PERPUN started out as the Standing Conference of National and Academic Libraries in Malaysia and Singapore or SCONALMAS. But the name was changed to the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL). The Malay equivalent of SCONUL became more popular and up till now, this group of librarians is known as Persidangan Pustakawan Universiti dan Negara or simply PERPUN. The members of PERPUN then were the libraries of Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia (PNM), University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Till today, the name remains and PERPUN now has as its members 20 public universities, the National Library of Malaysia and five government-linked companies or GLC university libraries bringing the total number to 26 members (Table 1).
Table 1: PERPUN members
| No. | Members | Year of establishment of university | Type of university |
| 1 | Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia | 1972 | National library |
| 2 | Library, Universiti Malaya (UM) |
1961 | Public |
| 3 | Hamzah Sendut Library, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) |
1969 | Public |
| 4 | Tun Seri Lanang Library, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) |
1970 | Public |
| 5 | Sultan Abdul Samad Library, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) |
1971 | Public |
| 6 | Sultanah Zanariah Library, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) |
1975 | Public |
| 7 | Library, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) |
1983 | Public |
| 8 | Sultanah Bahiyah Library, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) |
1984 | Public |
| 9 | Center for Academic Information Services, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) |
1992 | Public |
| 10 | Library, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) |
1994 | Public |
| 11 | Siti Hasmah Digital Library, Multimedia University (MMU) |
1996 | GLC |
| 12 | Tuanku Bainun Library, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) |
1997 | Public |
| 13 | Library, Universiti Tenaga Malaysia (UNITEN) |
1997 | GLC |
| 14 | Information Resource Centre, Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) |
1997 | GLC |
| 15 | Library, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) |
1998 | Public |
| 16 | Tun Abdul Razak Library, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) |
1999 | Public |
| 17 | Sultanah Nur Zahirah Library, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) |
1999 | Public |
| 18 | Tunku Tun Aminah Library, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) |
2000 | Public |
| 19 | Library, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTEM) |
2000 | Public |
| 20 | Library, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) |
2001 | Public |
| 21 | Library, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMaP) |
2001 | Public |
| 22 | Tan Sri Dr Abdulah Sanusi Digital Library, Open University Malaysia (OUM) |
2001 | GLC |
| 23 | Library and Resource Centre, Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) |
2002 | GLC |
| 24 | Library, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) |
2005 | Public |
| 25 | Library, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) |
2006 | Public |
| 26 | General Tun Ibrahim Library, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) |
2006 | Public |
PERPUN meets regularly to discuss various issues of common interest to the member libraries. It includes the establishment of electronic library network between university libraries, current information services, subscription of databases and publication delivery services between Malaysian academic libraries. They meet every quarterly with each library taking turns to host the meetings.
Since 2005, PERPUN has actively produced a number of projects which benefits the Malaysian students and scholars. Among the projects are: Malaysian Theses Online (MyTO), Inter Library Loan (MyUShare), Malaysian Academic Repository (MALRep) and Malaysian Academic Library Union Catalog (MALCat).
Within PERPUN, there are ten Special Interest Groups (SIGs) serving the specific needs of the member libraries. Each SIG is headed by a member library (Table 2) and they hold scheduled meetings to share knowledge and experiences. Membership of these SIGs are not confined to PERPUN members only but is opened to any library or information centre that has an interest in the group.
Table 2: SIGs in PERPUN
| No. | Special Interest Group | Chair |
| 1 | Acquisitions | UMK |
| 2 | Architecture | UiTM |
| 3 | Engineering | UniMAP |
| 4 | Islam | USIM |
| 5 | Key Performance Indicators | UTM |
| 6 | Law Librarians’ Group | UM |
| 7 | Malaysian Online E-Resources Consortium (MOLEC) | UM |
| 8 | Malaysian Information System Librarians (MySyL) | UPSI |
| 9 | Medical Librarians’ Group | UKM |
| 10 | Metadata | UTEM |
MyUniNet
This acronym stands for the Malaysian University Libraries & National Library Network and is now the name for PERPUN’s official portal.