COUNTRY REPORT
For the 16th Conference of Directors of
National Libraries in Asia and Oceania
( CDNLAO) October 20, .2008
2008 was a good year for Cambodian libraries and the National Library in
particular achieved some major milestones. We have received funding
from ANZ Royal Bank to provide an Information Literacy Program to
students on Saturdays. This is the first time the Library has been able to
open on Saturday, so this increases our opening hours for our customers.
We have also received funding from UNESCO to produce a National
Bibliography of Cambodia. Once completed, this bibliography will
provide access to more of Cambodia’s written cultural heritage for
Cambodian and international researchers.
Project Valease has provided funding to adapt and install a new integrated
library system ( PMB) at the National Library. This system has been
adapted to become Unicode compliant and so can be searched using
Khmer script. Eventually the OPAC will be available over the Internet.
National Library:
Organization structure
The National Library of Cambodia ( NLC) was established by Royal
Ordinance in 1921. In the centre of Phnom Penh and in French colonial
style architecture, the Library opened to public in 1924 with a collection of
2,879 volumes.
Today, NLC is under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.
The mission of the National library of Cambodia is to :
• Collect, preserve and provide access to the Nation’s documentary
heritage.
• Provide information and documents to support education,
government and research in Cambodia .
• Promote public library services and support the work of other
library.
• Coordinate resource-sharing and inter-library loan between all types
of libraries in Cambodia
Cambodia-1/7
National library is divided into the following sections :
• Administration
• Technical Services
• Reading Services
• Research and Reference
• Conservation and Bookbinding
• Lending Services
• Manuscripts