On March 23, 2023, in Ho Chi Minh City, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) held a symposium to continue to exchange, discuss, and receive contributions from information agencies, libraries, and specialists in southern region for the second Draft of the National Standard "Document management - Electronic document file format for long-term preservation" by Mr.  Nguyen Xuan Dung – Acting Director of NLV as the Project Manager. This is the second symposium, follow the first one for northern region held by the NLV on November 22, 2022 in Ha Noi.

PDF/A is designed specifically for the long-term archiving of electronic documents, application in software creation and design, and information processing systems, meeting the needs of all library types. The National Standard "Document management - Electronic document file format for long-term preservation" is developed on the basis of accepting ISO 19005 "Document management - Electronic document file format for long-term preservation" (parts 1 and 2) to create PDF document file format standards, namely PDF/A. This is one of the standards in line with the development needs of the library sector associated with information technology and digital transformation, which recognizes issues of long-term and sustainable growth in the context of information technology continually changing and evolving at a rapid pace.

Currently, there hasn’t been any document guiding this content in Viet Nam. Therefore, studying and developing the National Standard on document management-electronic document file format for long-term preservation has an important practical significance, meeting the practical operation needs of the information-library institutions and archives agencies in storing and using electronic documents, searching and evaluating document management programs as well as being basis for information technology enterprises develop the application software equipment for information, library and archive activities as well as for interested agencies, organizations and individuals in the country.

The symposium recorded and received 21 speeches (40 comments), actively exchanged and discussed by scientists, managers, experts in the field of information, library, information technology. Delegates attending the symposium all agreed on the need to research and develop a National Standard on electronic document file format for long-term preservation in the current digital transformation period. Discussions and comments at the symposium focused on sime contents that need to be improved such as: unifying the use of some terms in the Standard, Vietnameseization the translation to ensure scientific and easy to understand, easy to use; research using specialized terminology; proposals on NLV should conducting activities of arranging seminars, training courses, promotion and distribution of the National Standard after its launching… This is an important basis for the Editorial Board to continue to research, supplement, edit and complete the Draft and the Notes of the Standard.

Some photos at the Symposium:

Panoramic view of the Symposium

M.A. Nguyen Xuan Dung – NLV’s Acting Director, Project Manager presents the Lead Report

M.A. Le Thi Thanh Ha – Secretary of the Editorial Board presents the Report on receiving and explanation of comments from organizations and individuals to the Draft and Notes to the Draft

Representatives of leaders and librarians at public libraries, learning resource centers, information-library center, and training institutions in the southern regions speak at the symposium

Delegates attending the conference took souvenir photos

__________

News: Thu Trang, Photos: Thanh Ha