The Library of Congress Office in Nepal
The Library of Congress, the oldest cultural institution of the United States Government, was founded in 1800 as a government reference library to serve the young nation’s legislature. In the nineteenth century, it grew into a national institution, and since World War II has become an unparalleled library housing print and digital publications from all over the world.
The Library of Congress maintains six overseas offices that acquire, catalog, preserve, and transfer to Washington, library and research materials in all languages of their respective regions. The Library of Congress also acquires publications for American academic libraries and research institutions. The New Delhi office, the largest of these offices, acquires publications from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The New Delhi office maintains sub offices in three of these countries; Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These sub offices are located in the American Embassies in their respective capital cities. The Nepal office ships the publications that it acquires to the New Delhi office, where they are further processed, cataloged, bound (or microfilmed) and then shipped to Washington, DC where they become part of the Library of Congress permanent collection.
The Library of Congress Country Representative in Nepal, keeps abreast of the country’s current scholarship and publishing, acquiring a wide range of bibliographic research materials. High priority is given to collecting official government publications, including important legal materials such as the government gazette, legislative debates and laws and judiciary rulings. The Library also acquires major newspapers and news weeklies, scholarly journals, literary, as well as lifestyle and other popular magazines, research monographs on the arts, the social sciences and humanities. Increasingly, non-print and electronic media, along with maps, are being sought to supplement traditional book and journal formats. Documenting the activities of social, political and religious organizations and advocacy groups based in Nepal also form a valuable contribution to the Library’s collections.
To learn more about the Library of Congress, explore the following sites www.loc.gov and www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi.
Library of Congress Representative, Nepal Office
Embassy of the United States of America
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel.: +977 1 423 4638
Email: Kathmandu@loc.gov