When Việt Nam achieved independence in 1945 there was just one library serving the entire country, with a staff of 27 and a collection of just under 2,500 books and documents. Today the country is estimated to have in excess of 23,000 libraries and reading rooms, staffed by some 10,000 librarians and with combined holdings of over 80 million units of books, magazines, newspapers and other documents.

Responsibility for co-ordinating overall development of the Vietnamese library sector is entrusted to the Library Department (Vụ Thư viện) of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which guides the work of the National Library of Việt Nam and its network of 64 provincial/municipal libraries, 577 district libraries and some 7,000 commune and village libraries or book cabinets. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) runs a further c 7,000 ‘post offices of culture’ around the country, each with a reading area and a cabinet containing several hundred books provided by the local provincial or municipal library.

In addition to this, a large number of specialist libraries are attached to Việt Nam’s numerous research institutes, to government ministries and agencies and to the armed forces.

The total annual recurrent budget available to the library sector is currently around 150 billion VNĐ (US$9.6million). Of this, the National Library gets some 4-5 billion VNĐ (US$250,000-US$300,000) per annum and larger municipal and provincial libraries such as those in Hà Nội, Hồ Chí Minh City or Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu anything from 2-4 billion VNĐ (US$130,000-US$250,000) per annum. This compares with the provincial libraries of poorer provinces such as Cao Bằng in the remote and mountainous north east, which must make do with an annual budget of as little as 200-300 million VNĐ (US$12,500-US$19,000) each year. Capital costs are budgeted separately.

Use the navigation bar on the left to read more about the libraries sector in Việt Nam or make direct contact with organisations and individuals working in this sector through our KEY CONTACTS database.