By: Mr. Chea Chen
 

At the invitation of the Director’s Academic Library Club, Mr. Chea Chen and Ms. Seng Kannha, Library Assistants for the UC Toshu Fukami Library, attended the event entitled, “Best Practices of Libraries in Southeast Asia,” presented by John Hickok, Librarian from California State University, Long Beach. The event was held on June 8th, 2015, from 10:00 am to 11:30 am, at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia (PUC) Main Library. Around 20 librarians from both the private sector and government agencies participated in the event.

Mr. John Hickok presented an overview of the best practices of libraries in Southeast Asia which included Bangkok University Library (Thailand), Perak State Public Library (Malaysia), Gadjah Mada University Library (Indonesia), National University of Singapore Library (Singapore), and so on. The presentation showed that the most libraries in Southeast Asia were different from each other in terms of style, feature, size, equipment, design, as well as the management and operating systems, which highly depend on the economic circumstance of each university and/or country.

 

The purpose of the workshop was to showcase innovative library services from libraries all over Southeast Asia, with comparisons to USA libraries. During the workshop, we took notes on some key points in order to improve the library facilities at UC. Successful libraries should have pleanty of resources, a good environment, helpful services, facilities, and management. Additionally, the library should be easily accessable for students, teachers, the public, and outside researchers who are looking for other resources in supporting their research.

 

Finally, we have learned a lot from the workshop about how to improve the library through knowledge sharing with the best libraries in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, learning from the experience of others is a good practice for libraries in order to develop and progress.