From May3-4, 2018, the annual meeting of the General Assembly ofFrancophone Digital Network took place in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisie, with the participation of 23 delegates representing 19 libraries and national archives of the Francophone countries. This is the first annual meeting since RFN changed its organizational form and operating structure.
In June 2017, RFN officially became an international association, and officially known as the Francophone Digital Network – a non profit international organization (RFN-AISBL), which is based in the Royal Libraryof Belgium, with a regular operating budget from the fixed annual membership fee of all members.
The meeting focused on issues related to the structure, organization of RFN-AISBL and further affirmed the role of the Association in preserving and promoting the French literary heritage through encouragement and support digitization projects in member countries. These digitized results have contributed to the RFF Digital Library (BRFN), which is based on the Gallica White Label technology. Through BRFN, the Association has provided 247 million French readers with accessibilityto 442 documents on Europe, 438 documents on Africa, 258 documents on Asia-Pacific and 153 documents on America - Caribe. According to statistics, in 2017, BRFN had 13,724 visits from 12,828 visitors accessing to 118,511 pages. After a year of operation, BRFN has initially asserted itself thanks to the solidarity and cooperation of all members. The General Assembly also unanimously madecall for digital initiatives contributions from members to provide BRFN enrichment resources. Criteria for selection of materials were also discussed by the participants in a dynamic and consistent manner in accordance with the policy documents of each country member. On the sidelines of the meeting, the delegation of the National Library of Viet Nam discussed and worked with the Director of the National Library and Archives of Canada, the International Cooperation Director of the National Library of France, the National Library of Egypt to introduce the library in Viet Nam in general, the National Library in particular and discuss the direction of cooperation to develop programs in the field of preservation of traditional documents and digital documents.
The first annual general meeting of the RFN-AISBL General Assembly also has the task of strengthening its operations through the election for members of the Executive Boards including France, Belgium, Canada, Québec, Morocco, Haiti, Cote d'Ivoire, admit official members and approve the 2017 financial report as well as the 2018 estimated budget.
The RFN-AISBL General Assembly expects the 2019 meeting will take place at the National Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa.
Photos of the same event:
Overview of the meeting
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh – NLV’s Deputy Director at the meeting
Delegates taking souvenir photo
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News: Huong Giang; Photos: National Library of Tunisie, Huong Giang