On March 19^th, 2011, National Library of Vietnam (NLV) welcomed the District 5160 of Rotary International delegation to visit and sign a MoU of cooperation. This is the second working visit of Rotary International to the NLV after its first site visit in February 2010 to study about the NLV’s infrastructure, capacity, demand and reading environment. At the meeting, both sides have openly shared information about recent activities, perspectives of cooperation in library field as well as education models through libraries.

In the same morning, Ms. Phan Thi Kim Dzung, Director of the NLV and Mr. John Bernardin, Literacy Chair, District 5160 of Rotary International has signed an MoU of cooperation in implementing a free education program teaching English for NLV’s staff and readers. The aim of this cooperation activity is to improve the English language skills of reading and writing of Vietnamese people using the CALS (Computer Assisted Literacy Solution).

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.

Rotary International is a nonprofit organization with more than 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Since its establishment in 1905, Rotary clubs have provided a number of humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill in many countries in the world including Vietnam. Academy of Reading is a computer based program proven effective in teaching spoken and written English in the U.S.A. A well implementation of the program will help to improve the English language skills of NLV’s staff and readers which will lead to increased opportunities for employment and for them. It is the NLV’s hope that, after the program is successful implemented at the NLV, Academic of Reading software will continue to be provided to other provincial and academic library nation wide.

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News and photos: Bùi Thị Thủy