Malaysia - Libraries and museums

The National Library of Malaysia, with more than 1.3 million volumes, was established in 1971 and has been charged with wide responsibilities under the National Library Act. Both the National Library and the National Archives are in Kuala Lumpur. The National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) in Bargi has 945,000 volumes. Other important libraries are those at the universities; the Sabah (380,000) and Sarawak (500,000) state libraries; Tun Abdul Razak Library at the MARA University of Technology (569,000); and the library of the Malaysian Rubber Board (120,000). The largest public libraries are in Denang, Malacca, and Selangor.

The National Museum of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, constructed on the site of the former Selangor Museum (destroyed in World War II), houses extensive collections of Malayan archaeology, ethnography, and zoology. The Perak Museum in Taiping, founded in 1883, has a varied collection exhibiting antiquities, ethnographic, and zoological materials. Also in Kuala Lumpur are the Museum of Asian Art (1974), the Postal Museum, the Air Force Museum, and the National Art Gallery (1958). Sabah and Sarawak maintain anthropological and archaeological collections pertinent to East Malaysia. There is an Aboriginal Affairs Museum in Gombak.