The National Library of Malaysia was established in Kuala Lumpur in 1972 to make library resources available to the general public and to act as a store for collections of national interest.
The award winning exterior design of the building was inspired by the Tengkolok (Malay headdress) while the decorative pattern on the roof tiles resembles the patterns found on the songket (traditional woven cloth).
The building is divided into four sections, the tallest of which extends to eleven floors including offices (some rented out to third parties), a gymnasium and badminton court, a cafeteria, auditorium, children’s theatre and exhibition hall. Facilities are supposed to be designed to be wheelchair friendly.
Only two of the floors are dedicated to books and materials which the public can borrow and most of these are located in the annexe building called Wisma Sejarah. The kids section is in the main building.
The library holds close to 5 million items, including books, publications, magazines, newspapers, and online materials. Books available for borrowing number over 500,000 and are in Malay, Chinese, Tamil and many other languages but over half are in English.
In addition to being the country’s flagship lending library, it also serves as a central depository for Malaysia’s historical memory and culture and holds an extensive Malaysiana collection of printed materials, special documents, film and audio files of national heritage value. The library has also acquired private collections of well known Malaysian figures comprising books, journals, articles, manuscripts, documents, photos, letters and so on.
Appreciation
Congratulations to Jolena-Journey, Typh8n, Syakireencra9, Adventurebuddy & Polskanuddin for the joint FTF
Thanks to Carlslundoglind for the Favourite Point given. Much Appreciated.
