Conference Theme
"National Heritage: Preservation and Dissemination"
Conference News
Coordinating
Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono officially
opened the 15th General Conference of Congress of
Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XV)
The conference was held for
three days from 29 to 31 May 2012 in Discovery Kartika
Plaza Hotel with the theme of “National Heritage:
Preservation and Dissemination”. In his speech, the
Minister explained the importance of preserving the
national culture as the nation’s pride to be inherited
to the next generation. The advancement of information
technology must be utilized in efforts to preserve the
culture. He also expressed his appreciation for the
appointment of Indonesia as the host for the event. “I
hope that the Congress will come up with positive
resolutions for the process of national culture
preservation”, he said.
Meanwhile, National Library of Indonesia’s Director
Sri Sularsih in her speech welcomed all delegation of
national library directors, library association
presidents and secretary generals from the member
countries and invitations. CONSAL holds a general
conference every three years in random host from member
countries. The conference theme has been agreed by all
members of Executive Board (EB) before. Everyone has
been aware that library, especially national library, is
a place for storing all works created by the people as
invaluable heritage. “It is obligation of libraries and
librarians to preserve and disseminate information for
present and next generations’, she said.
Beside the general conference, there were also two
major events namely the 3rd meeting of CONSAL XV
Executive Board attended by national library directors,
presidents and secretary generals of library
associations of the member countries and the 20th
Conference of Directors of National Libraries in
Asia-Oceania (CDNLAO).
In the conference, a number of papers were presented
under the topics of national heritage and library. There
were 54 presentations consisting of 6 plenary sessions
and 48 parallel sessions served to all participants from
library practitioners, students, and public. The
presenters were not only from CONSAL member countries
but also from other countries such as Australia, India,
USA and Netherlands.
The conference were participated by 697 participants
and 40 accompanying participants attended the conference
from 21 countries. The foreign delegates was leaded by
Vietnam with 85 delegates followed by Malaysia 41
delegates, Thailand 31 delegates, Singapore 27
delegates, Philippines 26 delegates, Brunei Darussalam 8
delegates and others less than 5 delegates while the
local delegates was 448. The conference was held with
other activities such as the CONSAL XV exhibition
participated by 33 local and international exhibitors.
Conference Objectives
- To consolidate solidarity and cooperation among librarians in Southeast
Asian countries, especially in the national heritage and library services.
- To learn and To share experiences in handling libraries and information
services in Southeast Asian countries, and the development in Asian region
and around the world.
- To develop the cooperation of regional projects on the library resources
and information services.
- To improve the usage of library services to fullfill the need of library
users in each countries through the cooperation on interlibrary services
among CONSAL country members.
- To introduce the progress of library achievement in the CONSAL member
countries.
- To encourage librarians, library managers, scientists in the library fields
to contribute their capabilities, innovation and experiences