The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just announced an online database on “Vietnam, its land and people”. This project was developed for two years by the ministry’s Library Department (Ministry of Information, Sports and Tourism) in collaboration with leading experts, public and private libraries, publishing houses and other agencies.

Dr. Vu Duong Thuy Nga, Director of the Library Department, said that the database aims to provide information for studying and researching about the country and people of Vietnam.

The database comprises more than 100,000 bibliographic records, reflecting documents about the country and people of Vietnam, of which more than 5,000 digital documents and digitalised documents are available for viewing in full text.

This is a "source" for the Vietnamese as well as international friends who want to search and find out more about Vietnam and its people.

When introducing the database, Library director of the University of Home Affairs Pham Quang Quyen said that the database would be divided into valuable documents, books, newspapers, magazines, photos and video clips, providing an insight into Vietnam as well as its 63 cities and provinces, scenic destinations, famous people, tourist attractions and festivals

The database on “Vietnam, its land and people" was built and managed by DSPACE, an open source software programme which is free of charge and convenient to customize user display and metadata. It also allows users to configurate the list and search tool; verify user account, security. Moreover, this database is secure, compatible with many standards and supports for multilingual environments as well as cataloging according to Dublin Core standard....

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, after the announcement, the relevant units will collect comments from experts in the field of libraries and archives to complete and put the database into operation soon.