The 19^th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNL-AO19) was held from 16 to 19 of May 2011 in Seoul, Korea under the theme "Envisioning the future: the role of national library in the new era ". There were 25 delegates from 20 National Libraries for in Asia and Oceania including Australia,...

In celebration of the 100^th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh’s departure to the world to seek suitable pathways for the country’s salvation and the 121^st birthday anniversary of him and welcome the 13^th National Assembly and People’s Council elections at all levels for the 2011-2016 term, in the morning of May, 18^th, the National Library of Vietnam (NLV) held a documentary exhibition on “65-year National Assembly of Vietnam”.

In the morning of May 5, 2011, the National Library of Vietnam (NLV) in cooperation with The Asia Foundation (U.S.A) launched the two-day training course on enhancing reader service provision for over 50 librarians of recipient libraries in the South and South Central provinces of Vietnam under the Books for Asia program (BFA program) funded by The Asia Foundation (TAF).

From April 18-22, 2011, the 2^nd CONSAL XV Executive Meeting was taken place in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia with the participation of 20 delegates from 10 CONSAL member countries including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Besides, there are 2 representatives of Timor-Leste and 8 members of CONSAL Secretariat.

In the morning of April 26, 2011, the National Library of Vietnam (NLV) received Hanoi French Club delegation headed by Ms. Alexandra De Broca, French Lady Ambassador to Vietnam at the NLV. The delegation has visited the exhibition "Books and users-friendly environment" at the library hall, reading rooms and collections of the NLV. Especially, the delegation has got a chance to visit the Indochina books store, one of the precious heritage materials being stored and preserved at the NLV. Hanoi French club members admired very much the value of rare collections of the NLV as well as preservation and conservation of those collections at the NLV. They hope to become close users of the NLV in the near future.

Presentations focused on issues of preservation of printed and digital materials as well as making plan for materials’prevention and restoration treatment. The training course aim to provide knowledge and experience for Vietnamese librarians in the field of material preservation which has been seen as a branch of library and information science. Concurrently, the training course has contributed to put the MOU between the National Library of Vietnam and National Library of France signed on 15^th February 2011 into practice; create momentum for the next cooperative activities between the two institutions in the future.

The earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11 has caused hard consequences on the lives of thousands of Japanese people. In order to share the pain and huge loss of the Japanese, all official and staff of the National Library of Vietnam (NLV) with mutual love and affection, noble humanistic tradition of Vietnam and the spirit of the Vietnam – Japan friendship, voluntarily contributed 1 day’s salary to support Japanese victims, especially to whom directly affected by the disaster. Hopefully, the small gift from the NLV will partly help them overcome tribulation and quickly stabilize their lives. Concurrently, the NLV extends deep sympathy and encouragement to library colleagues in Japan

Under the agreement, District 5160 will immediately provide the Academy of Reading software as needed to operate a reading and writing English language program at the NLV on ten workstations concurrently in a time frame of three years (from March 2011 until March 2014); from its side, NLV will provide adequate technology resources (workstations, power and high bandwidth internet access) to run the Academy of Reading software at the Multimedia room of the NLV. Direct recipients to this program include NLV staff and readers. It is planned that, Academy of Reading software will be available to readers by early April 2011 at the Multimedia Room during the normal hours of operation of the library.

On March 10^th 2011, at the National Library of Vietnam, the Publishing Department, Ministry of Information and Communication has organized a Conference on the plan and professional guidance of publishing in 2011. Presented at the Conference, there were Deputy Minister of the Information and Communication Do Quy Doan, Vice Chief of the Central Committee for Propaganda and Education Nguyen The Ky, representatives from Government offices, Publishing Houses and press agencies.

In the morning of March 9, 2011, National Library of Vietnam (NLV) hold a talk on the subject “Cataloguing in Publication” (CIP) presented by Dr. John Celli, Former Chief Executive of Cataloguing in Publication Division, Library of Congress, the U.S.A.