Jaffna Public Library (; ) is located in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It is one of Jaffna's landmarks, and is run by the Jaffna Municipal Council. The library was built in 1933 and is Sri Lanka's second main public Library, only rivalled by Colombo Public Library During the early 1980s, it was one of the biggest libraries in Asia, containing over 97,000 books and manuscripts.Wilson, A. J. Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, p. 125 In 1981, it was burned down in a deliberate mob attack. Over a million books were burned in the 1981 arson attack, and some ancient Tamil books and manuscripts were never recovered. In 2001, the renovation of the library was completed, with new structures being built and new books received, although its old books and manuscripts were not replaced.
See also Burning of Jaffna library
References
External links
Note on the history of Jaffna Public Library 2009 documentary