IFLA’s Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee (IFLA AO RDC) hosts a webinar titled “Northeast Asian libraries on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals”.

As part of its SDG webinar series organized by the IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee, focuses on the best practices by Northeast Asian libraries and librarians to support the UN SDGs. Through this program, IFLA Regional Division Committee for Asia and Oceania aims to inspire and encourage colleagues within the region to advance their efforts to bring the UN SDGs to fruition.

Theme: Libraries Serving People with Special Needs

Libraries in Northeast Asia are directly or indirectly involved in SDG-related activities, and some of them have shared their experiences through Library Map of the World-SDG Stories. This webinar specially focuses on Libraries serving people with special needs. Invited speakers from UN ESCAP, IFLA, national libraries, academic libraries and research institutions come together to share their perspectives and best practices in Northeast Asia libraries, with the aim to promote the libraries’ services for the groups with special needs within the region.

Opening Addresses

  • Ms. Ying Chen

Member, IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee

Deputy Director, National Library of China

Ying Chen is a member of IFLA Asia and Oceania Division, Deputy Director of the National Library of China and Vice President of the Library Society of China. She used to work in the Department of Mass Culture, Art Department, Culture and Science Department of the Ministry of Culture of China, and has an in-depth understanding of the current status and prospects of cultural development. She is in charge of the international affairs of the National Library of China, and has been actively participating in the international activities of the library community. She has close contacts with libraries in Asia and Oceania.

  • Winston Roberts

Chair, IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee

Senior Advisor, National Library of New Zealand

Winston Roberts is Chair of the Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee of IFLA and a member of the Regional Council of IFLA. At the National Library of New Zealand he advises on the Library’s international stakeholder relations. In 2003 and 2005 he was a member of the New Zealand delegation at the UN World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS). He is on the management committee of the Asia-Pacific regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), where he also convenes IFLA workshops on community access to information and digital information literacy. He promotes library sector activities supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Speakers

  • Ms. Aiko Akiyama

Social Affairs Officer, UN ESCAP

Topic: United Nations’ Ongoing Efforts on Information Accessibility

Aiko Akiyama is an expert on disability-inclusion at the United Nations Economic Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). She is instrumental in galvanizing voices of persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific and submitting the regional draft of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She has been leading the initiatives and programs of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities since 2002. She promotes disability-inclusive implementation of the SDGs and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the private sector’s engagement in disability-inclusion. She is from Japan and lives in Bangkok, Thailand.

  • Ms. Fan Hua

Deputy Director of the Research Institute, National Library of China

Topic: Library Services to People with Special Needs: Practices at the National Library of China

Fan Hua is an Associate Research Librarian, Deputy Director of Research Institute of the National Library of China (NLC). She has been working for 20 years at the National Library of China and successively worked in different aspects, such as reader service, reference service, activity organization, and coordination & management, etc. And she is focusing on reading service, knowledge organization and sharing, library business coordination and management. She used to lead the NLC Youth Project Research on Readers’ Behavior, and the compilation of NLC Work Manual.

  • Tina Yang

Member, IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee

Associate Librarian, Learning and Research Services, University of Hong Kong

  • Ms. Connie Kwong

Assistant Librarian (Special Education Needs Support) and Assistant Education Librarian, University of Hong Kong

Topic: Academic Library Services for SEN Students

Tina Yang is the Associate Librarian at the University of Hong Kong Libraries. In her current role, she provides strategic leadership in planning, promoting and delivering a wide range of learning and research services across the HKU Libraries network of seven libraries. She oversees a team of service-oriented and customer-centered subject librarians to integrate information services, collection development, library training, SEN support into various stages of teaching, learning and research process. She has been actively involved in IFLA since 2011 and now serves as a member of the Asia Oceania Regional Division Committee (2021-2023).

Connie Kwong is the Assistant Education Librarian and Assistant Librarian (Special Education Needs Support) at the University of Hong Kong Libraries. She previously worked in the lending services and learning environments. Now she liaises with the Faculty Members to develop the dynamic collection for education and conduct instructional activities. Since June 2022, she has been collaborating with the supporting units on campus to offer a variety of services to address the needs of the SEN students and provide accessible learning environments. She coordinates the SEN Support team to organise events to raise the SEN awareness of the University community.

  • Misako Nomura

Member, IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee

Board Member and Chief Secretariat, Assistive Technology Development Organization

Topic: Development of Accessible Educational Environment-Library Perspective

Misako Nomura is the Board Member and Chief Secretariat of Assistive Technology Development Organization (ATDO) in Japan. ATDO conducts research and development of assistive technology and universal design for people with print disabilities nationally and globally. Advocating for inclusive library services based on the SDG statement “No one is left behind.” Former Chair of IFLA Library Services to Persons with Special Needs Section. Currently Member of IFLA Regional Division Committee for Asia-Oceania, Secretary of Japan DAISY Consortium, Member of Japan Library Association’s Committee on Library Services for Persons with Disabilities, and Member of Duskin Leadership Training for Young Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific Committee.

  • Ms. Helen Chan

Chair, IFLA Profession Division Committee (Division F)

Topic: Professional Development for SEN Library Support Services

Helen Chan is the IFLA Professional Division Committee Chair (Division F), Chair of IFLA Action Plan Working Group, IFLA Professional Council Committee Member, and IFLA WLIC Sub-Committee Member 2022 & 2023. She was the IFLA Dynamic Unit and Impact Award (DUIA) Jury, IFLA Emerging Leaders Grants Assessor, IFLA WLIC 2022 Sub-Committee Member, and IFLA Section Review Committee Member in 2022. Starting from 2021, Helen is the Board Member of International Advisor, Journal of Librarianship & Information Science. Helen is the author of a best-selling book, Hong Kong School Libraries in the Reading 2.0 Era (in Chinese).

 

To attend the webinar, please kindly register through this link.

Read more about IFLA’s Asia-Oceania Regional Division Committee (IFLA AO RDC) here.