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Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes has its own unique and distinct features. Books have been written on these libraries describing
their historical background, growth and advancement in recent decades and their future
perspectives. The purpose of this unit is to enable the students to comprehend basic expressions.
At the end of this unit, you should be able to understand the concept, functions and descriptive
Account of a Few National Libraries.

9.1 Concept of a National Library

The concept of national libraries, as we know them today, has developed in about three centuries
back, mostly in industrially advanced countries of the West. The growth and advancement of
such libraries has been a conspicuous feature of the intellectual and cultural development of a
country. Not only have they grown in size, particularly in the last half a century, they have also
expanded in multi-fold dimensions, tending to develop into a network of national libraries.
There are, in some countries today, national subject libraries for medicine, agriculture, science
and technology, and for a few professional services like document supply, compilation and
production of national bibliographies. These trends are also witnessed on the Indian scene in
some measure.

9.1.1 Definition of National Library

A National Library keeps all documents of and about a nation under some legal provision and
thus represents publications of and about the whole nation.
Edition 6 of Harrods’s Librarians’ Glossary and Reference Book (1987) defines a National Library
as:

a library maintained out of government funds;
serving the nation as a whole;
books in such libraries being for reference only;
libraries are usually copyright libraries;

the function of such a library is to collect and preserve for posterity, the books, periodicals,
newspapers and other downbeats published in the country; and
being purchased books published in other countries.

The ALA Glossary of Library Terms, simply defines, the National Library As “a library
maintained by a Nation”.
One of the unique privileges of a National Library of a country is to receive by law all print and
non-print materials produced by the country. This provision is usually incorporated in the
Copyright Laws of the country, by which an author, an artist or a musician, has the exclusive
right, granted by law, for a certain number of years, to make and dispose copies of a literary,
musical or artistic work. These laws proved for the government to receive a few copies of print
and non-print materials which are usually deposited with the National few. Such legal privileges
are also obtained for the National Library of a country by special laws enacted for the purpose,
e.g.; the Delivery if Books and, Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act of the Government of India.
National libraries that enjoy this privilege are also known as Copyright or Legal Deposit
Libraries.
The UNESCO defines Libraries which, irrespective of their title, are responsible for:
Acquiring and conserving copies of all significant publications published in the country;

Functioning as a ‘depository’ library, whether by law or under other arrangements.

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