Kia ora and greetings

The last three months have flown by and I wish everyone the very best for the last weeks of 2025.

Our region would  like to acknowledge two fantastic librarians from Asia -Oceania  Jayshree Mamtora and Jan Richards who were each awarded the IFLA Scroll of Appreciation (link to Honours and Awards at the IFLA WLIC 2025 Closing Session – IFLA | WLIC 2025 )at the Closing Ceremony for WLIC 2025. Jayshree and Jan live in Australia, I have had the privilege of being on the AO-RDC with Jayshree last term and seeing first-hand her mentoring skills and contributions to IFLA. Jan is now on the IFLA Governing Board and most recently I saw her in action as she facilitated the IFLA Impact training in New Zealand earlier this year (link to June newsletter: Now Available: IFLA Asia and Oceania Regional Newsletter – June 2025 – IFLA). Congratulations again to Jayshree and Jan on receiving the prestigious IFLA award.

In November, as Chair I was honoured to be asked to record a greeting for participants of the seminar “Participation of Libraries in the Implementation of the SDGs: International and National Experience hosted by the Seraly Kaniyev Research Library of the Kazakh National Women’s Pedagogical University, in Almaty in November. The library became a member of IFLA this year.

Later that month the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan and the Center for Islamic Civilization under the Cabinet of Ministers for the Republic of Uzbekistan held the International Congress ‘Spiritual Heritage and Enlightenment in Central Asia’ in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. As part of the Congress a conference “From Clay Tablets to Digital Archives” was held at the newly opened Centre for Islamic Civilisation. My colleague Piotr Lapo on the AO RDC was able to read a greeting from me at the conference. The National Library of Uzbekistan is a member of IFLA and thanks to Piotr I was able to ‘say’ a few words about the role IFLA plays in the preservation of cultural heritage and projects in Central Asia.

There is a CNN article here Inside Uzbekistan’s new multi-million-dollar cultural center | CNN and the Center website  Islamic Center an amazing building and collections.

Finally, in New Zealand I was thrilled to meet an NLB Singapore staff member Terence who was visiting one of our libraries as part of a group of leaders from Singapore Civil Service College (pictured) and, we had visitors at our main central library from Busan, Korea, site of WLIC 2026, always great to know colleagues are connecting and contributing.

With Terence Goh from NLB Singapore
With Terence Goh from NLB Singapore

This newsletter is packed with articles and news about the great work that has gone on in our region this quarter, thanks so much to our IFLA Regional Office and I hope you enjoy the newsletter. See you in 2026!

Contributed by Kim Taunga, Chair, Regional Division Committee for Asia and Oceania