About the Library

Facts and Figures

Name and Title

The National Library Co. Ltd. (a community interest company)

Sources of Funding

• The Israeli government, The Council for Higher Education – Committee for Budget and Planning, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, self revenue, donations

Laws

• The Book Law (Required Deposit and Detail Reporting), 2000 (amendments 2001-2005) (Hebrew)

• Copyright Law, 2007 (Hebrew)

• National Library Law, 2007 (Hebrew)

Employees

• Overall number of employees – 160

• Positions – 125 (including permanent, temporary and special contracts)

Scope of Collections

• Number of volumes – 5 million

Annual Growth

• Annual growth in number of items – some 100,000

• Required copies – monographs (including non-printed materials) – some 7,000 titles each year

• Newspapers and periodicals – some 900 new titles each year

• Periodical Volumes – some 12,000

The Digital Library

• Books

• Manuscripts

• Newspapers

• Talmud

• Maps

• Audio Archive

Additional Activities

• Exhibits

• Concerts

• Seminars

• Cultural evenings/Lectures

Services

• Reading rooms – total of 540 seats in 11 reading rooms

• The Restoration and Preservation Laboratory

• Microfilm copying

• Scanning services

• Bookbindery

• Lending

• Inter-library lending

• Advisory – bibliographical services

• Photocopying services

Scope of Annual Activity

• Visits – some 200,000 readers and visitors per year

• Number of books lent – some 1,000 per month

• Use of the library website – some 2.3 million hits annually

• Use of the Internet catalog – 300,000 hits annually

Location

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem

Constructed Area

• Some 20,000 m²

Storage Areas

• 9,400 m² in the main building and some 4,250 m² in various storage locations (Givat Shaul, Mount Scopus and Shikunei HaElef)