Latvian National Library

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Latvian National Library
National Library of Latvia.jpg

The new building of the Latvian National Library (2015)

founding 1919
Duration 5 million media units
Library type National Library
place Riga
ISIL LV-BIB-000001
operator state
management Andris Vilks
Website www.lnb.lv

The Latvian National Library ( Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka ) is the national library of the Republic of Latvia in the capital Riga .

History and holdings

During the decades of the Latvian Republic

The Latvian National Library was founded as Valsts Bibliotēka (State Library) on August 29, 1919, one year after Latvia's independence . The first director was the librarian and bibliographer Jānis Misiņš (1862–1945), who brought his immense private collection as the basis of the state library. Within a year, by 1920, the collection had grown to 250,000 volumes. In 1920 the State Library became the deposit copy library for the whole of Latvia. It has been publishing the Latvian National Bibliography since 1927 .

There were major additions in 1939 and 1940, when the State Library took over many of its libraries in view of the imminent resettlement of the Baltic Germans , including a large part of the library of the Society for the History and Antiquity of the Baltic Provinces of Russia in Riga, which was founded in 1834 . By 1940 the collection had grown to 1,700,000 volumes. As a result, it had to be distributed over two locations in the old town of Riga (Jēkaba ​​iela 6/8 and Anglikāņu iela 5).

During the German and Soviet occupation of Latvia

The building of the National Library until 2013 ( location )

During the German occupation of Riga (1941–1944) the state library was renamed Zemes bibliotēka (state library). During the Soviet occupation of Latvia (since 1944) it operated as Latvijas PSR Valsts bibliotēka (State Library of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic ); In 1966 she was given an "honorary name" according to Soviet customs and was named after Vilis Lācis , a writer and Prime Minister of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic: Viļa Lāča Latvijas PSR Valsts bibliotēka . From 1946 on - from the Soviet point of view - "dangerous" literature was sorted out; Until 1988 it could only be viewed with a special permit. In 1956 the State Library moved to a new building in Krišjāņa Barona iela ( Krišjānis Barons Street) in Riga.

Since regaining independence in 1991

Since the regaining of Latvian independence in 1991, the library has been called Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka (Latvian National Library). In 1995 she received on permanent loan from Otto Bong (1918-2006) the Baltic Central Library (BZB) / Baltijas Centrālā bibliotēka (BCB) , a collection on history and regional studies as well as the languages ​​of the Baltic States. It also includes an image archive with around 54,000 photographs and postcards, 2000 maps and a collection of graphics. The Latvian National Library has been a member of the European Library since 2006 .

Groundbreaking bibliographic publications were the catalog The older prints in Latvian / Seniespiedumi latviešu valodā in 1999 and the authors' directory of Lettonika books (1523–1919) / Letonikas grāmatu autoru rādītājs in 2005.

The holdings include more than five million titles, including around 18,000 manuscripts from the 14th century to the present day. The steady growth of the holdings meant that individual collections from the main building in the Krišjāņa Barona iela had to be relocated and placed in ancillary buildings. In 2013 the National Library was spread over five locations in Riga. In addition, since 1998 some of the holdings had been deposited in a warehouse in Silakrogs, outside of Riga.

The inadequacy of the dispersal of the collections prompted the Latvian parliament to decide on a new building on the left bank of the Daugava (dt. Düna ). On May 18, 2014, the main office of the National Library in Krišjāņa Barona iela was closed for the purpose of moving to the new building.

The new building on the Daugava

Construction began in 2008 based on a design by the American architect Gunnar Birkerts, who was born in Riga in 1925 . Birkerts was commissioned to do this in 1989. The new library has 13 floors and is 68 meters high. The cost is given as 193 million euros.

As part of the program of the city of Riga as European Capital of Culture , selected holdings from the current main building of the National Library were symbolically brought into the new building by a chain of people and books on January 18, 2014.

The new library opened on August 29, 2014, the 95th day the National Library was founded.

480 employees work in the library.

Trivia

In May 2015, the National Library was the venue for the fourth Eastern Partnership Summit .

literature

in order of appearance

  • Aleksejs Apinis, Silvija Šiško: V. Laca Latvijas PSR Valsts bibliotekas inkunabuli. Catalogs / Incunabula in Bibliotheca RSS Latviensis de V. Lacis nominata. Catalogus . Riga 1981 (catalog of incunabula).
  • Viesturs Zanders: Libraries in Latvia . In: Bernhard Fabian (ed.): Handbook of German historical book collections in Europe. An overview of collections in selected libraries. Vol. 7, Part 2: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania . Arranged by Cornelius Hasselblatt. Olms, Hildesheim 1997. ISBN 3-487-10361-3 . Pp. 141-148.
  • Viesturs Zanders: Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka - Latvian National Library . In: Bernhard Fabian (ed.): Handbook of German historical book collections in Europe. An overview of collections in selected libraries. Vol. 7, Part 2: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania . Arranged by Cornelius Hasselblatt. Olms, Hildesheim 1997. ISBN 3-487-10361-3 . Pp. 151-155.
  • Martin Klöker: Library History Introduction . In: Klaus Garber (ed.): Handbook of personal occasional literature in European libraries and archives . Vol. 7: Riga - Tallinn . Part 3: Riga: Academic Library of Latvia, State Historical Archive of Latvia, Special Library of Archives, National Library of Latvia, Baltic Central Library . Olms, Hildesheim 2004. ISBN 3-487-11405-4 . Pp. 21-54. In it pp. 40–42 about the Latvian National Library.
  • Silke Berndsen: “We discussed our library for a good ten years, but we didn't build it.” The Latvian National Library and its new building . In: Bibliotheksdienst , Vol. 44 (2010), pp. 930–940.

Web links

Commons : Latvian National Library  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Martin Klöker: Library History Introduction . P. 40.
  2. ^ Viesturs Zanders: Libraries in Latvia . Here p. 145.
  3. ^ A b Viesturs Zanders: Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka - Latvian National Library . Here p. 151.
  4. ↑ Martin Klöker: Library History Introduction . P. 41.
  5. ↑ Martin Klöker: Library History Introduction . P. 41.
  6. ↑ a b LNB vēstures fakti (Chronicle of the LNB) (Latvian), accessed on May 18, 2014.
  7. ^ Viesturs Zanders: Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka - Latvian National Library . In it p. 152: Baltic Central Library.
  8. ↑ Silvija Šiško (ed.): Seniespiedumi latviešu valodā 1525–1855. Kopkatalogs / The older prints in Latvian 1525–1855. Complete catalog . Latvijas Nacionālā Bibliotēka, Riga 1999. ISBN 9984-607-19-4 .
  9. ↑ Rita Bočarova (ed.): Letonikas grāmatu autoru rādītājs (1523-1919) / Authors' directory of the Lettonika books . Latvijas Nacionālā Bibliotēka, Riga 2005. ISBN 9984-607-68-2 .
  10. ↑ Martin Klöker: Library History Introduction . P. 42.
  11. ↑ Latvijas Nacionālās bibliotēkas ēku adreses (Locations of the National Library) ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Latvian) as of December 31, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lndb.lv
  12. ↑ Press release from May 15, 2014 (Latvian), accessed on May 18, 2014.
  13. ↑ Silke Berndsen: “We discussed our library for a good ten years, but we didn't build it.” The Latvian National Library and its new building . In: Bibliotheksdienst , Vol. 44 (2010), pp. 930–940.
  14. ↑ Architect: National Library is a symbol of free Latvia. Interview with Birkerts europeonline-magazine.eu, January 14, 2014, accessed on January 17, 2014
  15. ↑ Information on the Rigas Tourist Information Center , accessed on January 17, 2014
  16. ↑ Information on the library page ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 17, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gaismaspils.lv
  17. ↑ Klaus Brill: The singing beauty. Riga is dressing up for its role as the 2014 European Capital of Culture . Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 2, 2014.
  18. ↑ Jaunā LNB ēka (The new building of the LNB) (Latvian), accessed on January 3, 2015.
  19. ^ Daniel Brössler : Writing history. At the summit in Riga, the heads of state and government of the EU want to prove that their Ostpolitik has not failed . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 21, 2015, p. 7.

Coordinates: 56 ° 56 ′ 27.9 ″  N , 24 ° 5 ′ 48 ″  E