HCMC General Sciences Library

Established in 1968 as a Library for the Governors and Admirals, the General Sciences Library of Ho Chi Minh City was later designated as the National Library of South Vietnam. The Library being one of the largest libraries in South Vietnam, offers a diverse range of services to its approximate 150,000 annual visitors hailing from Ninh Thuan to Minh Hai provinces.

The people of Vietnam believe that this library has played a major role in the economic development of the nation. Its crucial role in promoting the culture of Vietnam, backing up the nation's industrial expansion and research, has been greatly helped by its participation in joint ventures.

The library, serving as a deposit library for renowned international organizations like World Bank, UNESCO, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Food and Agricultural Organization, marks its prominence in the international domain.

Within the nation, the General Sciences Library of Ho Chi Minh City acts as the headquarters of 22 district libraries in the city and furnishes professional assistance to 21 provincial libraries.

The main function of this Library involves accumulation and maintenance of all kinds of published materials both within and outside the nation.

With its huge collection of 500,000 books, 7,453 newspapers and journals, 10,937 theses, 3,778 microforms, CD-ROMs, music, map, video etc, this library is of immense help to the students, researches, teachers, foreign scholars and common people.

Its rich collection of more than 400,000 volumes of the 17th and 18th century French/European and Indochina's materials, is worth mentioning.

Moreover HCMC General Library holds the book exchange agreement with more than 30 libraries and information centers across the globe.

Recognizing its importance, The Elsevier Foundation granted $25,000 for up gradation and expansion of the computer resource center and database of this renowned Library in Ho Chi Minh City. Through effective execution of new computers and telecommunication technology, the Library is expected to fulfill the needs of its visitors more efficiently. 30 new computers and peripherals including four PCs attributed to the low vision visitors, Internet installation and hookup, fall under the purview of this grant. The remaining part of the fund will be spent on expansion in fields like:

  -  Introduction of commercially viable reference databases.
  -  Easier accessibility to the databases of other remote libraries and reference databases formulated commercially and publicly.
  -  Execution of application software like MS office.

In conclusion it can be said that the HCMC General Sciences Library is devoted to enhance the nation's learning capacity through effective provisioning of top quality resources and services to its innumerable users.