National Library of South Africa

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The National Library of South Africa is the agency of the government of South Africa which maintains a national library of all published materials relating to the country.

[edit] History

[edit] Creation under the National Library Act

The National Library of South Africa's core national library functions are described in Section 4 subsection 1 of the National Library Act, No 92 of 1998, and cover the following broad areas:

to build up a complete collection of published documents emanating from or relating to South Africa;
to maintain and extend any other collections of published and unpublished documents with the emphasis on documents emanating from or relating to Southern Africa;
to promote the optimal management of collections of published documents held in South African libraries as a national resource; and to render a national bibliographic service and to act as the national bibliographic agency;
to promote optimal access to published documents, nationally and internationally;
to provide reference and information services, nationally and internationally;
to act as the national preservation library and to provide conservation services on a national basis;
to promote awareness and appreciation of the national published documentary heritage; and
to promote information awareness and information literacy.