IFLA Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC Core Programme (UBCIM)

Regional Seminar on Bibliographic Control

Malaysia,
9 - 12 March 1998

• to provide information on current developments in bibliographic control in a networked environment

• to promote cooperation in bibliographic resource sharing and the development of appropriate standards

• to disseminate information on IFLA UBCIM activities

The IFLA ALP Programme sponsored 9 delegates from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The IFLA UBCIM Programme and the British Council also contributed to the organization and administration of the seminar.

The main organizers were Datin Mariam Abdul Kadir, Director General of the National Library of Malaysia and Ms. Amanah Ahmad, Director of the Technical Services Division of the Library.

IFLA representatives were Ms. Birgitta Bergdahl, Director of the IFLA ALP Programme, Mr. Gary Cleveland, Programme Officer of the IFLA UDT Programme, Ms. Ingrid Parent, Chair of the IFLA Division of Bibliographic Control and Ms. Marie-France Plassard, Programme Officer of the IFLA UBCIM Programme. Mr. Alan Hopkinson from Middlesex University, London, also attended as resource person. There were 55 attendees from the already mentioned countries in the region, as well as from a large variety of institutions in Malaysia. The generous and elegant hospitality of the hostess,the host library and the other libraries in Malaysia which were visited was very much appreciated by all participants.

On the first day, after the official opening speeches by Datin Mariam Abdul Kadir and Ms. Ingrid Parent, IFLA activities and especially the ALP Programme in Southeast Asia and the IFLA UBCIM Programme were presented by Ms. Bergdahl and Ms. Plassard. This was followed by reports from all countries in the region during a session moderated by Pn. Rashidah Begum, Secretary of the IFLA Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania. It enabled participants not only to become better informed about other countries, but to compare issues and problems and to discuss ways to better cooperate,to try to find solutions to common problems and address together certain priorities.

It was evident that some countries were, for political or economic reasons, less advanced in their bibliographic activities. The problems of non-roman, multi-lingual and multi-script materials were also discussed in detail at the last session of the first day, when the experiences of Malaysia were presented by two representatives of the National Library, "Cataloguing and treatment of materials written in Jawi".

The second day started by a thorough and detailed survey of the role of the national bibliographic agency by Ms. Parent :the historical development of the major activities undertaken by national bibliographic agencies, the key role they play in bibliograohic control of their national imprints through legal deposit and the production of a national biblography , and the leadership role they have in the development and promotion of bibliographic standards. This was followed by a presentation of UNIMARC by Mr. Hopkinson and Ms. Plassard: outline of the format and its maintenance, the UNIMARC Manual, UNIMARC on CDS/ISIS, UNIMARC Authorities and demonstration of the UNIMARC database, UNIBASE. Mr. Hopkinson was the facilitator of a UNIMARC Workshop in the afternoon and of a CDS/ISIS Workshop on the Wednesday morning. Mr. Cleveland demonstrated IFLANET, IFLA's World Wide Web site, and distributed CD-ROMs containing information on the IFLA Web site.

A Workshop evaluation and preparation of the recommendations preceded a tour of the Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia. The following day, participants were given the opportunity to visit the Library of the University of Malaysia and of FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia). The proceedings of the seminar have been published by the National Library of Malaysia. Limited copies are available upon request from the UBCIM programme and from the Gift and Exchange Division of the National Library of Malaysia.

Annex

Plan of Action