The 2nd Executive Board meeting of the 19th Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XIX) hosted by the Librarians Association of Malaysia and the National Library of Malaysia was held online on July 15, 2024.
There were 35 delegates from 10 CONSAL member countries including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam attending the meeting. The Vietnamese delegation included four delegates led by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung – Director of the National Library of Viet Nam. Dr. Ghazali bin Mohamed Fadzil, President of the Librarians Association of Malaysia delivered the opening speech and chaired the meeting.
At the meeting, delegates discussed and agreed to approve the minutes of the first CONSAL XIX Executive Board meeting held online on November 29, 2023. The contents discussed in depth at the second meeting include:
- Promote the process of registering CONSAL's legal status in ASEAN to enhance the organization’s position and promote participation of CONSAL in ASEAN’s activities as well as search for ASEAN sponsored programs and projects for the library sector in the region.
- Promote the implementation of CONSAL projects that have been implemented and proposed, including the CONSAL Document Repository project; the project to update Profile of Library Education in ASEAN, and the ASEAN Digital Library project. It was recommended that member countries should continue to contribute documents to these projects and update resources on the ASEAN Digital Library portal.
- Review the CONSAL Constitution, focusing on such main points as (i) re-establishing a permanent CONSAL Secretariat in a member country to support the operation of the organization's regular work and support the host countries to organize the General Conferences; (ii) collecting the CONSAL membership Fees to cover general operating costs: website, Facebook, Secretariat, construction and implementation of the CONSAL projects, etc.; (iii) the term of the CONSAL Congress could be flexible, following a normal cycle of 3 years and can be adjusted to 2 years in the case the host country is available and requests; (iv) adding a CONSAL Young Librarians Award to recognize, encourage and motivate young staff with enthusiasm, capacity and commitment to the development of the information and library industry in the region.
- Discussion on preparations to organize the third CONSAL XIX Executive Board meeting and the CONSAL XIX General Conference & Meeting in 2025: Logo of the CONSAL XIX Congress, programs of the opening/closing ceremonies, cultural exchange night, CONSAL Outstanding Librarians Awards ceremony, the General Conference’s theme and parallel session topics, invited guests and keynote speakers, number of plenary and parallel sessions, key reports, in which Country Report of the 10 member countries will be included in the Opening day’s program, inviting East Timor to attend the General Conference as a guest country, suggest the new registration fees with two rates: Early registration fee and Standard fee, divided fees into different groups: international delegates, ASEAN delegates and Malaysian delegates; non-salaried group, students group, etc. in order to attract a large number of delegates in the region to attend the CONSAL XIX. In addition to the conference program, the host country also organizes tours of library visits and scenic spots in Malaysia for delegates attending the Congress.
The third CONSAL XIX Executive Board meetingand 19th Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XIX) is scheduled to be held on June 16-19, 2025 in Kuala Lumpur in a live format.
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News and photo: Bui Thi Thuy