We are seeking qualified instructors for a UNESCO-funded workshop on digitizing, preserving, and promoting cultural heritage materials, scheduled for early November in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hosted by the Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture, the workshop is designed for the library, archive, and museum practitioners and will be held in English. Travel, lodging, and meals are fully covered.  

If you are interested, please contact me directly at winyuans@usc.edu, and I would be delighted to share details. Thank you for your consideration.

For those of us working across the Pacific Rim library community, this resonates more than it might first appear. Libraries too are custodians of disciplines of different kinds: intellectual, cultural, and technological. Like martial arts, they must constantly evolve without losing coherence or purpose. And whilst we are not as directly dependent on maintaining enough student numbers to feed ourselves, it is essential that we engage with our users to guarantee our funding support.

A Changing Landscape

AI luminaries, after a period of strong rhetoric about disruption, are now signalling that job losses may be lower than previously anticipated. Sam Altman, for instance, recently tempered earlier predictions of large-scale displacement and acknowledged that the ‘jobs apocalypse’ has not materialised (Time, 27 May). Studies from the United States in 2024-25 indicate that the AI revolution is more or less in step with previous revolutions, when it comes to impact on employment (The Budget Lab, Yale) This does not mean that we should be complacent, but it vindicates the notion that we need not catastrophise. There is plenty to do in our libraries, across the Pacific Rim, to ethically integrate AI, as we have integrated myriad new technologies in the past decades, empowering our users to navigate an information ecosystem that becomes ever richer and ever more complex. AI might add to the complexity, but it also holds the keys to enabling us to manage the challenges of this complexity where we are able to embed it responsibly in workflows, collections, and services.

Countless AI companies are emerging, whereas we see continued consolidation in academic publishing, illustrated by Wiley’s acquisition of Emerald, reminds us that structural change in the knowledge ecosystem continues apace. Our academic publishing partners understand that scholarly publishing is “a high-margin, recurring revenue stream”, like Matthew Kissner, Wiley President and CEO in the Financial Times. In a financially-pressurised higher education environment, can we justify our library subscription subsidizing high-margin commercial operation? On the one hand, the scale of research is increasing, output is growing and the burden of time on peer reviewers and editorial boards is growing. On the other, ownership of publishing outlets is concentrating; and the terms of access, reuse, and dissemination are being renegotiated in real time.

Taken together, these developments frame the question we should pose ourselves and all our stakeholders on how we, as a distributed community of libraries, exercise agency in shaping this future?

From Practice to Platform: Connecting to Progress

Our newly established Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are mechanisms to facilitate exchange and coordinated action in three areas identified by PRRLA members in discussions in 2025. This is where our work in PRRLA can help to tackle issues that feel timely and necessary to grapple with:

• AI
  We will explore how we are embedding AI responsibly across our institutions: sharing practices, interrogating risks, and identifying opportunities for cross-Pacific collaboration. This will help us build a collective intelligence, and accelerate our understanding of the opportunities available to us all to support our users. I look forward to guiding our conversations in this group as CUHK will chair this SIG initially.
• Digital Initiatives
  As this group begins convening, a key focus will be the Pacific Rim Library (PRL), one of our signature initiatives (more on PRL below). The group is led by UCLA. The question we have to tackle is not simply how to build digital collections, and not even how to share them, but how to connect them, activate them, and position them as shared infrastructure.
• Open Access (OA)
  Led by Tsinghua University Library, this group will connect regional conversations into a more coherent whole. If consolidation is reshaping the publishing landscape, then collaboration must be our response. By aligning efforts across the Pacific, we can strengthen our collective position and move toward a more open, transparent, and trustworthy information ecosystem. We will also continue to strive to make the system better value for money.

Collections as Living Practice

Returning to Ip Man, what struck me was not only the choreography, but the underlying discipline, the years of practice embedded in every movement by both the actors and their original inspiration.

In our own context, collections are often perceived as static assets. But they are, in fact, living expressions of knowledge systems.

At CUHK, we recently restored and shared archival footage of another Cantonese master of martial arts, one of Ip Man’s contemporaries. These videos of Master Wong Hon Fan (1915-74) are available on YouTube and complement the rich holdings in our CUHK Digital Repository in the Praying Mantis Master Wong Hon Fan Collection.

Libraries do more than preservation: we help activate knowledge, bringing cultural and scholarly resources back into circulation in ways that serve research, teaching, and public engagement simultaneously. Across PRRLA, we hold countless equivalents: materials that are all at once scholarly resources, cultural artefacts, and sources of inspiration. The opportunity before us is to make these collections more visible, more connected, and more usable across borders.

An Invitation to Participate

Finally, I would encourage colleagues to engage with the broader ecosystem in which PRRLA operates. Looking to the past, if you searched for “martial arts” historical content in our PRRLA Pacific Rim Library, hosted at UCLA, you would discover items from Hong Kong, from UC Irvine and from Singapore.

Looking to the future, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Hackathon may be an area we can engage between our libraries and our parent institutions. The 2026 edition of the Hackathon on Financial Health Frontiers is progressing (deadline for application now passed). As PRRLA is affiliated with APRU, this is an excellent opportunity for us to encourage our academic communities students and colleagues alike to engage with interdisciplinary challenges at scale from 2027 and beyond.

Learn more about the APRU 2026 Hackathon

A Collective Discipline

If there is a single thread connecting these reflections, it is this:

Discipline, whether in martial arts, scholarship, or librarianship, is both individual and collective. It is honed locally, but it gains meaning through exchange with the world, adaptation to the environment, and feeling a sense of shared purpose with a community.

PRRLA’s strength lies precisely in our ability to bring together diverse institutions, across geographies and traditions, to act with coherence where it matters most.

The time ahead is shaped by disruptive trends, but I believe it will be defined by how we respond together, rather than the disruption we face. The future looks bright: we have a committed Steering Committee and a dynamic and dedicated Secretariat in place for PRRLA. And we have this Discussion Board as a means to bring together conversations for our members.

I look forward to continuing this conversation with you.

>> BOOKINGS NOW OPEN!

>> Download the provisional programme.

Get ready for a bold new gathering designed for librarians who are shaping the future of User Experience in libraries in the Pacific region. UX in Libraries Pacific is an all-new, three-day conference bringing together practitioners, innovators, and curious first-timers from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and beyond, for an inspiring deep dive into UX Research & Design (also known as design thinking or service design).

Taking place in Brisbane, Australia on 2-4 November 2026 at the beautiful State Library Queensland, this event offers a dynamic mix of learning, doing, and connecting.

>> Please sign up to our mailing list for the latest updates.

FEES
*** EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT – LIMITED NUMBER AVAILABLE! ***
A 100 AUD discount on the main conference fee is available for the first 50 delegates to book their places, or until 23:59 AEST on 31 May 2026, whichever comes first.
After that, the regular cost of the conference is 1200 AUD* which includes all the conference sessions (Mon afternoon and all day Tue and Wed), the Monday evening social event, lunches on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Tuesday evening Gala Dinner.  Accommodation is not included. There is an additional charge of 275 AUD* for those wishing to attend the optional Monday morning pre-conference workshop (details further below) which includes a buffet lunch.
Please see our Cancellation Policy.
*GST not applicable.

CALL FOR PAPERS & THEME
We invite proposals which explore how UX Research & Design can transform services in academic and public libraries, under the theme ‘Opportunity and Inspiration’. Find out more about our Call for Papers.

For further details, please visit https://uxlib.org/uxlibspacific/. Thank you. 

IFLA Series Publication: Automated Collection Storage Facilities
Call for Authors

To be published by de Gruyter as a volume in the IFLA series

Abstracts (150 to 250 words, . doc or.pdf format): Monday 11th May 2026; notification to authors by the end of May
First chapter drafts: Autumn 2026
Final manuscript compiled: May 2027
Anticipated publication date: early in 2028
Edited by: Linda MacMillan, National Library of Scotland; Benjamin Meunier, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Library; and Ulrich Niederer, Cooperative Storage Library Switzerland

Background
There is an increasing trend, particularly amongst libraries with large and growing print collections, to adopt automated, high density storage technologies when building new collection storage facilities. This trend has created widespread interest in the decision-making and project delivery for such facilities, along risks, opportunities and lessons learnt.
This publication aims to be a valuable resource for library decision makers and project planners considering the construction of an automated collection storage facility.
The book will comprise overview chapters, case studies and focused topic chapters, drawing on examples from all five continents, and of all types of libraries, i.e. national, university, and public libraries.

The call
We are seeking original contributions from authors who either
have experience of delivering an automated storage facility project that is in development or has been recently completed.
or
have knowledge of a relevant topic area.
All articles must be written in English

Case studies and articles on relevant topics
We are particularly interested in understanding where relevant:

1.The decision making / options appraisal / design evaluation journey that led to adopting the chosen automated storage solution, (including reasoning for rejected options),
2.Cost influence,
3.Off-site or on-site. Transport and delivery implications,
4.The timeline from the identification of a need to handover and day to day operations,
5.If the facility is single use or a cooperative approach, incorporating several libraries? If co-operative what agreement / partnership model was used and how was this developed,
6.Types of holdings stored. Treatment of oversized material?
7.The collections use that the facility is / was designed for e.g. low v frequent use. Has this changed over time? Consequences?
8.Building construction, e.g. lightweight verses high thermal mass,
9.Sustainability strategy including any standards applied such as BREAM, LEED etc,
10.Environmental control strategy
11.Fire protection strategy
12.Physical security strategy
13.Cyber security strategy,
14.Cleaning and maintenance approach,
15.Design of the storage area, automation system including e.g. size and types of containers,
16.Operation: use of a dedicated warehouse management system (WMS) v the existing library management system,
17.Orders? Transport?
18.Integrated pest management: what measures? Before or during first ingestion? During operation,
19.Preservation / conservation considerations.
20.Pre-ingest work required for the holdings e.g. metadata, cleaning, quarantine, etc and timescale,
21.Initial ingest process and timescales
22.Business Continuity Planning
23.Stakeholder / Public engagement,
24.Lessons learned

Each case study should include photographs, illustrations and tables as necessary to give a clear picture of the facility, plus a summary of key facts which will allow easy orientation and comparison

Responding to the call
If you would like to contribute, please send an abstract (150 to 250 words; .doc or .pdf format) to the editors
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the editors:
Linda MacMillan: L.MacMillan@nls.uk
Benjamin Meunier: benjamin.meunier@cuhk.edu.hk
Ulrich Niederer: Ulrich_niederer@bluewin.ch

Call for Proposals

Satellite Meeting: Transforming Social Connections through Libraries

Friday, 7 August 2026

Hosted by: Seoul Metropolitan Library, 110, Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in partnership with the following IFLA Sections:

• Statistics and Evaluation
• Metropolitan Libraries
• Library Design

Ahead of IFLA’s World Library & Information Congress (WLIC) 2026 in Busan, Republic of Korea, a one-day satellite is planned in Seoul.

The Satellite will offer a stimulating program and creative format, including keynotes, panels, ignite talks and learning circles. Our host will deliver a policy case presentation on the Seoul Outdoor Library. They will also organize a social event: Reading Party with Bookbogo (a group reading session with light refreshments). 

Potential delegates are invited to submit a proposal for a 5-minute Ignite Talk or 4-minute Learning Circle Talk.

Some suggested topics to get you started:

• How do libraries foster and transform social connections through programming, space, and services?
• Designing library spaces, services and/or programmes
• Assessing library spaces, services, and programmes
• Communicating the impact and value of libraries
• Meeting today’s needs and preparing for the technological future
• Challenges and opportunities in transforming social connections
• Future-proofing our workforce – what will be the “right” workforce for the future, and what types of leaders are required?

For more information, please visit https://2026.ifla.org/transforming-social-connections-through-libraries/. Thank you.

For more details, please refer to their website.

Thanks to the Secretariat for setting up this Members' Discussion Board! Looking forward to the conversations.