In the afternoon of August 10, 2016, the delegation of Laos Publishing Department and National Library (NLL) headed by Mrs. Bouakhay Phenphachanh - Director of the Publishing Department paid a working visit to the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV). Accompanying the delegation were Mrs. Doan Quynh Dzung – Vice Director of the Library Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam. To the NLV side, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung – Vice Director and representatives of some divisions jointly received the delegation. At the reception, Mrs. Bouakhay expressed her thanks to the sentiment and supports of the NLV for NLL over the years and announced new progresses that they have achieved such as building new modern NLL headquaters; receiving legal deposit publications of all kinds... On this occasion, NLL hoped to restore the material exchange relationship between two libraries and receive the NLV’s  training support for operating and managing modern libraries. The Laos’ side also proposed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between two libraries as a foundation for implementing related activities in the coming period.

From 28^th – 29^th July, 2016, the 1^st Meeting of Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) XVII has taken place in Yangon (Myanmar) with the participation of more than 50 delegates and observers from: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, Timor Leste and the host country Myanmar. Vietnamese delegation attending the 1^st Meeting includes 03 delegates from the National Library of Viet Nam and Viet Nam Library Association. After 16times of Congress since establishment and development, CONSAL has truly become one of the most prestigious professional organizations regarding library aspect in the region. In the Meeting, besides annual activities like reports on operational updates from country members, reports on progress of common CONSAL programs and projects, delegates and observers have spent a great amount of time to lively discuss on the arising issues such as: Calendar of operation from each CONSAL country; CONSAL’s strategic vision in the future; Theme and logo of CONSAL XVII; Key goals in the period of 2016-2019 and Proposed activities to celebrate 50^th Anniversary of ASEAN 2017.

In implementation of the task assigned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) on the project “Translate, print and train usage of the cataloguing rule Resource Description and Access – RDA 2015 revision”, on July 12, 2016, the NLV hold a meeting to implement the project. At the meeting, on behalf of the agency in charge of the project, Mrs. Kieu Thuy Nga – the NLV’s Director has given an overview of RDA, its application in the world, the process to research and propose the project to translate RDA 2015 by the NLV, plan and timeline of the project during 2016-2017. She aslo emphasized that the aim of the project is towards unifying and standardizing the descriptive cataloguing activity in Vietnamese libraries by applying a new international standard cataloguing rule which is consistent with the development trend of the world libraries and actual situation of Vietnamese libraries in developing towards digital libraries; the goal of the project is to publish the most update and quality version of RDA in Vietnamese language as a tool to ensure the unification of the descriptive cataloguing activity nationwide, contribute to information resources sharing among libraries domestically and internationally, and become a good reference material for those...

To perform the tasks of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) assigned to the National Library of Vietnam (NLV) to compile the standards on terminology and definitions, on July 8^th 2016, the NLV organized an acceptance of Project constructing National Standard TCVN "Library activities - Terminology and definitions of library products and services" by Ma. Kieu Thuy Nga - Director as Chairman of the Project, Dr. Le Van Viet as Head of Specialized Technical Subcommittee. Attending the acceptance is Mrs. Dinh Nguyen Phuong Thao - Deputy Director of Department of Science, Technology and Environment, MoCST. Library products and services are the outcomes of library activities and have a great significance in bringing the value of library to the users to optimally exploit the benefit of each individual and the whole society. Along with the development of the library, the types of related products and services are also constantly innovative and creative. The construction of TCVN "Library activities - Terminology and definitions of the library products and services" will contribute step-by-step to improve the standardization work, fulfill more library specialized terminology system. The unification in the usage of terminology, definitions of library products and services not only brings effectiveness for academic exchange in the country but also creates favorable conditions for the cooperation process, experience exchange, information resources sharing and international exchange between libraries in Viet Nam with those in ASEAN community and the world.

In the afternoon of July 4, 2016, H.E. Öry Csaba - Hungary’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Viet Nam paid a working visit to the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV), Mrs. Kieu Thuy Nga – the NLV’s Director received the delegation. At the meeting, ambassador Öry Csaba appreciated the good cooperative relationship between Viet Nam and Hungary in the last years, especially in the field of culture, and expressed his hope to further promote activities in this field. Regarding library activities, two sides have discussed the possibility of cooperation between the National Library of Viet Nam and National Széchenyi Library (of Hungary) on such fields as: preservation, restoration, digitization and exploration of digital collections; materials exchange; human resource training; organizing conferences, workshops, training courses.... Ambassador Öry Csaba expressed his willingness to serve as a bridge for the two libraries to meet and learn about each other’s work and progress in cooperation in specific areas of strength of the two sides...

On June 24^th, 2016, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) held a Conference of the preliminary first 6 months of 2016. In the first 6 months of 2016, the NLV has promoted the tradition, initiation, determination, positivity in completing the proposed plan with satisfactory results, exceeding targets in a number of expertise areas, such as: Receipt of Depositary publications; Process of professional documentation; Warehouse storage, sorting and organizing; Information technology applications,... Besides, the activities in serving readers, event planning, scientific research and international cooperation have achieved remarkable results. At the same day, the NLV’s Committee of the Party held a conference of preliminary Party. In the first 6 months of 2016, Committee of the Party has actively implemented the expertise tasks; building work of the Party and leaders of mass organizations under the program planned. The Party has completed formal procedures of Party transferring for 04 comrades; Party organizations admitted to the 03 excellent comrades; sending 03 comrades to take part in Party awareness class; transfer Party activity for 02 comrades and transfer work mission. In the review of 05-year Campaign "Study and follow the moral example of Ho Chi Minh" held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the NLV Committee of the Party has 02 comrades honored to receive Merit...

To implement the 2016 Work Plan, from 2-3/6/2016, in Da Lat city, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held a Conference - Workshop to summarize the 5-year operation of the public library system and implement targeted programs for culture (2011-2015). Attending the Conference - Workshop, to the central agencies, we have Mr. Huynh Vinh Ai - Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mrs. Vu Duong Thuy Nga – Director of Library Department; Mrs. Kieu Thuy Nga - Director of National Library of Viet Nam; Mr. Pham The Khang - Chairman of Vietnam Library Association; to Lam Dong province, we have Mr. Phan Van Da – Provincial Commissioner,Vice Chairman of Lam Dong People’s Committee; Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nguyen - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism ... and representatives from central agencies, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the libraries in the public library system, representativeness of the Management Board of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Project – Viet Nam.

With the permission of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, from 24-26 May 2016 in Da Nang city, National Library of Viet Nam in accordance with Library Department organize Summarizing Conference for the information technology application of public library system (2006-2016). In the spirit of seriousness, responsibility, straightforwardness, democracy and science, 14 reports and discussed opinions at the conference are focusing on sharing and exchange the following contents: Situation and results of the information technology application, evaluating advantages, difficulties, challenges, defiance as well as specify strategies, plans and propose solutions for the applying effectively information technology to the public libraries’ activities in the upcoming period.

To welcome the election day of the 14^th National Assembly and the election of deputies of the People's Councils at all levels for the period 2016-2021; Celebration of 126^th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh (19/5/1890-19/5/2016), 105 years of Uncle Ho's departure abroad to seek ways to save the country (05/6/ 1911-05/ 6/2016), the National Library of Viet Nam Gallery held an Exhibition of documents with the theme: "President Ho Chi Minh and the National Assembly of Viet Nam" with over 500 materials in images, books, newspapers which were selected by 4 contents: Nguyen Ai Quoc - Journey to seek ways to save the country; August Revolution and The first independence days (1945-1946); the 1^st National Assembly (1946-1960); President Ho Chi Minh and the National Assembly of Viet Nam. These exhibited materials generalized the 70-year journey of forming and developing the National Assembly of Vietnam, helping readers and public understand more deeply about the rights and obligations of every citizen, be aware of the true meaning of election day which is the festival of the whole nation, imbued with the idea of building a law-governed state of the people, by the people, for the people of President Ho Chi Minh, contributing to education, especially for the young generation with traditional patriotism, promoting a sense of responsibility in the struggle for national liberation, socialism building and maintaining national defense.

From 17 -19 May 2016, ASEAN Digital Library 2^nd Regional Meeting(ADL) has taken place at the National Library Board of Singapore (NLB) with participation of 10 ASEAN countries’ delegates. The digital library project is managed by Singaporean Library Council with the aim of connecting national libraries of ASEAN countries to share and contribute digital resource for ASEAN Community and the global. The main session of the Regional Meeting took place lively with reports and discussions from national libraries. The Regional Meeting records the positive achievements of national libraries of ASEAN countries, including National Library of Viet Nam, National Library of Thailand, National Library Board of Singapore that had great attribution and met high technical requirements in providing data to…