Kenya National Library Service - knls

ognizes that information is a basic commodity in everyone’s life and strive to ensure that the services provided are responsive to the needs of the people and will translate to both individual and community empowerment. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 recognizes libraries as vehicles for cultural and national expression. Therefore knls has deemed it critical that with the reshaping of the educational, technological and economic policies, the society needs to more intentionally call upon the trusted, welcoming and content rich settings for libraries to support the national development agenda. To date, a network of 60 branch libraries have been established, with others coming up in different parts of the country (see Branch Network Map). knls offers an excellent vehicle for realization of the Commission’s objectives of facilitating increased access to public access services in the strategic plan and the Commission’s Vision of “Access to communication services by all in Kenya by 2030”. The headquarters library in Nairobi (Nairobi Area Library), which was first housed in a temporary building, opened its doors to the public in 1969. The current building was opened in 1974. During its first ten years of existence, the Board, through funding from the Government of Kenya and donor agencies such as the British Council and UNESCO managed to put up a library in each of the eight provincial headquarters in Kenya, with an exception of Rift Valley which was put up at Kabarnet Town instead of Nakuru. In an effort to enhance access to library and information services to all Kenyans, the board aspires to establish libraries in all counties as reflected in the strategic plan 2012-2017. The main focus will be on the counties, which do not have an existing library. The knls Board strategic plan 2012-2017 spells out the vision and mission of the Board as “The hub of information and knowledge for development” and “To enable access to information for knowledge and transformation of livelihoods” respectively. Knls provides a wide range of library and information services to people of all walks from life. The library clients include babies – where mothers can come with their babies and read for them, school going children, teenagers, youth, adults and senior citizens. All the services are geared towards addressing the notion that has almost become an adage that “Kenyans do not read.” Availing accessible library and information services to the citizens, opens up for them windows to the world and inspires them to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving their quality of life. Information is principally essential for social- economic development and proper political governance, especially in today’s knowledge driven economy.