DECREE

PROVIDING THE ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF PRIVATE LIBRARIES WITH COMMUNITY SERVICE

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents dated November 12, 1996 and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents dated December 16, 2002;

Pursuant to the Ordinance on Libraries dated December 28, 2000;

At the proposal of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism,

DECREE:

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GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of governing and subjects of application

1. This Decree provides the organization, operation, rights and obligations of the private libraries with community service (hereinafter referred to as the private libraries) and of the person whose name is stated in the establishment certificate of the private library; State policies and state management for private libraries.

2. This Decree applies to Vietnamese organizations and individuals residing domestically related to the private libraries.

The establishment of libraries of Vietnamese organizations shall comply with the provisions of the 2000 Ordinance on Libraries.

The establishment of libraries of the foreign organizations, individuals not for profit purposes shall comply with the provisions of the current law on the establishment and operation of foreign institutions of culture, education in Vietnam.

The establishment of libraries under the form of domestically-invested enterprises shall comply with the provisions of the Enterprise Law in 2005.

The establishment of libraries under the form of foreign-invested enterprises shall comply with the provisions of the 2005 Enterprise Law and Investment Law in 2005.

Article 2. Private libraries

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Private libraries have function of collection of books, newspapers and other types of documents (hereinafter referred to as the number of library documents) to serve the needs of education, entertainment, information, research of the public in the institutions.

Article 3. State policy

1. The State encourages the establishment of private libraries to serve the public broadly; respects and treats equally for the products and services of the private libraries.

2. Private libraries are enjoyed the preferential policies as stipulated in the Decree No.69/2008/ND-CP of May 30, 2008 on policy to encourage socialization for the activities in the fields of education, vocational training, health care, culture, sports, environment.

3. Private libraries are participated in the public services in the field of library funded, ordered by the State; are received books transferred from the public libraries of the state.

4. Those who work in the private libraries are free of charge to attend the classes training professional skills of library organized by the culture branch.

5. The State encourages and creates conditions for the private libraries to apply information technology into library operation.

6. The donated, or non-refundable aided assets during the operation of private libraries are not given to individuals, they are commonly used for the benefit of the community and institutions.

Chapter 2.

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Article 4. Name of the private library

1. Name of the library is given by one of the following bases:

a) The scope and contents of library activities;

b) Name of collection of library’s main documents;

c) Name of the person who established the library.

2. Name of the library is stated in the application for library’s operation and is recorded clearly in the certificate of operation registration of library. In the case the library’s name is added a foreign name, it must be recorded under the Vietnamese name; font size is smaller than Vietnamese font size.

3. Private library’s name is not coincided with the name of the other library operating in the area.

Article 5. Conditions of the establishment

Private library is established when meeting all the following conditions:

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2. There is an area meeting the requirements on preservation of documents and serving for the public with a number of seats for reading at least 10 seats, not affecting the order and traffic safety; ensuring environmental hygiene and cultural landscape.

3. There are enough means of fire prevention and fighting and other specialized equipment such as shelves, bookcase, tables, chairs for the readers; box of contents or list of library documents to lookup; depending on the specific conditions of the library, it can have the other modern equipment such as computers, telecommunications devices.

4. The persons who establish and persons who work in the libraries:

a) The persons who establish the libraries must be Vietnamese citizenship, full 18 years old or older; have adequate legal capacity and behavior capacity; knowledge of books and library areas.

b) Persons who work in the library:

- For the libraries specified at Point a, Clause 2, Article 6: people who work in the library must graduate from high school or higher degree and trained knowledge of library professional skill;

- For the libraries specified at Point b, Clause 2, Article 6: persons who work in the libraries must graduate from library intermediate degree or equivalent. If they have graduated from intermediate degree of other disciplines, they must be retrained professional knowledge equivalent to library intermediate degree;

- For the libraries specified at Point c, Clause 2, Article 6: persons who work in the libraries must graduate from BA degree in library - information. If they have graduated from BA degree of other disciplines, they must be retrained library professional knowledge equivalent to BA degree of library - information.

Article 6. Procedures for registration of operation of private libraries

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a) An application for registration of library operation (Form No.1);

b) A list of existing library documents (Form No.2);

c) The curriculum vitae of the person who establish the library certified by the People's Committee of commune, ward or township (hereinafter referred to as the commune level) where he/she resides;

d) Rules of library.

2. Dossier receiving agency and issue of certificate of operation registration of library:

Commune-level People's Committee or the Departments of Culture and Information of districts, towns and provincial cities (hereinafter referred to as the District level) or the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism are responsible for providing dossier; guiding procedures for registration of library’s operation.

Based on the initial number of documents of the library, the person who establishes the library shall send a registration dossier for operation to the competent authorities in accordance with provisions as follows:

a) The library that have initial number of books between 500 and less than 1,000 books shall send a set of dossier to the commune-level People's Committee, where the library is located;

b) The library that have initial number of books between 1,000 and less than 2,000 books shall send a set of dossier to the District-level Department of Culture and Information, where the library is located;

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After receiving the complete and valid dossier of the person who establishes the library, the dossier receiving agency shall issue a certificate of operation registration of library (Form No.3). In case of refusal, it must be issued written reply and stating clearly the reasons.

After being granted a certificate of operation registration of library, the person who establishes the library must fix sign and rules of the library in the library.

Article 7. Suspension of operation and revocation of operation registration certificate of library

Library violating one of the provisions in Clause 1 of Article 9 of this Decree will be suspended its operation and revoked operation registration certificate of library.

Agency granting Certificate of operation registration of library shall revoke the Certificate of operation registration of library in the case the library is suspended its operation.

Article 8. Operation of the library

1. Library development activity:

a) Professional activities of library: collection, selection and processing of technical documents;

b) Organization to serve people in the community using library’s documents in the form of reading on the spot or borrowing to take home in accordance with the rules of the library.

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3. Participation in building reading movement amongst people; create favorable conditions for the people to use library’s documents; setting up a team of collaborators for library.

Article 9. Prohibited acts

1. For libraries:

a) Storing the documents with content:

- Fighting against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; undermining the unity of the nation;

- Propagating violence, wars of aggression, sowing hatred among nations and peoples of the countries; spreading reactionary ideology and cultural products, pornographic, obscene lifestyle, crimes, social evils, superstition; destructing fine habits and customs of the people;

- Distorting history, denying revolutionary achievements, offending great people, national heroes, slandering, insulting the organization's reputation, honor, and dignity of citizens.

b) Taking advantage of library professional to spread the documents with content as specified in clause 1 of this Article.

2. For relevant individuals, state agencies:

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Chapter 3.

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF PRIVATE LIBRARIES AND OF PERSONS WHO ESTABLISH PRIVATE LIBRARIES

Article 10. Right of private libraries

1. To be collected documents to meet the needs of the readers by way of purchase, exchange, donation or bequest from oversea or domestic organizations and individuals; to be received books transferred from the public libraries of state and other forms as prescribed by law.

2. To be mobilized and used legal resources to support the activities of the library.

3. To be organized the service activities in accordance with the functions and tasks of the library and the provisions of law.

4. To be collected fee of library card, fee using library documents and other libraries’ services in accordance with the law provisions.

5. To be guided professional skill, expertise by the competent state agencies on culture and state public libraries.

6. To be participated in the international and domestic vocational organizations of library in accordance with the law profession.

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1. To abide by the guidelines and policies of the Party, the laws of the State in the field of library.

2. To implement the professional requirements on preservation and promotion of the value of library documents under the direction and guidance of the competent state management agencies of culture; to coordinate with the competent state agencies of culture and other libraries in the protection and promotion of library documents.

3. To perform regimes of statistic, information; report to the competent state management agencies of culture in accordance with the current provisions.

4. To implement the financial obligations and other obligations as prescribed by law.

Article 12. The rights and obligations of the persons who establish the private libraries

1. Rights of the persons who establish the library:

a) To have the right to split, merge, transform, dissolve libraries or change the operation contents registered;

b) To participate in activities of expertise, professional skills, socio-professional organizations in accordance with the law provisions.

2. Obligation of the persons who establish the library:

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b) To perform inspection and examination requirements of the competent state management agencies; to provide adequate and timely documentation related to the inspection and examination content and to take responsibility for the accuracy and truthfulness of the information and documentation provided as well;

c) When splitting, merging the libraries, the persons who establish the libraries must re-conduct the operation registration procedure of library; upon dissolution or change of the contents of operation registered, the persons who establish the libraries must send written notification to the agencies granting certificates of operation registration of libraries. For the libraries that have been dissolved, the persons who establish the libraries must return the certificates of operation registration for the agencies granting certificates;

d) To be responsible for ensuring that people who work in libraries are trained and retrained expertise, professional skill of library.

Chapter 4.

STATE MANAGEMENT FOR PRIVATE LABRARIES

Article 13. State management agencies for the private libraries

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is responsible before the Government for performing the state management for private libraries within the whole country.

People's Committees at all levels shall perform the state management for private libraries in the local scope.

Article 14. Contents of state management of the private libraries

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2. Promulgation of the policies, regimes to encourage socialization in accordance with the form of operation, requirement of the development of libraries in each period and each region.

3. Unified management of content, form and quality of the operation of the library as a basis for the implementation and monitoring, supervision of all levels, branches and the whole society.

4. Issue and revocation of certificates of operation registration of the libraries.

5. Inspection, examination of the implementation of the provisions of the State for the libraries; handling of the violations according to law provisions.

Article 15. Commendation and handling of violations

1. The persons who establish or work in the private libraries obtain achievement in construction and development of libraries, effective service of information needs, knowledge of the people at the grassroots level are rewarded in accordance with the law provisions.

2. Any person who violates the provisions of this Decree and other provisions of law relating to library, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, shall be disciplined, sanctioned administratively, or prosecuted criminal liability; if causing damage, they shall pay compensation in accordance with the law provisions.

Chapter 5.

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

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This Decree takes effect 45 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 17. Responsibility for implementation

The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the Governmental agencies and the Presidents of People's Committees of provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for the organization, guidance, and inspection of the implementation of this Decree.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT
PRIME MINISTER




Nguyen Tan Dung