Conference of Directors of National Libraries

About CDNL

CDNL is an independent association of chief executives of national libraries, established to facilitate discussion and promote understanding and cooperation on matters of common interest worldwide. CDNL meets annually, usually on the Wednesday of the week of the IFLA conference. The annual meeting is hosted by the National Library of the country which hosts the IFLA conference. The Chief Executive or Director of the national library of every country is a member of CDNL as of right. Members may be represented at the meeting by their deputies.
The Statutes and Rules of Procedure (revised August 2008)

CDNL Vision for the Global Digital Library

The world’s national libraries share a common mission of collecting, recording, organising, storing, preserving in perpetuity, and providing access to their nation’s cultural patrimony and intellectual output in documentary form.

CDNL's long-term vision is the development of a global distributed digital library - comprehensive, open, seamlessly-connected, and universally accessible on the internet - giving ready access to library materials in the collections of all the national libraries of the world in the interests of scholarly research, education and lifelong learning, innovation and economic development, and the promotion of international understanding.

A statement of the 'CDNL Vision for the Global Digital Library' was prepared in 2008 - a copy of the statement is available here CDNL Vision for the Global Digital Library .

2011 CDNL Annual Meeting Documents : Puerto Rico.

 
 

 Agenda

Minutes of 2010 annual Meeting
Report from Chair

Results: e-Legal Deposit Survey (English )

Results: e-Legal Deposit Survey (French )

Recovery of National Libraries from natural disasters

Address by the President of IFLA, Ellen Tise

Copyright and IP Issues - Trevor Clark- WIPO

Reports by discussion groups

  1. Literacy
  2. e-Legal Deposit
  3. Digitisation
Presentation from the 2012 host country - Finland
Photos from the CDNL Annual meeting 2011 in San Juan

Other CDNL Documents

Press Releases

Follow-up from the Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, August 2010


Selected photos from the CDNL Annual Meeting 2010 in Gothenburg - photos were taken by Ross Becker (New Zealand), Pavel Kiselev (Russia) and Karin Carlsson George (Sweden)

Contact

The CDNL Executive

  • Chair: Mr John Tsebe, National Librarian and CEO, National Library of South Africa

  • Vice Chair: Dame Lynne Brindley, CEO, The British Library

  • Vice Chair: Ms Ngian Lek Choh, Director, National Library of Singapore

  • Secretary : Ms Rachel More, Deputy Librarian, National Library of South Africa



    228 Proes Street
    Pretoria
    South Africa 0001
    Email : secretariat@cdnl.info

CDNL-L Discussion List

The CDNL List is used to distribute information and communicate with members of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries. The list is hosted by IFLANET. CDNL list is limited to members only and moderated by the CDNL Secretariat.

Members are encouraged to post matters of interest to the CDNL list at :cdnl-l@infoserv.inist.fr

Persons eligible may apply to join the list via the ‘subscribe’ function at http://infoserv.inist.fr/wwsympa.fcgi/info/cdnl-l.

History of CDNL


Image : 2008 meeting of CDNL was held in Québec, Canada during IFLA's 2008 World Library and Information Congress.


CDNL was set up in 1974 to discuss policies and carry out activities that could be performed most effectively by national libraries, on the understanding that its work would be coordinated with the IFLA section of National Libraries. It grew from a rather loose organization in the late 1970's to a much more structured body in the 1990's. Under the presidency of Marianne Scott, the National Librarian of Canada, CDNL established its present statutes and rules of procedure, which gave the organization a much clearer and stronger foundation for its activities. The statutes were revised again in 2008, to allow countries to nominate additional non-voting representatives from organisations having a status equivalent to national libraries.

Previous chairs and meeting venues:

Mr Guy Sylvestre, National Librarian, National Library of Canada (1974-78) Washington, 1974; Oslo, 1975; Lausanne, 1976; Brussels, 1977

Sir Harry Hookway, The Chief Executive, British Library (1978-84)
Strbské Pleso, 1978; Copenhagen, 1979; Manila, 1980; Leipzig, 1981; Montreal, 1982; Munich. 1983; Nairobi, 1984

Mr William Welsh, Deputy Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress(1984-88)
Washington, 1985; Tokyo,1986; London, 1987; Canberra, 1988

Ms Marianne Scott, National Library of Canada (1988-92)
Paris, 1989; Stockholm, 1990; Moscow, 1991; New Delhi, 1992

Mr Bendik Rugaas, National Library of Norway (1992-1996)
Barcelona 1993; Havana, 1994; Istanbul 1995; Beijing, 1996

Mr Peter Lor, National Library of South Africa (1996-2000)
Copenhagen, 1997; Amsterdam, 1998; Bangkok, 1999, Jerusalem, 2000

Ms Jan Fullerton, National Library of Australia (2000-2004)
Boston, 2001; Edinburgh, 2002; Berlin, 2003; Buenos Aires, 2004

Dr Celia Zaher, National Library of Brazil (2005-2006)
Oslo, 2005

Mr Erland Kolding Nielsen, Royal Library of Denmark
Acting Chair, Seoul, 2006

Ms Penny Carnaby, National Library of New Zealand (2006- 2010)
Durban, 2007; Québec City, 2008; Milan, 2009; Gothenburg, 2010

Mr John Tsebe, National Library of South Africa
San Juan, 2011

References

Scott, M., Conference of Directors of National Libraries: forum for discussion and action, Alexandria; 7 (1) 1995, p.37-46

Rugaas, B., Past, present and future relations between the IFLA Section of National Libraries and the Conference of Directors of National Libraries, IFLA Journal; 20 (2) 1994, p.141-44

Useful links

IFLA Section of National Libraries

The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, maintains a listing of national library websites and national library catalogues. This list is not compiled or maintained by CDNL and any enquiries about it should be addressed to the University of Queensland.

CDNL-AO: The Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania is CDNLAO. The annual meeting of CDNL-AO was held on 13 April 2010 at the National Library of Singapore. Papers from the meeting can be found on the website of CDNL-AO which is hosted by the National Diet Library, Tokyo, and can be accessed from the following URL: http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/cdnlao/index.html . Papers of CDNLAO (country reports, presentations, minutes, etc.) are carried on that website. The CDNLAO Newsletter is also integrated with the site; the URL is: http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/cdnlao/newsletter/index.html

ABINIA (Asociación de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica)

NatLib Africa. National Libraries of Africa.

CENL The Conference of European National Librarians.