National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi belongs to the thesaurus of cultural-and-historic national heritage of the country. Being one of the largest and oldest libraries of the Central Asian region, it possesses the most complete collection of publications of the national printing and is a real treasurer of book collections in many languages of the world.
The library has saved the link of times, our great heritage imprinted in the books; it has carried the truth of enlightenment, having enriched the people with modern knowledge for upbringing the future generations.
Following the traditions, the library has always served for the future of Uzbekistan by keeping and enriching the priceless heritage handed over by our great ancestries and has stood by its main mission, which is collecting, keeping and presenting for a public use the most complete collection of the national documents as well as the unique universal stock of scientifically valuable materials reflecting the wisdom of humanity and, above all, having relation to Uzbekistan and to its national interests.  
 Annual attendance of the readers makes up averagely 550 thousand persons, book-loan comprises more than 1 mln. 720 thousand publications; more than 45 thousand consultations and bibliographic references of different kinds are provided here. For a minimal charge, the library renders 28 different types of services.
Highly valuable and rare editions stock is a pride of the library’s book collection; it comprises more than 250 thousand publications, including 16 thousand rare books and manuscripts which have been separated to an independent stock of rare and manuscript books department. Special place in the collection of valuable editions in the library is given to the unique “Turkestan collection” in 594 volumes – an original encyclopedia on history, ethnography, geography, economy and culture of Central Asia up to 1917, as well as “Turkestan album” in 4 parts and 10 volumes, describing the way of life and morals of the Turkestan area population, which includes more than 1200 unique photos.
The undoubted value is represented by the first intravitam publications of the classics of Uzbek literature, such as A.Chulpan, Fitrat, U.Nasir, G.Gulyam, A.Kahhar, A.Kadiri, and others; publications of the Russian literature classics: A.S.Pushkin, L.N.Tolstoi, A.P.Chekhov and others.  
The history of the Republic is rich with glorious names. We do honor, admire and take pride in the great ancestors of the Uzbek nation – Al Bukhari, At Termizhi, Akhmad Yassavi, Bakhovuddin Naqshbandi, Al Khorezmi, Beruni, Ibn Sino, Alisher Navoi, Amir Temur, Mirzo Ulugbek, Babur. They have put themselves on record in the history of the world culture, their works have become priceless property of the whole mankind and are carefully kept in the Library’s stocks.
Main Stocks Department – is one of the largest in the National Library; the basic amount of the books and brochures, more than 6 mln. copies, is concentrated here. The books published on the territory of the Republic from the beginning of the 1920th of the XX century and publications of Russian publishing houses are represented here in full. The richest in its contents, collection of the scientific works, scholarly notes of institutes and scientific establishments beginning from the XIX century, vast collection of abstracts of candidate and doctoral dissertations – these all is the main stock of the National library.
Department of depositary storage of the stock – is one of the biggest departments of stock-keeping in the library: more than 260 000 units of publications are concentrated on its shelves. Books, brochures and magazines fully represent the collection of the first editions which joined the library’s stock at the initial period of its formation. The richest in their contents, the collections of the department represent personal book-collections of the prominent bibliophiles and book collectors, such as A.K.Heins, N.F.Petrovski, P.I.Khomutov, later, those of the first director of the library – N.V.Dmitrovski, as well as book collections of other individuals, such as the collection of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, that of famous Russian bibliographer – V.I. Mejhov. These are also the publications of XVI-XIX centuries, among which there is a unique by its completeness and contents – the collection of periodicals mainly of military, historic, geographical and philological content in Russian and Western-European languages.
The foreign-language literature stock has started to form beginning from the first day of the library’s opening, and as of today, it comprises more than 350,0 thousand copies. Literature in eastern languages, specifically Persian, Arab, Indian and Turkish gain an estimable place in this collection. The richest by its contents is the collection of the foreign books in more than 75 languages on the matters of socio-political, humanitarian, natural-scientific and technical sciences. A significant place in the stock, more than 240,0 thousand publications, is represented by the literature of scientific-technical contents, these are the books and periodicals of the leading publishing companies of the world.  
  Reference and Bibliographic Publications Stock comprises more than 35 thousand units of storage and is the largest in the Republic complete collection of universal and branch-wise bibliographic indexes, reference-books and encyclopedic publications in Uzbek, Russian and foreign languages. Vast volume of information in all the fields of knowledge has been collected in bibliographic and bio-bibliographic dictionaries, directories, both current and retrospective bibliographic and informational publications. Bibliographic indexes and catalogues of local lore topics, among which "The Bibliography of Asia " (1891-1894) composed by V.I.Mezhov; "The Catalogue of books of Russian branch of Turkestan Public library" composed by N.V.Dmitrovski; "The Inventory of the Western manuscripts of the library" (1912) composed by E.F.Khal; "The Literature Index about the carpets of Central Asia" composed by A.A.Semenov and many other editions have a special value.
Department of the scientific information on culture and arts carries out revealing, collecting, arranging and analyzing the documentary flow of information on the problems of culture and arts; and it is the recognized leader in information support of cultural activity in the Republic by publishing the current information indexes, reviews, information leaflets and other kind of information.
Library’s stock of printed music and sound recordings keeps one of the Republican’s largest collections of notes and sound recordings having the great scientific and cultural value, more than 60 thousand copies of note-musical editions, 12 thousand musical recordings of Uzbek classic and world music. Uzbek folk music and all most significant pieces from world repertoire since XIX century are represented here. There are also more than 150 thousand editions of the graphic and applied arts.