NATIONAL LIBRARY OF VIETNAM

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.