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No. 76, March 2013

Introduction

The National Library of Bhutan was established in 1967 with the main objective of collecting and preserving ancient Bhutanese and Tibetan Literature and religious, cultural, historical and traditional scriptures of Bhutan. Since then, the National Library has been endeavoring to build a comprehensive collection of both national and foreign materials while continuing to remain faithful to its primary mission.

Entrance to the Four Storied Building (Choekey Section)

The library tries to acquire a wide range of materials in various formats that are suitable for National library usage and their cost effectiveness. Factors, such as individual merit of each item, popular demand of the materials, existing library holdings and the library budget are taken into consideration during acquisition. Materials that cannot be obtained through Legal Deposit Act (hereafter referred to as “LDA”) and donation are purchased based on the availability of the fund and on the needs of the users.
The all of the collections of the National Library of Bhutan acquired by donation, LDA or purchase is essential for its scholars, students and public in Bhutan. Most of the literatures are in English, but there is also number of volumes in Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan, literature. Among other challenges, a few pressing constraints faced by the National Library are insufficient manpower and limited budget to buy library materials.
Today, the National Library consists of two sections, namely, the Choekey/Dzongkha Collection Section and the English/Foreign Collection section. Both these sections comprise of print and non-print materials on diverse subjects with emphasis on published works and manuscripts produced in Bhutan or outside publications on Bhutan.

Foreign and English Collection Section and new library administrative building

1. Dzongkha/Choekay or Classical Collection

This section of collection comprises of:

• Choekey/Dzongkha or Classical Collections
• Rare Manuscripts
• Manuscript written in Classical Choekay script
• Manuscripts in Tibetan scripts
• Books in Choekay script
• Books in Tibetan script
• Books in Dzongkha
• Chokey/Sanskrit Books

The above collections are classified and cataloged according to its subjects and assigned to respective shelves for the users to locate it easily.

This section also has a collection of wood blocks which is a unique feature of the National Library of Bhutan. At present the Library has about 10,040 blocks in its possession and these are used to print some of the rare manuscripts as when required.

Wood-blocks in cases

2. English/Foreign Language Collections

The English/Foreign Collection Section consists of:

• Newspaper collection
• Legal deposit collection (Books and documents under LDA)
• Main collection (General)
• General Reference Collection
• Donations.

The above categories of materials are briefly described below.

2-1 Newspapers

In the English/Foreign Language Collections Section, the library has access to current national newspapers which are received under the LDA. International newspapers and journals are received on a non-regular basis as donation. The national newspapers received under the LDA are bound at the end of every year for future reference.

Bound newspapers

2-2 Books and Government Documents through LDA

The library maintains different records for the books received under the LDA and are housed in the Bhutanese Publication section.
Under the LDA, each and every publisher and author is required to deliver, free of cost, four copies of materials, if printed, and two copies of materials if non-printed to the National Library of Bhutan within three months of its publication or production. Under the same Act, any materials published by government or government-owned organizations, 10 copies of printed materials and 5 copies of non-printed materials are required to be deposited to the Library.

While Government documents, particularly annual report are widely distributed, many are difficult to obtain. One reason is that number of copies published is usually small. The other reason is some of the books brought out by the authors and publishers are hard to locate. Therefore, the existence of this law does not guarantee the deposit of materials to the library. A greater coordination of effort at the national level and cooperation from the authors and publishers will definitely help to improve overall provisions.

2-3 General Collection

In addition to other collections in the general section, the library also has materials on European languages, the Pali Tripitkika in Thai and Burmese scripts. The National Library also has microfilms and video archives.

2-4 Reference Collection

This collection includes encyclopedia, dictionaries and items that are in high demand.

2-5 Donations

The library also has the books and other materials received through donations and keep the record of each donor’s name, the date, individual honored, and the nature of gift.

English Section - Library Stack Room

3. Classification and Cataloguing of materials

All the books in the library are classified and shelved in call number order according to the Dewey decimal classification system (DDC 22 and 23 edition manual). Automation of the catalog is one of the pressing issues of the National Library of Bhutan. The National Library of Bhutan is not fully automated. Although the library holdings are catalogued using Aleph software with the help of a five-year Danish-funding project that has recently concluded, it is used just for the purpose of cataloging the materials online and not used for circulation and patron record. However, users can still check from the National Library website for the availability of the books they require from the library. They can also find information of the book they require in the library in person by consulting the author catalogue (arranged alphabetically by the surnames of the authors) or shelf list catalogue which is arranged in classified order by the call number given to each book. When neither the author nor title is known, users can find the information they require by looking in general subject classification scheme (Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme) properly marked on the library racks and shelves.

For example:

If a user wants to find out a books on Buddhism, s/he should first locate the broad classification number of religion at 200 and then within this broad discipline look at 294 which stands for Religions on Indic Origin. Further down within 294 the user will locate the materials on Buddhism at 294.3. Books by different authors on the same subject e.g Buddhism are shelved together in one place and are sub-arranged alphabetically by the surname of the author in ascending order from left to right in DDC order.

Librarian classifying and cataloging Dzongkha text

Conclusion

The National Library of Bhutan is making an effort to reorient its collection management and also looking forward to automation so that the library can relate more closely to the present-day environment, while keeping in mind the primary objectives of the Library. It is also of the interest that many people from abroad have started writing about Bhutan and the Library wishes to acquire these publications. These include everything that is published about Bhutan irrespective of any countries, languages and authors. This is part of the collection development programme of the National Library of Bhutan.

With the increased demand of services expected by its users, the National Library of Bhutan is equally concerned and has made efforts to acquire relevant and useful materials. Meeting the challenges of the advancement of technology, information needs, rise of prices in books in the recent years and the minimal budget to acquire all the required books has become a hurdle for the Library. There are, obviously, many hurdles to overcome and a long way to go in order to come up with a fully automated library system and a comprehensive collection to render the library services to its international standard. Nevertheless, every effort is being made to develop the collections as well as take a lead role for the development and promotion of libraries in the country.