What's New
18/01/2007
Canadian books restocked at the National Library of Cambodia
On December 22, 2006, Canadian Ambassador Donica Pottie attended a ceremony to hand over a collection of 50 books on Canada to the National Library of Cambodia.
The books were provided in response to a request by Cambodia’s National Librarian, Ms. Khlot Vibolla. In her efforts to rebuild the library’s collection, which was largely destroyed during the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s, Ms. Khlot identified the library’s lack of books about Canada and asked for the Embassy’s assistance.
The Embassy turned to Ms. Joyce Thomson, Chief Librarian of the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ms. Thomson agreed to develop a bibliography of books about Canadian history, political science and literature. She then sourced them for the Embassy. Yves Vanier, from Coutts Information Services, donated key reference materials. Back Pages Books and John W. Doull Bookseller were also generous in donating books. Other volumes were purchased by the Embassy.
Ms. Thomson herself brought the books to Cambodia and was the guest of honour at the handover ceremony. “I am delighted that the National Library now has a good collection of books about Canada and written by Canadians,” she noted.
The Ambassador and Ms. Khlot thanked Ms. Thomson and the generous donors for putting together the collection. Ms. Khlot stressed that the books would remain on display at the National Library for a few weeks before being catalogued and made available to library clients.