Role of national libraries in national information policies : some examples from South East Asian national libraries

Abstract

Governments have made much recently of initiatives to create 'knowledge economies' or 'information societies'. At the same time national libraries have been examining their role and, in some countries, withdrawing from or being excluded from the national information policy debate. This research examines whether national libraries do not see a role for themselves or whether others do not see a role for national libraries. In discussing this it considers the relationship between national information policies and national libraries in South Eastern Asia. This research further examines the choice that national libraries have in either moving forward to becoming key policy advisers to government on broader issues of information policy, or step back to become simple warehouses of printed material.