National Library of Somalia Somali National Library SNL

History and Founding

The National Library of Somalia (Somali National Library, SNL) was established in 1975 in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. It was formally opened in 1976, initially operating from a temporary location with a collection of 4,000 volumes. In 1986, a purpose-built library building was inaugurated as part of the Mogadishu Cultural Center, which also housed the National Museum and National Theater. The library functioned as a public, academic, and research library under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education, with sections for general reading, government documents, Somali language development, and historical publications. By 1983, the collection had grown to approximately 7,000 books.

The Somali Civil War, which began in 1991, led to the looting, destruction, and closure of the library. Recovery efforts began in 2013 when the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies organized a shipment of 22,000 books from the United States. In December 2013, the Somali federal government launched a major project to rebuild the library with $1 million in funding. The library's current website is at snl.gov.so.

Collections and Context

Prior to the civil war, the SNL served as the coordinating hub for a cooperative network of Somali libraries, with a union catalog shared among university and ministry libraries. The library also played a role in supporting authors and publication following the adoption of the Somali written script in 1972. Restoration efforts aim to rebuild collections of books, manuscripts, periodicals, and audio-visual materials.