The National Library of Namibia supports education and research by providing all Namibians and Namibian libraries access to national and international information resources. Thus, the National Library will serve as the national centre for the collection, conservation and appreciation of Namibia's published national heritage and for a national reference collection.

The National Library will also facilitate the sharing and supply of resources
by way of its access to international electronic bibliographic and information networks, databases and resources.

Statement of principles

(a) The National Library will administer a legal deposit system, which is
entrenched in legislation.

b) The National Library will provide basic library services free of charge, and recover the cost of advanced or costly services such as:
• access to international bibliographic databases;
• duplicating facilities; and
• international interlending.

(c) The National Library will act as the national bibliographic agency. This
includes assuming responsibility for maintaining international bibliographic
standards in, e.g., cataloguing, formats and authority files.

(d) The National Library, with the assistance of allied information agencies
and libraries, will compile various bibliographic databases to facilitate optimal access to Namibian information resources, and make such databases available through networking systems.

(e) The collections of this Library will be made available to other libraries by way of interlending. The collections will also serve as reference material for study and research. The legal deposit collection will be available on a closed-access system only.

(f) To ensure transparency and user-involvement in the products of the
National Library, advisory groups will be established, e.g. for user services
and bibliographic control.

(g) The National Library, with the co-operation of allied information agencies and publishers, will compile national statistics pertaining to libraries, information materials and related matters, e.g. book production statistics.

(h) The National Library should play a major role in international and regional co-operation (e.g. the exchange of publications, the sharing of knowledge and experience, the training of personnel, and personnel exchanges), and maintain relationships with organizations such as national libraries, IFLA and SADC.

(i) The National Library and the National Archives will co-operate closely to ensure minimum duplication in the rendering of their respective services.

(ii) The special libraries of non- Governmental bodies will also receive assistance and support services from the National Library, e.g. co-operative cataloguing and interlending.

(k) The post structure of the National Library will resemble that of libraries
of a similar stature.

(l) The level of funding will be such that the National Library is able to perform internationally-accepted national library functions.