A delegation from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research paid a visit to the National Library on 4 April 2022. The members of the delegation included Executive Director Dr. Jonathan Brent, Director of the Archives Dr. Stefanie Halpern, Chief of Staff Shelly Freeman, and Director of Public Programs Alex Weiser.

The exhibition “Anxious Life” by the Lithuanian photographer Edis Jurčys (U.S.) features a series of photographs titled “The Power of Death and Life” (2021) unveiled last year. The exhibition is displayed at the Exhibition Hall (3rd floor) of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The exhibition is curated by Danguolė Ruškienė. It is organized by Klaipėda County Ieva Simonaitytė Public Library and funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Klaipėda City Municipality.

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania has been expanded by the addition of a newly identified incunabulum. It is a textbook for priests titled Tractatus sacerdotalis de sacramentis by Polish theologian Mikołaj z Błonia (Nicolaus de Blony; ante 1400 – circa 1448). The textbook was written in Latin and was published in Strasbourg by the printing house of Martin Flach (d. 1539) in 1490.

The National Martynas Mažvydas Library of Lithuania provides services in accordance with pandemic management measures approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania seeks to help Ukrainian citizens to easier integrate into Lithuania’s society and invites them to get acquainted with the Library’s services and actively use them.

The exhibition “Romain Gary: Back to Vilnius” (French: Romain Gary: un retour à Vilnius) aims to introduce the public to the literary work and life of a prominent writer Romain Gary (1914–1980). Romain Gary has long been an important part of the multicultural history of Vilnius, and as a true humanist who was committed to the struggle for freedom, he could not be more relevant in today’s tumultuous world when democracy and humanist values ​​are under threat.

Dear visitors, please be reminded that the National Library is closed during public holidays so it will not be open to the public on the 11th of March. 

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania together with the National Libraries of Estonia and Latvia made an appeal to the world’s library community on Sunday, in which they strongly condemn the war in Ukraine and demand to cancel the membership of libraries of the Russian Federation in international organisations. 

Visitors are welcome to explore the painting exhibition of the works by Lithuanian painter Mindaugas Skudutis which will be hosted at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The exhibition consists of nearly half a hundred works created by Mindaugas Skudutis over the last decade. Genres include landscape and portrait, still life and thematic composition.

The online information content of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will be archived and preserved by one of the world’s largest and USA’s oldest libraries, the Library of Congress.

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in Co Derry, Northern Ireland.  His first collection of poems, Death of a Naturalist, was published in 1966, and was followed by books of poetry, criticism and translations, which established him as the leading poet of his generation.  

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Vilnius, The Polish Institute in Vilnius, The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invite to the opening of the exhibition „Passports“ on the 27th of January at 3.00 p.m. in the National Library of Lithuania (Gedimino ave. 51, Vilnius)

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York has announced the completion of the Edward Blank Vilna Collections Project, a landmark seven-year 7-million-dollar initiative aimed at processing, preserving, and digitally reuniting YIVO’s pre-war library and archival collections. During the project, these materials were digitally integrated into a dedicated web portal and made available online for the global audience for the first time.

On 1 January 2022, a decision of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania came into effect whereby the Vilnius Jewish Public Library was handed over to the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The Vilnius Jewish Public Library will operate as a separate unit of the National Library.

Within the last couple of years, the world has been facing serious encounters, which, nonetheless, forced us to consolidate, rethink our operation methods, and make uncommon decisions. It cannot be disputed that libraries were among the first to orient themselves toward the right ways how to operate during the global pandemic and remained demanded by people not only as persisting to be providers of spiritual nourishment, books, but also as becoming an institution which ensures access to trustful information sources. I can confirm this by drawing on the example of Lithuania’s National Library: 2021 for us has been plentiful with successful activities.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to an exhibition “Between Daily Life and Fairy Tale” by two outstanding artists, a father and a son, Bronius (born 1933) and Šarūnas (born 1960) Leonavičius. The exhibition features the illustrations by Bronius Leonavičius for Martynas Vainilaitis’ mythological fairy tale “The Little Cowberry” (Bruknelė) and the illustrations by Šarūnas Leonavičius for Kristijonas Donelaitis’ poem “The Seasons” (Metai).

On 11–19 December, the Director-General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas was on a professional trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he visited the exhibition Expo 2020 and participated at meetings dealing with possibilities for the development of international and interinstitutional cooperation.

The participation of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania at Expo 2020 currently hosted by Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, has become one of the highlights of this global exhibition event. For the first time in the history of Lithuania, national written culture is being represented by a memory institution. The National Library, together with the project partners, is presenting an interactive story about Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714–1780), pioneer of Lithuanian fiction, and his most famous work The Seasons (Metai) at Expo 2020. The interactive story presented in a number of languages has been specially created for this exhibition.

On December 1-3, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania hosted the international conference, “Theatrum Libri: The Press, Reading and Dissemination in Early Modern Europe,” which was dedicated to the centenary of the establishment of the first archive in the Republic of Lithuania. The conference brought together researchers from Europe, Asia and the United States. They presented papers and shared their insights on the history of the book and application of digital humanities and computational history.

December 14-16 The Lithuanian Film Center invites you to a retrospective of director Almantas Grikevičius and actor Bronius Babkauskas.