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61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings - August 20-25, 1995

Section on Regional Activities: Asia and Oceania


Annual Report 1994

V. Donita Simmons
University of the South Pacific Library
POB 1168
Suva
Fiji
Fax: (679) 300830
e-mail: simmons.vd@usp.ac.fj
is Chair of the Regional Section for Asia and Oceania.

A.P. Gakhar

Kala Nidi
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
C.V. Mess Janpath
New Delhi 110001
India
Fax: (91-11) 381139
is Secretary.

Standing Committee and Section Membership

The Standing Committee of the Regional Section for Asia and Oceania has 10 members from 10 countries, five special advisors, and two corresponding members. Pensri Guaysuwan, Manager of the Regional O ffice is an ex-officio member. There are 193 registered members, making it the fourth largest Section in IFLA.

Projects

Project Proposal Workshop

An ALP-sponsored workshop on "Advancement of Librarianship: A Workshop to Identify and Assess Needs in Indochina and Myanmar and to Formulate Project Proposals" was held in Hanoi, 2-4 June 1994. The workshop was an inter-regional meeting with participants from Australia, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Swedish and other participants from Canada and Sweden. Resource persons include d representatives from UNESCO PGI in Bangkok, Canada Fund, Thai Library Association, National Library of Australia, ALP and the Regional Section for Asia and Oceania. The themes developed were: asses sing needs for library development; the resources available in the region to facilitate these; effectively exploiting the resources available; and accessing these resources through effective project proposals. Follow-up of the workshop will include the production of guidelines so that its results will have a multiplier effect. The ALP Core Programme also plans to issue the guidelines in Spanish .

Training Attachment Programme

Before the Hanoi workshop, the Standing Committee held its annual meeting, 30 May-1 June. One of the topics at that meeting was the selection of the awardees for the Training Attachment Programme for 1994. There were 16 applications and four grantees were selected to study the following topics: library automation systems at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji; library preservation at the National Library of Malaysia; information technology and library publicity at the People's University of China in Beijing; and children's library services at the National Library of Malaysia.

Arabization of Selected Books

The project has received some funding from the ALP Core Programme and translations into Arabic of four IFLA publications will be undertaken in 1995.

Publications

Newsletter

Two issues of the Newsletter for Asia and Oceania were published during the report period, in December 1993 and June 1994. The Newsletters were prepared by the Regional Office Manager, Pensri Guaysuw an, and sponsored by the Faxon Company, which paid the cost of printing the Newsletter, distributed in more than 500 copies to Section registrants and other interested parties.

Meetings

Sponsored by the ALP Core Programme, Donita Simmons, A.P. Gakhar and Pensri Guaysuwan participated in a brainstorming session held at Uppsala University, Sweden on 5-8 April 1994. Also attended by ot her regional officers, those at the meeting had the opportunity to discuss Division activities and to present their views on books, library development and reading in the Third World.

Havana Meeting

s The Section held no open meetings in Havana, but co-sponsored a Division meeting with the Regional Sections for Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.