National Library sends record number of books abroad

ISTANBUL

The books to be sent abroad on request or for donation are either purchased or chosen from among the National Library’s archive. DAILY NEWS photo

The Turkish National Library has sent 32,414 books to 41 countries over the past year.

According to a written statement from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the number of books that were sent in 2014 upon the request of cultural consultancies, embassies, Turkology institutes, national libraries and academics, increased threefold. The number of countries to which books were sent also increased nearly threefold.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik said in the statement that the books played a great role in promoting Turkish culture around the world. He said that upon request, the books were sent abroad with exchange and donation methods

“These requests came from different places or academics. The books to be sent are purchased or they are chosen among the library’s archive and a list is made. Donation activities were more comprehensive and more books were sent. We also provide books we don’t have in our archive in the direction of requests from academics and scientists. Within this scope, 9,281 books were sent to 16 countries in 2013. This figure gained speed in terms of the number of books and countries in 2014. More than 32,000 books were sent to 41 countries,” Çelik said.

He added that the National Library Directorate had signed memorandums of understanding with foreign institutions in order to carry out such activities in a wider content in the fields of library works, information sharing and personnel exchange. Within this scope, 11 contracts, namely bilateral cooperation and association agreements, were signed in 2014.

“The National Library also signed cooperation protocol with the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency [TİKA] in order to cooperate with the countries we have ties with, to make the inventory of immovable properties in these countries, to publish their catalogues and take their digital copies and such,” Çelik said, adding that thanks to this protocol TİKA would organize the delivery of the selected books abroad.