Facilities                   Established    Administration & Staffing
         Membership & Services                       Collection & Computers
 

Facilities: The Nepal National Library occupies nine rooms of a large government building, formerly an historic palace. The library is in one of many government buildings located in Lalitpur in the Patan area of the Kathmandu Valley. The library is on the second floor of the building, which surrounds a large courtyard. Windows and balconies open up to the courtyard. One public  library  in each of four regions in Nepal is affiliated with the NNL.

Established:

• In 1957, by government decree.
• The core of the collection (43,000 books and periodicals) came from the personal library of Pandit Hem Raj Pandey, which had been purchased for the nation in the previous year.

Administration & Staffing: Chief Librarian:  Dasharath Thapa. Appointed in 1998. According to the chief librarian, there are 27 library employees, including: 3 professional librarians (including the Chief) 13 para-professional library clerks 6 administrative assistance 5 maintenance workers

Membership & Services: Primary function of the library is to collect all  materials and documents published in Nepal and to organize and preserve those collections. The library assists other public libraries in Nepal, and distributes donated materials, primarily resources made available by UNESCO. Literacy is promoted through a network of mobile libraries. Membership and borrowing from the library was suspended in 1981. Materials may be used in-house only. Interlibrary loans are the exception; items requested for serious research purposed may be loaned to other institutions in Nepal and world-wide. Visitors to the library are asked to sign in as they enter. The library is open Monday through Friday from 0900 to 1700 in the summer and 0900 to 1600 in the winter.

The library is used by the general public, by government officials, by teachers, students and by children. A small children's collection was established in August of 1995. School classes often visit the library on Friday afternoons. Publishing of a National Union Catalogue and List of Serials is an undertaking of the NNL, with assistance from UNESCO and DANIDA, a Danish aid organization.  Nepali literary works and books for children have also been published, through the Basic and Primary Education Project, a World Bank initiative.

Collection & Computers:

• Funding from UNESCO has enabled the library to create an electronic catalogue, using Isis software,  of their holdings in Nepali. A card catalogue is used to access the library's foreign language holdings.
• There are approximately 75,000 books and periodicals in the NNL collection. Books in Nepali, Sanskrit, English and Hindi and other languages are collected. (Source: NNL News: The newsletter of the Nepal National Library (1996), issue no. 1).
• The children's collection numbers approximately 1200 items.
• CD-ROMs, audio and video cassettes are available for in-house use.
• A computer is available for public access to the Internet, at a charge of 3 rupees/minute (or the equivalent of approximately $.75 Canadian for 30 minutes).