The National Museum Library is a division of the Department of National Museum in Sri Lanka functioning as its library and archive for its collection of books and documents.

[1][2][3] Since 1885, by law, a copy of every document printed in the country is required to be lodged with the museum library as it functioned as the oldest legal deposit in Sri Lanka.

At present the library accommodates over 12 million titles including the broad classifications of: Document types include: The library holds the private collections of H. C. P. Bell, Hugh Nevill, and the palm-leaf manuscript collection of Dr. W. A. de Silva.

Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranike donated Henry Arthur Blake’s collection of palm-leaf manuscripts.

A collection of Sinhala periodicals and newspapers was acquired from Ven.