Introducing applied information

• Characteristics of national libraries

  • Maintained out of government funds and serving the nation as a whole
  • Usually books are for reference only
  • Receive books through legal legislation
  • Function is to preserve and collect for fostering the published record of the country's cultural heritage, usually in printed form but increasingly in multimedia formats as well
  • Responsible for acquiring and conserving copies of all significant publications published in the country
  • Function as a "deposit" library either by law or under other arrangement
  • Produce a current & retrospective national bibliography
  • Maintain a collection of foreign sources including books about the country
  • Act as a national bibliographic information centre
  • Compile union catalogues
• The chief uses of the national library are other libraries which approach the national library are unable to meet the needs of their users
• National library


  • Assists in developing collections
  • Provides bibliographic checks
  • Provides resource classification
  • Preserves
  • Provides information and international mediation
• In most countries, the national library is accessible only to people living in or near the capital city and those who can afford to travel to it
• National library


  Serves the majority of the population indirectly through libraries and other institutions serving them
• Potential users of the national library

  • Primary and secondary school children
  • General public
  • Professionals
  • Advanced post graduate and researchers
• Main or essential functions of national libraries

  • Collect and conserve the national literature, aiming at complete coverage
  • Produce current national bibliography
  • Operate as a lending service
  • Act as a regional bibliographic information service
  • Publish and/or support the production of specialised bibliographies
• Desirable functions of national libraries

  • Act as a centre for research and development in library and information work
  • Provide education and training in library and information work
  • Act as a planning centre for the nation's libraries
• Possible functions of national libraries

  • Act as a centre for the exchange of material between libraries
  • Provide specialised library service to the country's governing body
  • Act as a book museum
• Collection development and management

  Linked to the function of collecting and conserving the nation's publication and foreign literature, as well as serving as a repository and exchange for publications
• Collecting the nation's publications

  • Achieved through legal deposit legislation requiring publishers to deposit free copies with national libraries
  • Collection should include printed documents, sound and video recordings, official documents, report literature, printed music, and ephemera
  • Importance of conservation of the collection for future use
• Universal availability of publications (UAP)


  Project undertaken by IFLA to ensure that all publications are universally available, with the national library undertaking to collect and preserve every item published in that country
• Collecting foreign publications


  • Major research libraries in a country acquire extensive collections of information sources to serve the basic needs of their users, but the primary users are only a small proportion of the population with access to these libraries
• Legal deposit


  A system that requires publishers to provide copies of their publications to a national library or other designated library
• The major research libraries (special and academic libraries) of a country acquire extensive collections of information sources in order to serve the basic needs of their users
• The primary users of these collections are only the small proportion of the population who has access to these libraries
• Ensuring access to these collections

  1. The country's national library should develop a central loan/photocopy collection of publications based on known and likely demands

  2. If a national library cannot build such a collection itself, it should at least supply the necessary infrastructure to permit access to these records in other libraries, for instance through interlending
• As all local libraries run short of space sooner or later, a great deal of material has to be weeded out of one library which may be needed by another library, whether in the country itself or in foreign countries
• Exchange and distribution of duplicates and other surplus material

  1. Among the most important activities of the national library

  2. Linked to preservation and interlibrary loan
• Care needs to be taken that at least one copy of every publication within the country is retained and preserved in order to ensure future availability
• Retention of withdrawn material


  Has little purpose if it is not closely linked to the interlending system
• Publishing the national bibliography

  The national library should make its complete collection of its own country's publications accessible by compiling and publishing an extensive current and retrospective national bibliography, thus exercising bibliographic control
• Bibliographic databases


  Used to provide access to information
• Records in bibliographic databases are used as entries
• Document delivery and access

  A major responsibility of a national library is to make the material in the library available to users
• Union catalogue


  A list containing the joint holdings of two or more collections, indicating the holdings of the participating institutions
• A national union catalogue lists documents that form part of the library stock