Introduction

The Hun Sen Library of the Royal University of Phnom Penh was opened on the 7th of January 1997 by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Funding for the building was supplied by Samdech Hun Sen and the furniture and fittings were provided by donors from Europe, the United States and Japan.

This certainly represents a major leap in the provision of library facilities at the university. Before the Hun Sen Library building was opened, the university's library of 6,000 books was housed in one of classrooms in the main building, and was little used by students.

The current library building has a floor area of 1,600 sq meters with seating for 200 users and a full-time staff of 23, including three foreign assistants. The Library also supports up to 15 students volunteers to work part-time in the library and this has been a successful program that provides mutual benefits to both the students and the library. Since its opening, around 600 students have used the library each day and this has put the library a lot under pressure of not having enough space for users.

In response to this, the management of the university with support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the World Bank Office in Cambodia has established a new library extension project that is almost double size of the current building. The construction is now underway and scheduled to finish by June 2011. The completion of this project will set the Hun Sen Library of the Royal University of Phnom Penh as the largest and the leading library in Cambodia.

Entrance to the current library building