran Nhat Hoang – Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mr. Augusto Morelli Salgado– Ambassador of the Republic of Peru to Viet Nam; Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung – NLV Deputy Director, leaders and managing officials of the NLV, Ambassadors of Colombia, Mexico, Czech Republic; representatives of Uruguay and Chile embassies, staff of Peru embassy, and the library readers. Viet Nam and Peru have been close partners for many years. The NLV has always been selected as the destination to promote culture exchange, introduce and popularize literature, culture, cuisine and tourism of Peru through activities of donating books, journals and magazines.

From 5-8 November 2019, at the National Library for Children and Young Adults (ROK), the ASEAN-ROK Library Leadership Conference on Reading Promotion was held with the aims to implement the joint project of developing reading culture in ASEAN countries and Republic of Korea. Attending the conference were representatives from national libraries of 9 ASEAN countries (Brunei did not attend) and representatives of the National Library for Children and Young Adults, Korea. At the conference, participants have discussed and evaluated the reading promotion activities of the ASEAN-ROK region and agreed to sign the All-together Reading Campaign: Read me a book” in order to launch the “reading aloud culture” campaign in the ASEAN community with the common symbol: Yellow Apron.

Implementing Decision No. 3319 / QD-BVHTTDL datedSeptember 30, 2019 of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism,from 1st to 2nd November, 2019, in Da Nang City, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) organized a “Summary Conference on application of the Dewey Decimal Classification, Vietnamese Edition23in Viet Nam’s libraries in period 2014 - 2019”. Attending the conference were Ms. Vu Duong Thuy Nga - Director of the Library Department; Ms. Kieu Thuy Nga - Director of the National Library of Viet Nam; Mr. Le Hai Dang - Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Sciences Information; Mr. Huynh Van Hung - Director of Da Nang Department of Culture and Sports; Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoi An - Deputy Director of Da Nang Department of Culture and Sports; Mr. Duong Hong Co - Deputy Director of Bac Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism; representatives of leaders and technical officials of city/provincial libraries, special libraries, university libraries, and training institutions of Library and Information Sciencesthroughout the country.

To commemorate the 130th anniversary of the birth of the famous Chilean poet - Gabriela Mistral (September 24, 2019) the Embassy of Chile in Viet Nam in collaboration with the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) organized the opening of the photo exhibition entitled "Gabriela Mistral 70 years after receiving the Nobel Prizein Literature: TheDaughter of a new Nation". Attending the exhibition were Mr. Pham Quoc Hung - Deputy Director of the Library Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mr. Le Cong Tien - Deputy Director of the Departmentof America Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Nguyen Van Tich - Presidentof Viet Nam - Chile Friendship and Cooperation Association; Mr. Nguyen Huu Gioi - Presidentof VietNam Library Association; Mr. Jaime Chomali - Ambassador of the Republic of Chile to Viet Nam; Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung - Deputy Director of the NLV, alongwith leaders, delegates fromministries, departmentsand central agencies in Hanoi, members of the diplomatic missions, students and friendsof Chile, news agencies, pressand television, the public and readers.