Prime Minister’s Adviser on National History and Literary Heritage (NHLH) Irfan Siddiqui on Wednesday said that NHLH Division is formulating a comprehensive programme to make National Library of Pakistan (NLP) a hub of knowledge through bringing improvements in its services and functions.
The programme will help promote reading culture among students and extend maximum facilities to visitors of the library, Siddiqui said while speaking at a meeting with the officials of the library.
NHLH Division Federal Secretary Aamir Hasan, Joint Secretary Syed Junaid Ikhlaq and other officials of the division and the library were also present in the meeting.
In his presentation, NLP Director Syed Ghyour Hussain gave a detailed overview of the history, functioning, performance, future plans, and the issues being faced by library employees and students. Irfan directed the officials of the library to present a detailed report of last three years’ purchased books, their exact number and the methods of preservation of books, in the next meeting.
He said libraries are an essential segment of our culture and civilisation and the division would take measures to equip this library with modern facilities, as per international standards. The meeting was informed that the library has a collection of 300,000 books and has also published 47 volumes of Pakistan National Bibliography between 1962 and 2015.
It was conveyed that the library has also registered 2800 publishers under International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) system since 1985 and facilitated 227,710 readers since 2002. It is pertinent to mention here that the National Library of Pakistan (NLP) has become an attached department of the NHLH Division as per the government decision.
This was the maiden visit of Adviser Irfan to the library, after this decision to review the working and performance of the library. He visited different study halls and sections of the library and interacted with the visiting people.
