CONGRESS OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN LIBRARIES (CONSAL) PDF

Preview

Summary

CONSAL stands for CONGRESS OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN LIBRARIES. It was a regional body formed to provide a platform for librarians of Southeast Asian Nations to have dialogues and to promote cooperation....

Description

CONGRESS OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN LIBRARIES (CONSAL)

INTRODUCTION

The Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) was founded in Singapore in 1970 among a number of ASEAN countries as the Conference of Southeast Asian Librarians. It was a regional body formed to provide a platform for librarians of Southeast Asian Nations to have dialogues and to promote cooperation. CONSAL promotes libraries and librarians as part of ASEAN task in the development of education and culture. CONSAL is a loose and flexible organization, which provides a forum for professional contact and exchange. It holds a general conference in each member country by turn and promotes cooperation in librarianship, bibliography, documentation and related activities in the region. Its members comprise the National Libraries and Library Associations of the ASEAN countries. CONSAL

receives

financial

support

from

international

organizations,

governments and firms within the Southeast Asian region, and organizations outside the region, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, the Commonwealth Foundation and the National Library of Australia. It also organizes various fund-raising activities for further financial support. The CONSAL executive board comprises three national members from each member country and is responsible for accomplishing CONSAL’s objectives. Among CONSAL’s completed regional projects are Masterlist of Southeast Asian Microfilms, edited by Winarti Partaningrat (1978) : Directory of Librarians in Southeast Asia, edited by Marina, G. Dayrit and Namnama P. Hidalgo (1980) and Southeast Asian Microfilms Newsletter, 1972-93, edited by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. CONSAL holds a conference every three years in each member country by turn as a part of traditional proceedings to provide a country report detailing library developments over the previous three years.

HISTORY OR BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In 1969, a Conference on Southeast Asian Research Materials was held at Puntjak, near Jakarta, Indonesia, and was attended by eminent scholars, archivists and librarians. It was at this conference that the idea of forming a regional organization for Southeast Asian Nations was conceived. The founders of CONSAL were said to have been librarians from five Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – who had attended the conference. CONSAL was formally formed through the collaboration between the Library Associations of Singapore and Malaysia. The first CONSAL conference was held in Singapore on 14–16 August 1977 where its Constitution was adopted by delegates from the library professions in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, representatives from Australia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States of America also participated as observers. By the time CONSAL III took place in 1975, there were five core member countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. CONSAL IV in 1978 saw it renamed the Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians.

MISSION, VISION AND OBJECTIVES

MISSION The missions of the CONSAL are to promote library and information development in the region and also to lead the region towards greater participation in the international information community.

VISION The Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) was formed with the vision of relationship building, sharing, cooperation and collaboration among member countries in the fields of librarianship, library and information sciences, documentation, information and related activities.

OBJECTIVES

1. To establish and strengthen relations among librarians, libraries, library schools, library associations and related organizations in the region

2. To

promote cooperation in the development of librarianship, library and

information sciences, documentation, information and related activities in the region

3. To

cooperate with other regional and international organizations, and other

institutions in the support of common undertakings and interests of CONSAL

4. To provide a platform for sharing and exchanging of information and experiences on issues in the field of librarianship, library and information sciences, documentation, information and related services in the region.

PARTICIPATING OR MEMBERSHIPS FROM OTHER BODIES, COUNTRIES, ASSOCIATIONS OR TYPES OF MEMBERSHIPS

The Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL)’s membership from other associations are UNESCO, IFLA, Commonwealth Foundation and National Library Australia. Next, CONSAL shall open only to institutions and individual within the member countries in Southeast Asia. It has been participated by ten members which include the library associations and librarians of ASEAN countries, which are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Lao, Vietnam, Myanmar and Philippines.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

The products or services that served by CONSAL are :1- Electronic database. It used for view and store information that used or created by CONSAL for community. Collaborative programs now extend far beyond the traditional. Much information that is available on the database is free. And even if some are not free, but they are low-cost. The advantages of using electronic medium like electronic database to carry out collaborative projects is fairly evident.

2- Seminar Library association of Singapore hold a seminar feature paper and poster presentations. The seminar focused on some programme topics like digital library management, marketing and promotion, ASEAN vision, strategic alliances, partnership and also media and information literacy.

3- Forum The main objective of the forum is for professional contact and exchange information. Holding a forum helps to promote cooperation among librarians in Southeast Asia Region. CONSAL provides the forum for the librarians and information specialists to strengthen networks, partnerships and linkages with each other.

BENEFITS

The benefits that can be conclude in CONSAL are :-

-

All southeast country can be connected, communicated and give support to each other and discuss among themselves.

-

CONSAL provides access to each other’s national bibliographic resources including the acquisitions or exchange of publications.

-

It gives library training programmes for the region

-

Establish a translation programme with the purpose of making available the written cultural heritage of each member country.

-

Individual can explore guidelines for fair use of various types of materials, especially digital transmission

-

It gives chance for people to explore the setting up of a rights management system.

-

Establish a working group to consider and study strategies for maintaining and preserving legal deposits in Southeast Asian countries

-

It promotes cooperation in the fields of librarianship, bibliography, documentation and related activities

-

It makes all information services united, so all barriers in locating and stored information can be arranged systematically

FUTURE PLANNING

Future planning of CONSAL are to re-examine, re-interpret, the role of libraries as promoters of change. Secondly, introduce and expose more the roles of libraries in this era of rapid changes in the socio-economic-technological sphere. In terms of its constitution and objective, CONSAL orientation is directed towards the South East Asian region. Approach to inform the citizens on facilitating progress and development, implementing CONSAL. Thirdly, tend to lead prosperity in all fields of the democratic society. Next is making libraries and society in constant, open dialectic relationship. Furthermore, promote and prove to community about libraries’ roles as information providers, promoters of reading, settlers for the community they serve, key players in innovation and leading actors for the changes in the society. Plus, strengthen the relationship among librarian, library and related organizations in the region is also one of the future planning of CONSAL. Cooperate with other regional organization and institutions. A collaboration can be done easier if you have network among other region. The other future planning is promoting cooperation in the fields of librarianship, library and information sciences for community.

POINTS OF VIEW ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION (RECOMMENDATIONS, PROBLEMS AND OTHERS)

From my point of view about CONSAL, some proposals to improve it are seeking new effective alternatives and perhaps better ways for avenues for cooperative activities that are more focused on academic and research materials. It helps to promote library and information development in the region. Next is opening avenues for increasing access to archival resources. it is important for the better results. For the members participating in CONSAL, try to decide the parties responsible for works like launching, managing and maintaining the system. It makes the works run smoothly. A major part of the success of any library cooperation will largely depend on how well cooperating members can exploit these networking opportunities and contribute to the development. Some barriers or problems about CONSAL are lacking of funding and commitment from all participants. Sustained funding can make or break cooperative endeavors. And also it will decrease efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Next is negative attitudes and personalities, such as skepticism, fear of loss, mistrust and jealousy. Copyright and intellectual property concerns and issues are also one of the serious barriers about CONSAL. It may seem difficult to develop higher levels of cooperative collaboration with these legal issues. The way you can prevent this problem is you can require permission to digital contents and focus on works free from copyright. I strongly believe that lacks of human resource is also one of the CONSAL’s problems. Through collaboration, networking, I convinced we can bridge the digital divide and create an information-rich environment. Furthermore, international cooperate has been extremely difficult to achieve because of geographical distance. But now, there’s no consequence if the internet is used as a cooperative medium.

CONCLUSION From my point of view, The Congress of South East Asian Libraries (CONSAL) is a forum among libraries from Southeast Asia to collaborate with various joint projects, in particular organizing conferences within a period of three years. CONSAL is a loose and flexible organization which provides a forum for professional contact and exchange. Overall, it represents libraries, library school, library associations and related institutions in member states of the ASEAN. This initiative taken by the Library Associations of Singapore and Malaysia, due to their common origin and long history of close cooperation. All barriers can be technical, economic, political, legal, cultural and social. In general, Southeast Asian countries have made great endeavors in the contributions on CONSAL. CONSAL is acting as a leading force in developing strategic relationships, undertaking the collaborative activities and taking the good advantages for significant opportunities for the libraries in the Region.

REFERENCES 1. Heirwin Md Nasir. (2018). Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians. Retrieved from http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_319_2005-0124.html 2. Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians [Facebook page]. (2010). Retrieved May 17, 2019, from https://m.facebook.com/consal.sec/? ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0 3. 17th Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XVII). (2018, April 16). Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/node/36439 4. Jingfeng Xia. (2006). Scholarly Communication in East and Southeast Asia Traditions and Challenges. IFLA Journal, 32(2). 104-112. https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/105370/Scholarly_C ommunication_-_dlist.doc?sequence=1 5. Yit, C.H. & Foo, S. (2002). Development of Libraries of the Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) : 1996-1999. Library and Information Science Research Journal (LIBRES), 12(1), 1-28, https://www.ntu.edu.sg./home/sfoo/publications/2002/02libres_fmt.pdf

APPENDICES...