The second executive board meeting of Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XVIII) chaired by the host country Cambodia was held online on October 22, 2021.
Among those at the event were 50 delegates and observers representing 10 CONSAL member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,and Viet Nam. The Vietnamese delegation consistedof four delegatesled by Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Deputy Director of the National Library of Viet Nam. Mr. Ek Buntha, Deputy Director-General of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Department, Ministry of Culture and Arts of Cambodia attended and delivered the opening speech at the meeting.
Panoramic view of the 2nd CONSAL XVIII Executive Board Meeting
At the meeting,thedelegates approved the minute of the first CONSAL XVIII Executive Board meeting taking place in Cambodia in 2019 and discussed contents related to the CONSAL XVIII General Congress in the coming time: format of the conference, time, registration fee, logo, theme, main topics of sessions… The general congress of CONSAL XVIII is scheduled to be held on November 7-8, 2022. However, due to the complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, it is impossible to decide whether the conference is held face-to-face, online or hybrid, the registration fee has not been decided yet. In addition, the delegates also discussed and reached an agreement on the logo design and main theme of the CONSAL XVIII General Congress: “Libraries united: Rising to the challenge”, activities to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of CONSAL, CONSAL Awards, and timelines for the activity of Call for Paper. Issues of website administration, setting up a CONSAL Facebook account, revising the Country Report template and CONSAL Constitution were also analyzed and discussed bydelegates atthe meeting.
Vietnamese delegation at the meeting
Besides, reports on the implementation of several projects were also presented during the meeting: CONSAL documentary archive, Profile on Library Education in ASEAN countries, Profile on Professional Organizations in Southeast Asian Library Management in the near future and report on IFLA updates.
The second CONSAL XVIII Executive Board Meeting was successfully organized bythe host country Cambodia. Specific and practical issues havebeen well discussed, contributing tothe preparation of the general congress to be held in the year 2022.
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News: Huong Giang