Scholars in Burma have reacted with dismay to news that part of the National Library is to move to the new capital, Naypyidaw. “It’s miserable,” was the comment of the respected writer Paragu, who owns the Paragu Shantiniketan Library in Rangoon.

Officials at the National Library confirmed a report in Wednesday’s issue of state-run The New Light of Myanmar, which gave no details of the move. The report said it was planned to sell the library’s eight-story building and 10 acre site. The asking price was 10 billion kyat (US $7.3 million) and a closing date of August 24 had been set for offers.

“We don’t know whether the new building in Naypyidaw is ready or not,” one official, requesting anonymity, told The Irrawaddy by phone on Thursday. “Anyway that’s state policy. We have no choice.”

The official said the government decision to split the library would mean that one section would move back to its old location, on Strand Road.

Burma’s National Library-a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and National Libraries Group-Southeast Asia-has a collection of about 618,000 books and periodicals as well as 15,800 rare and valuable manuscripts.

It traces its origins back to a library founded in 1883 by the British Commissioner of Lower Burma, Sir Charles Edward Bernard, who stocked it with his own collection of books. After Burma regained its independence, he handed the library to the Burmese government in 1952, and it reopened as the National Library under the Ministry of Culture.

The National Library is one of only two standard libraries in Rangoon catering for students, researchers, writers and scholars in Rangoon. The other is the Rangoon University Library.  Many expressed dismay that one source of important research material is to go to Naypyidaw.