The national library is situated on Trang Thi street; it is the largest general library of Vietnam. Founded in 1919 and initially named Pierre Pasquier, the library had 92163 books and about two–tenth of them was in Vietnamese. In 1954, the library was reorganized into the central library with the amount of the old books and about 180000 books and magazines brought from the library of the government in Viet Bac. In June 26th 1957, the central library was officially named the National Library of Vietnam. The library is also the office that saves legal copyrighting of books and magazines printed in the country. In the present, the library has more than one million books, 7000 magazines in Vietnamese and foreign languages. PhD theses of Vietnamese scientists are also gathered here. This is a cultural central that has relations with international organizations. It usually exchanges books and magazines with more than 300 large science offices of 100 countries in the world. The National Library of Vietnam is a member of LFLA – an international library foundation. The library has collected hundred thousands of valuable books and magazines of many fields from all over the world. The library usually holds discussion activities about life, culture, history, etc. Besides the National Library, Ha Noi has other large libraries such as: the Science-Technique Library, the Social Sciences Library, etc.
