National Library sets sights on modern storehouse

by M. K. Weerasinghe

The National library is a depository of human thoughts and culture of the nation and it represents the heartbeat of the society. The national libraries of the world also differ from society to society as well as from country to country. As such there is no universally accepted definition for the national library.

However the UNESCO definition of the national library covers the overall objectives of the national library.

"Libraries which, irrespective of their title, are responsible for acquiring and conserving copies of all significant publications published in the country and functioning as a deposit library, whether by law or under other arrangements.

They will also normally perform some of the following functions:produce a national bibliography, hold and keep up to data a large and representative collection of foreign Literature, including books about the country; act as a national bibliographical information centres; compile union catalogues; publish the retrospective national bibliography.

Libraries which may be called national but whose functions do not correspond to the above definitions should not be placed in the national libraries category".

National Library of Sri Lanka

The idea of a national library for Sri Lanka emerged in the 1950s. A number of prominent scholars and a number of commission reports urged the contemporary governments to consider the establishment of a national library and from 1950-1970 very important dialogues took place in this regard.

Among these, the Choksy Commission report on government services in 1955, the Kandiah Commission reports in 1958, the Brohier report in 1959 are very important.In the same year a UNESCO expert, Mrs. Evelin G. Evens visited to country and in her report she also emphasised the establishment of a national library.

As a result of recommendations of these reports and conferences the National Library Services Board was set up in 1970 by the parliamentary act on "Ceylon National Library Services Board Act No. 17 of 1970".

One of the main responsibilities of this Board as mentioned above was the establishment of a national library for Sri Lanka, Twenty two years after the establishment of the National Library Service Board in the country, the national library was inaugurated on 27th of April in 1990.

Although the National Library and Documentation Centre was established in 1990, its present organisational structure is based on outdated organisational model which was copied from a State corporation in 1970s.

As such it not suitable in the existing national library context and thus, time has arrived to introduce a new organisational structure for the National Library and Documentation Centre. Following suggestions are suitable for restructuring of the National Library and Documentation Centre.

Cultural National Library

National library is a cultural institution and its function is collecting and preserving things of cultural denominational value to each ethnic group of the country. Almost every country consists of different ethnic groups, and some countries have therefore established special national libraries known as Cultural National Library. National Library of Wales is a case in point.

In Sri Lanka majority of the population is Sinhalese and about 18% percent of population is Tamils. A majority of this 18% percent lives in Northern and Eastern provinces of the country, Tamils have their own specific language, religion, legal system as well as a culture. So it is necessary to create a cultural national library for Tamils who live in northern and eastern provinces. Jaffna public library can be converted as a national cultural library.

New Deposit Library

According to the legal deposit law of the country every publisher must send five copies of each publication free of charge to following deposit libraries: (1)- National Archives Department, Museum Library, University Library of Peradeniya National Library and Documentation Centre and the British Library (This copy also stored in the National Archives Department since 1993).

There is no logic whatsoever in establishing deposit libraries within a radius of one sq.k.m. in the city of Colombo when the other deposit library (which is the only other deposit library in whole of Sri Lanka) is located at Peradeniya 100 k.m. off Colombo, and Eastern and Northern provinces incidentally don't have a single deposit library for their readers.

Under these circumstances it is necessary to establish the proposed cultural national library for the benefit of people who reside in the North and East.

National Heritage Preservation Lab

It is necessary to establish a laboratory for the preservation of national heritage of the country. This centre should be located within National Library and Documentation Centre premises. This laboratory has to be funded by following three institutions: The National Archives Dept., The Museum Library and NLDC.

Amalgamated National Museum Collection

The national library of the country was formed in 1990 much later than the Museum library which started in 1877. Since the inception of the Museum Library it has performed duties of a modern national library.

At present the Museum the Museum Library has a number of excellent book collections of scholars. But due to unhealthy infrastructure facilities of the National Museum Library, it has become a disorganised collection of books which are in the process of decaying for want of a proper conservation system. Therefore it is recommended to amalgamate the National Museum Library with NLDC.

Memory of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a long history of more than 2500 years. With the introduction of Buddhism we received a writing tradition also, and as a result now we have a very rich culture of books. Most of these collections are kept in the National Archives, Museum Library and University Library of Peradeniya. So it is time to start a digitisation project named 'Memory of the Sri Lanka' based on historical and heritage collections.

(To be continued)

The writer is a Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Library and Information Science of the University of Kelaniya.