Need to build criteria and catalog of world knowledge elite bookcases

On September 15, in Hanoi, Knowledge Publishing House (Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations - Vietnam Union of Associations) organized the Workshop "Building criteria and catalog of the World Knowledge Essence bookcase".

Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations Pham Ngoc Linh spoke at the Workshop "Building criteria and catalog of the World's Knowledge Essence bookcase".

The workshop "Building criteria and catalog of the World's Knowledge Essence bookshelf" was attended by experts, scientists, translators and readers who have collaborated with Tri Thuc Publishing House for many years.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations Pham Ngoc Linh shared: Tri Thuc Publishing House is one of 57 publishing houses in our country and in fact, the field of science and technology books has been exploited by many publishers. Therefore, Tri Thuc Publishing House will have to face great competition, books must have their own characteristics, must create a difference.

The World's Quintessence of Knowledge Bookshelf is an initiative of the Tri Thuc Publishing House and this is also the bookshelf that creates the brand, prestige and scientific honor for the Tri Thuc Publishing House, for the team of scientific and technological intellectuals. With quality translated books in the fields of philosophy, economics, education, society... many books of the Tri Thuc Publishing House have resonated, been sought after by readers, and become valuable reference books in research and knowledge enhancement.

These works have brought the rich treasure of human knowledge closer to the Vietnamese public, contributing to popularizing knowledge to people in the process of integration with the contemporary world.

The goal of the World Knowledge Essence Bookcase is to gradually select, translate into Vietnamese and publish about 500 works of scientific, cultural and intellectual value of the world. The works in this “World Knowledge Essence Bookcase” have contributed and will contribute to popularizing the knowledge essence (in Vietnamese) to the academic community and to a wide range of interested readers, especially the young generation.

Director and Editor-in-Chief of Tri Thuc Publishing House Pham Thi Bich Hong said: Currently, the publishing house is implementing and maintaining the main bookcases, including: The World's Quintessence of Knowledge Bookcase; The New Knowledge Bookcase; The Sail Educational Psychology Bookcase; The General Knowledge Bookcase; The Biography Bookcase; The Contemporary Vietnam Bookcase. In addition, there are Phan Khoi Bookcase, Introductory Bookcase, the Pleasure of Thinking Bookcase and some other types of books.

By the end of the second quarter of 2023, 2,000 books had been published, including 72 books from the World Knowledge Essence Bookcase; about 500 books from the New Knowledge Bookcase and other bookcases of the publisher, the rest were books published in cooperation.

Sociologist Pham Bich San expressed that choosing the type of book that the publisher aims to target is a very important task because there are many books, but good books are few and good books that last a lifetime are even fewer. Therefore, among the countless books, choosing the type of books that society needs and the books that readers really need is extremely difficult.

To do this in practice, the head of the publishing house must have a clear orientation of the market and in the case of Tri Thuc Publishing House, it is also an orientation of introducing and opening up a very essential but not yet popular need. Then, there must be readers to choose good books, necessary for Vietnamese society and can be printed in the conditions of Vietnam, which are very different from the world...

Experts at the Workshop.

With his experience, Mr. Dang Vu Canh Linh, Vice Chairman of the Central Youth Union's Scientific Council, Director of the Youth Research Institute, shared that the construction of the World Knowledge Elite Bookcase of the Knowledge Publishing House needs to take scientific criteria as the basic foundation for research, deployment and implementation in the coming years. Over the years, the Knowledge Publishing House and the World Knowledge Elite Bookcase have partly defined their own brand and identity, leaving many impressions on readers and the public. However, the World Knowledge Elite Bookcase needs to continue to research and innovate content, methods and publishing processes to better serve readers.

To effectively select and identify published works, it is necessary to have a harmonious analysis of 3 dimensions: Ideas and directions of the publisher's leadership and the governing body; Opinions of the scientific council and expert advisory council; Analysis of the market and readers' needs.

Providing solutions, Mr. Dang Vu Canh Linh said that it is necessary to continuously innovate the content and communication methods of works in the World Knowledge Elite Bookcase, aiming for more interaction between readers and publishers. Continue to research online publishing forms to contribute to popularizing works, publisher brands and serving a larger number of readers in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution...

Meanwhile, Mr. Dinh Minh Tuan, Research Director of the Center for Market Solutions Research for Socio-Economic Issues, proposed criteria for building a list of elite books, including: Authors with important contributions belonging to economic schools and streams that are confirmed to be market-friendly; Works with general or introductory contributions by these authors or other authors who share the same thoughts and viewpoints... and have many contents and ideas that can help Vietnam build a complete market economy and integrate internationally.

At the Workshop, Chairman of the Vietnam Library Association Nguyen Huu Gioi proposed 5 recommendations on building and maintaining the world's intellectual elite bookcase of Tri Thuc Publishing House: Criteria for building the world's intellectual elite bookcase, it is necessary to research to select works written by saints/great men, outstanding heroes, outstanding people, eminent people or others who wrote about them (but the works must be good, objective, honest and very true about them).

The selection of works to be published in the World Knowledge Elite Bookshelf according to the above criteria requires a Selection and Appraisal Council consisting of great intellectuals, scientists and prestigious scholars in Vietnam.

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