Currently, the information-library facilities in most of Vietnam's universities are still in the early stages of the computerization process. In most libraries, the tasks like technical processing and servicing have not changed much in years. They are still manual, passive and closed in the administrative management. Very few services are provided and most of them are the traditional functions of the library of the past.

Compared with other libraries, those in the universities and research institutes have more acquisitions and are better organized. However, they are not good enough to be compared with those in countries in the region like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore... especially in the field of modern technology application. This can be seen clearly in a number of areas: the database development, the quantity and quality of the computer equipment used, the bibliographic data interchange among domestic libraries and with international libraries.

The need to develop a database to computerize the circulation system has been advanced recently by some libraries in Vietnam and it has been carried out in different forms and models. Most libraries use the CDS/ISIS system (developed by UNESCO for developing countries) with different versions to build a bibliographic database for their collections. This is a very important start in the process to automate all library operations, which can contribute to helping readers locate the wanted library items. However, the CDS/ISIS software does have some disadvantages, for example:

• It is difficult for users. It has an unfriendly user interface. Users must be well-trained in order to be able to use it.

• It does not belong to the standard client/server Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). It can not directly exchange data with other relational databases of different types. This makes it difficult to exchange items among libraries and/or to coordinate among sections in a library.

• It can not manage the published issues using modern technology in the time of wide-distributing information (electronic newspaper, magazines, etc.)

In the area of computer equipment, generally, each library has a few personal computers that are used mainly for administrative purposes. In only a few places, are computers used to help readers in circulation. Very few libraries have computer networks and, if they do, they are simple local area networks with an Intel-based server containing common files. There is absolutely no network among university libraries.

Poverty in infrastructure and database organization is the most important reason for this situation. There is little bibliographic information exchange among libraries in universities and institutes, even in a city like Hanoi. And the exchange of data with countries in the region and in the world is really impossible.

The Library and Information Center of the Vietnam National University was established in February 1997 from the libraries of 3 members of VNU -- Hanoi University, Hanoi Teacher's College, and Hanoi College for Training Teachers of Foreign Languages. It was at a low level of development in Information Technology (IT). Of the more than 600,000 items, there were only about 15,000 records in the database. The quality of the information in the database was also a problem. For many years, the finances for the annual acquisition of new materials has been just sufficient for domestic educational books and reference materials. Most foreign books and magazines are old. They were acquired in the early 1980s or even before 1980. Consequently, libraries have failed to fulfill one of the most important functions of a university library - the provision of up-to-date scientific information for teachers, researchers, and students in their last year at the university.

2. MAIN DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPUTERIZING LIBRARY INFORMATION SERVICES AT THE LIC

In the new development stage of Vietnam, knowledge and information are becoming more and more important resources - one of the main motives for the economic development. VNU, one of the leading multi-faculty research and training centers in Vietnam, bears a heavy responsibility in developing human resources for the nation. The Library is the key to knowledge. The Library and Information Center, VNU, therefore, is facing great demands and challenges.

Being aware of the importance of the Information-Library in teaching and education, the leaders of VNU have paid attention to the LIC since it was established. The Center has received excellent start-up financial support (350,000 USD in the fiscal year 1997 and estimated to reach 600,000 USD in the fiscal year 1998). It is essential for the Center to choose the correct direction to develop in to make the most of the university's investment and to build a modern Library and Information Center to meet the immediate and long-term demands of the students, faculty and researchers.

The main duties of any library and information center are: selecting, acquiring, organizing and classifying the knowledge and information items in any format (books, magazines, audio and video records, computer files, etc.) in order to provide users with abundant information services. Formerly, the main operations of a traditional library were manual ones to circulate publishing issues. The recent rapid development of information technology has caused revolutionary changes in publishing, issuing and exchanging information. Together with "database" and "multimedia reading room", the terms "electronic books" and "virtual library" have become familiar.

Automation of technical processes and user services is in just the early stages of the development process to create a modern library. The global computer network to provide access for on-line bibliographic information searching and the full-text delivery of requests will gradually changing the way work is performed in a library.

The most important advantage which the "information age" has made for the Library might be the following: the information that a library can provide is not limited to the items that the library has physically. In other words, patrons from a library, can access any modern library in the world through the World Wide Web.

This situation has provided the LIC with great challenges as well as favorable opportunities for development. The distance between the leading libraries in the region as well as in the world is step by step shortened, and the center is taking steps to integrate into the global library system.

The Master Plan for the operations of the LIC is defined by the Center's Board in following areas:

Based on the guidelines defined above and with a small initial investment, the LIC has done the following things in its first year of existence:

Complete the first phase of setting up the computer system.

At the Thuong Dinh area (the location of the branch library for the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and temporarily the headquarters of the LIC), a complete LAN (with 1 HP NetServer and 20 PCs) was built. All the departments for technical processing and circulation were equipped with computers which were connected to the main server in a hierarchical network. A multimedia service room was set up here with 8 networked multimedia PCs and other modern audio-video equipment. At each site of the other branches of LIC (College for Teacher Training, College of Foreign Languages, resident district for students at Me Tri) 4-6 PCs were provided which were connected together to form peer-to-peer networks.

Centralize the technical processing works.

As mentioned above, the LIC was formed from the merger of the library facilities of three initial member university and colleges (University of Hanoi, Hanoi Teacher College, Hanoi College for Training Teachers of Foreign Languages). At this time each individual library has its own book collections and its own circulation system. Technical processing (acquisitions, cataloging and classification) is carried out separately and under different rules and procedures, especially those dealing with cataloging and classification. In order to form a unified database of materials for the whole VNU and to avoid wasting money and human resources from the duplication of work, LIC will centralized the departments dedicated to acquisitions, cataloging and classification which are responsible for the technical processing of all materials for the LIC before they are moved to the book stacks at each branch.

Form an integrated database system based on a standard client/server Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

Before the foundation of the LIC, a considerable number of bibliographic records of materials (about 15,000 records) were stored in the separate databases of the member libraries. These records were stored and managed by CDS/ISIS - the most popular library database management system in Vietnam until recent time. This software has made a major contribution to the use of computers in library activities by helping users to find out the bibliographic information much faster than by the traditional methods. But now CDS/ISIS can not meet the needs of the client/server RDBMS, which can operate robustly and reliably in the local area network (LAN) as well as in the wide area network (WAN) environments and can be easily integrated with other latest information technologies (e.g. Internet technologies).

The LAN built at Thuong Dinh area is using MS Windows NT 4.0 as the network operating system installed on a HP NetServer LD with the Intel Pentium Pro 200 processor. This configuration is acceptable for the first period when the size of the database of LIC is not very big. The RDBMS Microsoft's SQL Server 6.5 is chosen as the basic platform for all main applications of the LIC for the time being. The reasons for this choice are: the MS SQL Server can operate perfectly in the Windows NT environment, it is capable of managing medium-sized databases and it is able to be well integrated with the Microsoft Webserver software IIS (Internet Information Server) to provide the information services for a broad range of patrons using Web browsers.

On the issue of the structure of bibliographic records, the data structure remains the one used in CDS/ISIS, since the new standard form for the input sheet is still not defined. A program for converting the existing records from CDS/ISIS into the format for MS SQL Server has been written to be able to use the records created before. Taking into account the needs of exchanging library information with some other libraries whose databases are managed by CDS/ISIS, LIC has also developed another utility for converting the available data from the format of MS SQL into the CDS/ISIS format.

Outline the total design and complete some basic modules of the LICs integrated library software.

All activities of a library and information center, i.e., acquisitions, cataloging, classification, circulation and other administrative management works have close relations to each other, with respect to their functionalities and common data. Therefore, the LIC needs an integrated library program system. An alternative such as purchasing off-shore software from a foreign company can be considered. But besides the advantages which a professional product from abroad can offer, some real disadvantages are clear: high initial cost, a product not quite suitable for the current development of the LIC and dependence on a foreign provider for the maintenance and upgrades. These are the main reasons that the LIC decided to work with a local Vietnamese software company to write integrated library software. Up to now, a total design has been defined and the first version of some of the basic modules are already available to help the main activities of technical processing and information services in the LIC. The activities available include patron identification cards, registration of materials, cataloging, classification, management of reading rooms and circulation. The principal data is stored and managed by MS SQL Server 6.5. The graphical user interfaces are running on the MS Windows PC.

Set up the LICs own Website

An electronic bulletin board has been set up in order to inform about highlighted activities at the Vietnam National University especially those activities and services provided by the LIC. The electronic bulletin board is based on Microsoft's Webserver software Internet Information Server 3.0 and it runs on a NT server machine. The content of the electronic bulletin board is updated regularly and offers Web-based information services to the remote patrons who can access the Website over telephone lines.

Offer Multimedia services

Set up some open stacks.

In order to enable patrons to directly access the materials they need, some open stacks have been set up at the Thuong Dinh area (the branch library of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities). The open stack area includes the American Collection Room, the Reference Room and the Periodicals Room.

4. MAIN GOALS OF THE LIC TO THE YEAR 2000