The National Library of São Tomé and Príncipe () is located in the capital city of

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álv ...

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

. It is responsible for the technical coordination of public libraries and the promotion of books and reading. It is also the

legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

of the country, according to a law created in 1952 during colonial rule.

History

Before independence in 1975, the library of the São Tomé town hall was the most important library in the colony housing about 5,000 books. Since independence, more services were housed in the town hall, and as a result, the library fell in decay and was eventually closed. The gap this left was partly filled by the

Francisco José Tenreiro Francisco José Tenreiro (20 January 1921 – 1963) was a São Toméan geographer and poet who lived during the colonial era. He was taught at the Overseas Political and Social Sciences Institute, now known as the Instituto Superior de Ciência ...

Reading Room, that was the only public library in the country for over a decade. Since the 1990s, libraries have emerged in the district capitals with international aid. The itinerant libraries set up by the Portuguese

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable founda ...

in 2000 brought books to more communities. In 1994, the library of the National Assembly was established. Its initial collection was based on the former collection of the town hall library. Finally, the public National Library was opened in May 2002, financed by

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In March 2015, the National Library began a cooperation with the University of Minas Gerais (UMG) from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, began its project to promote reading for children and teenagers. International children's and youth literature in the Portuguese language are driven in vans and taken to villages and made available in small villages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:National Library of Sao Tome and Principe Library buildings completed in 2002 Buildings and structures in São Tomé 2002 establishments in São Tomé and Príncipe Libraries established in 2002 Libraries in São Tomé and Príncipe