The institution was established in the
Tintenpalast building as the
Legislative Assembly Library of
South West Africa in 1926. Items from the
Bibliothek des Kaiserlichen Gouvernements () from the time of
Imperial German colonisation were incorporated and formed the core of the initial collection. It was renamed
South West Africa Administration Library in 1957. In 1960, responsibility for the library shifted from the
Parliament of South Africa to the
government, and the library now fell under the
Ministry of Education. In 1965 it opened to the public. In 1984 the library moved to the
Estorff House nearby and was renamed
Estorff Reference Library. After
Namibian independence in 1990 the library was administered by the
Government of Namibia, and on 1 April 1994 became the
National Library of Namibia. On 20 March 2000, the eve of the 10th independence celebrations, the library moved into its current building in
Eugène Marais Street in
downtown Windhoek, sharing it with the
National Archives of Namibia. ==See also==