National Library sets sights on modern storehouse

Continued from 09-09-2007

The second instalment of the article starts with "strategic plan".

Strategic planing in is necessary for national libraries in the changing socio economic and political environment of the world. Everywhere in the world, national libraries have the problem of shortage of resources and maximising the available resources is a remedy.

However, as there isn't a strategic plan in respect of National Library and Documentation Centre of Sri Lanka it is recommended that one be established here too.

Friends of libraries

Friends of national libraries is an essential forum for the development of qualities of national library. One of the major aims of creating this forum is to get help from donors or lovers of books for the development activities of national library.

Exhibition corridor

National Libraries are the institutions which possess the most valuable heritages of the nations. Although Department of National Archives of Sri Lanka too has these resources, the number of people who visit National Archives Department is comparatively less. On account of this it is more practicable to exhibit nation's heritage through a corridor exhibition at the NLDC premises.

Centre for palm leaf

Palm leaves have been a major writing material of Sri Lanka since ancient times. The largest palm leaf collection is kept in the national museum library and the second largest one is at the University Library of Peradeniya.

The collection of the national library is third largest in the country. Some of these collections run risk of deterioration and decay due to lack of proper preservation system.

So it is necessary to form a center at national library premises for palm leaves collections of the country. This should be a collaborative project especially suitable to be done with National Museum library, and University of Peradeniya.

Collection Development policy

A collection development policy is an indispensable document of every national library. It will guide to develop national as well as special collections in any form of information source. It should be a result of a cooperative attempt of the national library.

For the preparation of a collection development policy it is advisable to appoint a committee including external members.

Risk management

There is a civil war in the country especially in the northern and eastern part of the country. Terrorist groups of the country have already attacked a number of public institutions in the country.

The National Library and Documentation Centre is situated in the heart of the Colombo city. Numbers of important institutions are situated very close to the national library building. Hence it is necessary to implement proper risk management system for the national library.

Performance indicators

It is necessary to introduce performance indicators to the National Library of Sri Lanka to evaluate core activities of the National Library and Documentation Centre.

National Library Fellowship

The National Library should form a fellowship with the collaboration of foreign partners with the aim of inviting a reputed professional from another country to undertake a research on national library collection.

Building of national collections

One of the major responsibilities of a national library is building of national collections in specific disciplines. Currently there are no complete national collection at the National Library and Documentation Centre except the legal deposit collection.

The cause of this being the short history of the National Library and Documentation. When the Museum Library was amalgamated with the NLDC, it will be possible to build new national collections and to complete the existing collections.

Special collections

Although the NLDC possessed certain special collections currently they are not completed. These special collections can be formed with special reference to culture and languages of the country. Apart from this it is possible to have collection of special form.

Collection of folk literature

One of the major responsibilities of national library is protection of national heritage for future generation. Folk literature exits in various forms such as written 'oral' etc. Collecting this folk literature itself is not an easy task for national library. So national library has to form a network of collecting folk literature through its provincial libraries.

Virtual reference desk

It is recommend to establish a virtual reference desk with the aim of helping people who are living in Sri Lanka or any other country. There should be facilities of submitting queries to the National Library and Documentation Centre via Internet.

Collection for Handicapped

As a heart of library system or a pioneer library, the national library has to provide right information to handicapped readers in the society. Handicapped population in Sri Lanka is increasing day by day due to terrorist activities of the country. So it is necessary to create a special section at the National Library and Documentation Centre for this disadvantaged groups.

In addition to the above proposal it is necessary to implement a collaborative programme with suitable partner in the information context. Most national libraries of the world have introduced new organisational plans based on collaboration suited to new information challenges which national libraries face.

There is no special section for library collaboration at the National Library and Documentation Centre at present. This is the time to introduce the concept of collaboration to the National Library of Sri Lanka.

by M. K. Weerasinghe, The writer is a Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Library and Information Science of the University of Kelaniya.