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NLSB’s 22nd anniversary:
Preserving country’s documentary heritage
G. D. AMARASIRI
National Library of Sri Lanka (NLSB) celebrates its 22nd anniversary
on April 27, 2012. The preliminary activities for the establishment of
the National Library of Sri Lanka were carried out during 1960s. Various
scholars and commissions pointed out the necessity of establishing a
national library for Sri Lanka during this period. The UNESCO was
enthusiastic about establishing national libraries in countries where
such libraries had not been established. By this time most countries of
the world had established national libraries in their countries.
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National Library of Sri Lanka. File photo |
An UNESCO consultant visited Sri Lanka during this period and engaged
in activities for setting up a national library. As a result of these
activities, Sri Lanka National Library Services Board was established in
1970 as a statutory body under the Education Ministry. The main
objective of this Board was to create a background for the establishment
of a national library for Sri Lanka. The Board devoted to achieve this
objective and as a result the National Library of Sri Lanka was opened
on April 27, 1990. The objective of the National Library of Sri Lanka is
to collect and preserve the published and unpublished documentary
heritage in Sri Lanka for the benefit of present and future generations.
This is the prime objective of a national library in any country of the
world.
The National Library is engaged in the task of collecting the
documentary heritage of the country through various methods such as
purchasing, legal deposit scheme and donations.
In addition, the recording of the documentary heritage of the country
or the bibliographical services, facilitating the information searching
of the readers or the documentation services are also maintained by the
national library. National Library of Sri Lanka consists of a number of
collections. Sri Lanka collections, foreign publications collections,
legal deposit collections, newspapers collection, government
publications collections, periodical collections, reference collections,
ola leaf collections, rare book collections, map collections, audio
visual collections, electronic media collections and library science
collections are the main collections. In addition, collections of
several scholars are deposited in the national library.
The National Library maintains services such as reference service,
inter library loan service, photocopy service, internet service, inquiry
service, etc. In addition, National Library maintains the Martin
Wickramasinghe Museum in which various items and books used by him and
books written by him are displayed, Dr. K. Jayathilaka collection has
also been set up.
In addition, National Library set up a China section in 2010 which
includes books on China and books in Chinese language.
Also, National Library implements programmes continuously to make
aware the readers and schoolchildren about resources and services of the
National Library. In this occasion in which National Library celebrates
its 22nd anniversary, I request the Sri Lankan community to make use of
the resources of the National Library to fulfill their information
needs.
The writer is a Director, National Library and Documentation
Services Board |
