National Library of Namibia (NLN)

Overview

The National Library of Namibia (NLN) is the country's legal deposit and copyright library, situated in Windhoek. It belongs to the National Library and Archives Service under the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, and shares its current building with the National Archives of Namibia.

History

The institution was established in the Tintenpalast building in 1926 as the Legislative Assembly Library of South West Africa, incorporating items from the Bibliothek des Kaiserlichen Gouvernements (Library of the Imperial Government) dating to the German colonial period. It was renamed the South West Africa Administration Library in 1957, and in 1960 responsibility shifted from the Parliament of South Africa to the territorial government. In 1980, under the "AG-8" system of separate ethnic administrations, the library was closed and its collection placed in inaccessible storage by the Administration for Whites, causing lasting gaps in its holdings. It reopened in 1984 at Estorff House, becoming known as the Estorff Reference Library. Following Namibian independence in 1990, the library came under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and on April 1, 1994 it became the National Library of Namibia. On March 20, 2000, on the eve of the tenth independence anniversary, the library moved into its current building on Eugène Marais Street in downtown Windhoek.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The National Library holds the country's largest collection of Namibian publications, including newspapers dating to the early 1900s. It has served as Namibia's ISBN agency since receiving UNESCO authorization in 1991, and as ISSN agency since 2009, allocating both free of charge to Namibian publishers. Under the Namibia Library and Information Service Act 4 of 2000, publishers are legally required to deposit copies of every publication with the library.

Access and Usage

The library serves as Namibia's national bibliographic agency and as a centre for conservation of material relating to or originating from Namibia, providing information and research support services to the public.