Conference of Directors of National Libraries: Forum for Discussion and Action

Abstract

The Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) was set up in 1974 to discuss policies and to 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. Major projects have been concerned with such issues as the role of national libraries; machine-readable record transfer; financial management practices in national libraries; legal deposit and electronic publishing; a voucher system for international lending; and twinning of national libraries. Among its achievements have been the holding of an international conference on preservation; the creation of working groups on managing the preservation of serial literature, and on international lending of alternative format materials such as talking books; and the establishment of a Task Force on Issues Relating to Bibliographic Records. CDNL responded to the fire at the Library of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad in 1988, thus fulfilling one of its initial aims of simplifying cooperation among library directors. CDNL's membership stands at well over 100. Regional CDNLs have been formed in Southern Africa, Europe, Asia/Oceania and Latin America.