From May 13-14, 2024, the annual conference of the General Assembly of Francophone Digital Network (RFN-AISBL) took place in Rabat, Morocco with the participation of 26 delegates participating in person and 7 delegates participating online representing 20 libraries and archives of the Francophone countries. Attending the conference, the delegation of the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) was led by Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Deputy Director.
This year’s conference changed its format, and was divided into two sessions.
The first session covered the formal aspects of the Network as usual. In particular, the Executive Board and delegates focused on presenting and discussing digitization projects planned from the previous year: Project to digitize IFAN's Lylian Kesteloot collection in Senegal; Project to digitize the collection of Arabic and Ajamis Manuscripts in Niger and Project to digitize the heritage collections of the Haitian Library of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in Haiti. All projects are progressing except for the project to digitize heritage collections in Haiti, which is currently having difficulty in the implementation due to unstable political situation in the country.
Another very important content of this year's Conference was the election of the Administrative Agency for the next 3-year term (replacing the current Executive Board whose term has expired). As a result of the voting, the new Administrative Agency included representatives of:
National Library and Archives of Québec, RFN President;
National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco, Vice President of RFN;
Royal Library of Belgium, Secretary General;
National Library of France, Treasurer;
National Library of Bénin, Member;
National Library and Archives of Canada, Member.
Ms. Marie Grégoire, President – Director General of the National Library and Archives of Québec, new President of RFN on behalf of the Administrative Agency shared the vision of a unified and creative Francophone Digital Community, and at the same time committed to listening to the needs of all members to increase the presence of the Francophone documentary heritage online. She also paid attention to the knowledge that serves the digitalization chain and data, metadata processing in the age of artificial intelligence.
The second session was combined with the Summer Course of the AIFBD (International Association of Francophone Librarians) with the topic “Open Data”. Under the direction of Ms. Marie Grégoire - President – Director General of the National Library and Archives of Québec, Mr. Gilles Pécout - President of the National Library of France and Mr. Frédéric Lemmers - Royal Library of Belgium, the delegates had the opportunity to present digitalization experiences and digitalization projects implemented in their institutions and participate in discussions related to this topic. The conference listened to presentations of delegates from Morocco, France, Haiti, Bénin, Congo, and Ivory Coast. The Vietnamese delegation presented a presentation with the topic: "The National Library of Viet Nam with digitization work and digital collections", receiving attention of international colleagues.
On the sidelines of the Conference, the National Library of Viet Nam delegation discussed and worked with international colleagues from the National Library of France, the National Library and Archives of Canada, the National Archives of Morocco, Ivory Coast National Library... In particular, on this occasion, the National Library of Viet Nam and the National Library of France have completed the signing of a Cooperation Agreement between the two libraries. This meaningful event took place solemnly and warmly at the headquarters of the French Embassy in Morocco. The two sides expressed the hope to have specific implementation steps early to continue developing the France-Viet Nam Information Portal in the near future.
This year's Francophone Digital Network General Assembly took place in parallel with the Summer Course of AIFBD and the 29th Morocco International Book Fair, which brought many new experience for the delegates. Within the framework of the Conference, in addition to tour visits to the National Library of Morocco and the National Archives of Morocco, delegates also visited the Morocco International Book Fair with 743 exhibition booths representing 48 countries around the world. This is a special opportunity to honor books, book-related professions as well as the mission of preserving and disseminating knowledge.
The RFN-AISBL General Assembly plans for the 2025 Conference to take place in Quebec.
Photos of the same event:
Overview of the Conference
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Deputy Director of the National Library of Viet Nam spoke at the Conference
Leadership of the new Administrative Agency of the Francophone Digital Network debuted at the conference
Delegates visited the National Library of Morocco
National Archives of Morocco and International Book Fair
The National Library of Viet Nam delegation and international colleagues
Delegates of the National Library of Viet Nam presented paper at the Conference
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Deputy Director of the National Library of Viet Nam and Mr. Gilles Pécout, President of the National Library of France exchanged the signed Cooperation Agreement
_________
News: Duong Huong Giang; Photos: BnF, BNRM, Duong Huong Giang