Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians

By Heirwin M. Nasir written on 2003-05-12
National Library Board Singapore

Comments on article: InfopediaTalk

Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) was founded in Singapore in 1970. It was formed to provide a venue for librarians of Southeast Asian Nations to have dialogues and promote co-operation in related fields of librarianship.

History
In 1969, a conference on Southeast Asian Library Materials was held at Puntjak, near Jakarta, Indonesia, attended by librarians and information professionals from different parts of the world. It was at this conference that the idea of forming a regional organisation for Southeast Asian Nations was conceived. The founder of CONSAL is said to be the librarians from these Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, who had attended the conference.

CONSAL was formally formed through a collaboration between the Library Associations of Singapore and Malaysia in 1970. Its initial members were from the following seven countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The first CONSAL conference took place in Singapore at the Eusoff College, University of Malaya, from 14-16 August 1970. Its member-countries would later increase to 10 when Brunei, Laos and Myanmar joined the group.

In 1999, CONSAL Web was launched in Bangkok. It was hosted by the Library Association of Singapore until April 2000 when the CONSAL Secretariat was formed. It was re-launched on 24 April 2001 by David Lim, the then Minister of State, Information and The Arts and Defence, at Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore. CONSAL Web is now maintained by National Library Board of Singapore.

The CONSAL Secretariat is hosted by Singapore for a period of three years. The first Secretariat General of CONSAL Secretariat is R. Ramachandran, whose primary role is to co-ordinate CONSAL's approved projects.

Description
CONSAL members would meet once every three years in each member's country by turn. The host country will formed a CONSAL Executive Board which will be responsible for organising and managing the conference. These includes implementing resolutions that was adopted at the previous General Conference of CONSAL, managing the programmes, sourcing for funds to support the activities and delegating to the next host country. The Chairman would be nominated by members from the next host country and endorsed by all CONSAL members.

CONSAL receives financial support from international organisations, governments and firms within the Southeast Asian region and beyond, such as UNESCO, IFLA and the Commonwealth Foundations. Various fund-raising activities were also organised to support its activities.

Among the regional projects completed to date are: Masterlist of Southeast Asia 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 Microfilm Newsletter, 1972-93, edited by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Mission 
To promote library and information development in the region.

To lead the region towards greater participation in the international information community.

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

To promote co-operation in the fields of librarianship, library and information sciences, documentation, information and related activities in the region.

To co-operate with other regional and international organisations and institutions in the fields of librarianship, library and information sciences, documentation, information and related activities.

Membership
Open to all libraries, library schools, national library associations, national libraries, individuals and other related organisations within the member countries in Southeast Asia. Associate membership is also available for libraries, related organisations and individuals outside member countries.



Author
Heirwin Md Nasir



References
Khoo, S. M. (Ed.). (1996). Memorable journey: Commemorating 25 years of CONSAL (Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians), 1970-1995 (pp. 20-24). Kuala Lumpur: CONSAL X.
(Call no.: RSING 020.623259 CON)

National Library Board. (2001). Annual report (p. 9). Singapore: Author.
(Call no.: RSING 027.05957 SNLBAR)

Websites to link librarians in the region. (2001, April 25). The Straits Times, Home, p. 3.

National Library Board. (n.d.). Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL). Retrieved May 16, 2003, from www.consal.org.sg


The information in this article is valid as at 2003 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history on the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.



Subject
Organisations>>Associations
Library cooperation--Singapore
Libraries--Singapore
Singapore--History
Science and technology>>Library and information science>>Library and information services



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