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| Asia-Pacific Library and Information Network | |
|---|---|
| Name | Asia-Pacific Library and Information Network |
| Abbreviation | APLIN |
| Formation | 1980s |
| Type | Regional professional network |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
| Region served | Asia-Pacific |
| Membership | National libraries, university libraries, research institutes |
| Language | English |
Asia-Pacific Library and Information Network
The Asia-Pacific Library and Information Network is a regional consortium linking national, academic, and special libraries across the Asia-Pacific region. It functions as a coordinating body for cooperative collection development, bibliographic control initiatives, and capacity building among institutions including national libraries of Japan, Australia, and India, major universities such as the University of Tokyo, University of Melbourne, and National University of Singapore, and research centers like the Asia Research Institute. The network interacts with international organizations including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and the World Bank to support information access and preservation.
APLIN operates as a forum for librarians, archivists, and information scientists from countries such as China, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand. Its activities encompass standards harmonization with bodies like the Dewey Decimal Classification and the Library of Congress Classification, digital library interoperability inspired by projects such as Project Gutenberg and Europeana, and training modeled after initiatives by the British Library and the Library of Congress. The network emphasizes cross-border resource sharing, interlibrary loan linkages akin to the OCLC system, and collaborative digitization consistent with practices at the National Diet Library and the Smithsonian Institution.
APLIN traces origins to regional conferences held in the late 20th century involving stakeholders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and UNESCO consultations that mirrored earlier cooperative models like the International Council on Archives and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions gatherings. Early milestones included memoranda of understanding with institutions such as the National Library of China and the British Library, and pilot projects influenced by the digitization strategies of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. Over successive decades, APLIN expanded alongside technological shifts pioneered by organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, and Google, adopting standards promoted by the Internet Archive and the World Digital Library.
Membership comprises national libraries (for example, the National Library of Australia, the National Library of New Zealand, the National Library of India), university libraries (including the Peking University Library, Seoul National University Library, University of Hong Kong), and special collections housed at institutions like the Australian National University and the Hong Kong Museum of History. Governance follows a council model with representatives from member institutions, advisory input from bodies such as the Asian Development Bank and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and secretariat support often hosted by host institutions in cities like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Leadership roles have been filled by senior librarians affiliated with the National Diet Library, the Library of Congress, and the British Library who also participate in international summits such as the World Summit on the Information Society.
APLIN delivers professional development programs inspired by curricula at the Columbia University School of Library Service and the University College London Department of Information Studies, offering workshops on cataloging aligned with MARC and Resource Description and Access, digitization techniques drawing on the practices of the Gutenberg Project and the California Digital Library, and preservation training reflecting standards from the International Standard Organization committees. Services include a regional union catalog comparable to the OCLC WorldCat, regional bibliographic databases modeled after the China Academic Journals platform, and metadata harmonization efforts using frameworks developed by the Digital Public Library of America and the Open Archives Initiative.
Signature initiatives have included large-scale digitization of endangered manuscripts in partnership with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, collaborative preservation of audiovisual heritage following guidelines by the International Federation of Film Archives, and disaster preparedness programs coordinated with agencies like the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center. Research collaborations have produced studies on information literacy influenced by models from the American Library Association, open access advocacy aligned with the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, and multilingual thesauri development resonant with projects at the European Library.
APLIN maintains strategic ties with international organizations such as UNESCO, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, the World Bank, and regional bodies including the ASEAN University Network and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It collaborates with technology partners like Microsoft Research Asia, Google Books, and Amazon Web Services for digitization, storage, and discovery services, and with academic consortia including the Association of Research Libraries and the International Coalition of Library Consortia to negotiate licensing and promote open scholarship.
APLIN's impact includes enhanced cross-border access to rare collections held by institutions such as the National Archives of Japan, improved digitization workflows echoing standards from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and capacity building that influenced library education at universities like the University of Malaya and the University of the Philippines. Criticisms have centered on reliance on large technology vendors comparable to concerns raised about Google Books and Microsoft partnerships, uneven resource distribution among wealthy institutions (as debated in forums like the World Bank conferences), and challenges in aligning intellectual property norms across jurisdictions such as Japan, India, and China where national laws and treaties like the Berne Convention create complexity.
Category:Libraries in Asia-Pacific