For many of us, the library was a magical place when we were children. Perhaps you remember how you would come across an exciting book cover while raiding the bookshelves and tried to find a quiet spot so that you could delve into a fairy tale that lurks inside. Your childhood ended, and your habits changed. You grew up, and the library did too. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania welcomes everyone who want to get some serious work done at the Library’s Coworking Space and who want to be part of our diverse community.

The international Baltic Sea Festival starts on 24 August. Festival’s programme spans seven festival days of first-class music and seven livestreamed conversations, where some of the most interesting personalities from our region come together to talk about music and sustainability.In Lithuania, the talks are held with one of Europe’s brightest composer stars Justė Janulytė and award-winning multimedia journalist Berta Tilmantaitė. The talk is moderated by Swedish Radio journalist Fredrik Wadström.

On 7 August, among the first visitors greeted at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania were a delegation of 22 teenagers from the conflict zone in Donbass as well as the group’s leaders accompanying them. The delegation came to Lithuania to get to know Europe better.

Visitors are welcome to attend a modern photography exhibition titled “New York’s Constructs” opened at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. In her opening speech, the exhibition’s curator Gerda Paliušytė pointed out that the exhibition and its title were inspired by a photography series of the 1980s by American artist Barbara Kasten. “I am very excited about everything that we have today at this exhibition space. Besides B. Kasten’s assemblages “New York’s Constructs 13” and “New York’s Constructs 14”, visitors will be able to see other works of modern photography by John Divola, Wei-Li-Yeh, Ulrich Wüst, Marijonas Baranauskas, Romualdas Rakauskas, and Itsuko Hasegawa. I would also like to extend my thanks to the National Library (the exhibition is dedicated to its 100th anniversary) and to the Lithuanian Council for Culture as well as Goethe’s Institute in Lithuania for all the support we have received in compiling this exhibition.”

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to attend the exhibition of paintings by Nijolė Dirvianskytė (born 1944), a painter, folk artist and one of Lithuania’s most prominent representatives of naïve painting.

An international research conference “Reading Vilna in Jewish Writing and Urban History” will take place in Vilnius, 5–7 August, 2019. The organizer of the conference is the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in cooperation with the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies of Vilnius University, and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center. The conference is supported by the Research Council of Lithuania.

This exhibition borrows its title from the name of a sequence of works by the American artist Barbara Kasten. Created in the early 80s, Kasten’s “Construct NYC” is a series of photographs depicting different small-scale architectural environments carefully arranged in Kasten’s studio. These “stage-sets” consist of combinations of geometric figures made from industrial materials, as well as neoclassical sculptural elements – forms reminiscent of those found in the skyscrapers surrounding Kasten’s studio in Chicago. The colourful photographs, which are created by using Hollywood lighting techniques, seem to document the tension between our presumptions about reality and the artist’s management of physical materials and their intrinsic qualities – a tension exposed by the precision of camera angles. Correspondingly, this exhibition of photography under the same title considers architecture both as a process of mental activity and a political practice, a form of communication which is seen leaking and stretching in different directions, accompanied by the urge to construct and the proximity of void.

On the occasion of the Statehood Day and the National Anthem Day, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė awarded state orders and medals to Lithuanian and foreign citizens for their merits to the Republic of Lithuania and for promoting the name of our country in the world.

Dear visitors, please be reminded that the National Library is closed during public holidays so it will not be open to the public on 6 July. The Library’s opening hours are one hour shorter on a day before a public holiday thus our Library will be open until 8:00 pm on 5 July.

Please be informed that from July 1st to August 25th the National Library will switch to summer opening hours.

As part of the project Labelling of Digital and Digitised Content, the National Library has integrated Rights Statements into the digital object labelling tool/manual cc.lnb.lt which are also available on the online platform europeana.eu.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is opening the anniversary exhibition by the photographer Antanas Sutkus, recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania held launch event for the book titled Spain, a Global History by Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, writer and diplomat. The book has been recently published in both Spanish and English. Among the event attendees was historian and writer Dr. Artūras Vasiliauskas. The event was facilitated by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Lithuania, José María Robles Fraga.

On 20 June, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was visited by a delegation from the Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) which takes part in an annual international tour programme titled Lithuania & Poland Study Tour: Exclusively for YIVO.

A delegation of the representatives of the Embassy of Japan, Japanese Ambassador to Lithuania Shiro Yamasaki, First Secretary Eisuke Katsuyama, and member of administration Haruka Seto, paid a visit to Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The Ambassador and his colleagues brought together guests from Japan, Prof. Sachiko Seki, CEO of the regional development company Local First Institute and former long-time director of Mitaka City Public Library; Yoshiko Fujita, editor-in-chief of the tourism journal CREA; Takako Kajikawa, president of the SPA consultancy company Wellness Arena; and Miyuki Ohno, board member of the MRA House Foundation funding various projects.

An international panel of exiled journalists and migration experts will discuss the results of a European project investigating ways of improving media coverage of migration issues at a conference in Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Newly elected MEPs and officials from the European Commission have also been invited to comment on the outcomes of the innovative project run by Media4Change, which engaged diverse people from seven countries in a series of workshops and activities about media coverage of migrants.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will hold a launch event for the book entitled Spain, a Global History by Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, writer and diplomat. The book has been recently published in both Spanish and English. Historian and writer Dr. Artūras Vasiliauskas will also be among the event attendees. The event will be facilitated by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Lithuania, José María Robles Fraga. The discussion/launch event will be held in English.

The National Library is delighted to announce that two new items of documentary heritage have been included in Lithuania’s National Memory of the World Register.

Visitors are welcome to attend the exhibition of paintings by Jonas Buračas, one of the greatest Lithuanian painters and master of landscape painting of the inter-war and post-war periods. The exhibition entitled “Early Paintings by Jonas Buračas” is already open to the public at the National Library. As in his work in general, the paintings in this exhibition focus on Buračas’ studies of Lithuanian nature, architecture and small towns.

Do Lithuanian and the U.S. policies towards Russia coincide? What are the main similarities and differences? War in Ukraine and Russian interference into the U.S. Presidential election forced the U.S. to reassess Russia-posed threats. How did U.S. foreign and security policies change in relation to these events? President Donald Trump has met his Russian counterpart for several occasions. What impact did these meetings, as well as characters of both presidents, have on bilateral U.S. – Russia relations? Furthermore, given that Lithuania sees the U.S. and NATO membership as main guarantors of its security, do Western sanctions against Russia work? What else could the international community do to ensure Europe’s territorial integrity and safety of people?