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.

On 23–24 November, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania held the annual conference ‘Political Leadership in a Parliamentary Democracy’. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this Library’s statutory function as a parliamentary library. To quote the Library’s Director-General Prof. Renaldas Gudauskas, ‘It is a very good opportunity to evaluate at how far we have come and, through united insights by best experts and policymakers, envision future action strategies as well as further develop the parliamentary library function as one of the priorities within the general cultural policy’.

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania has welcomed the joyful news—the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania has awarded Dr. Lara Lempertienė, the Head of the Judaica Research Centre, the “Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy.”

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, commemorating the centenary of the first archive in the Republic of Lithuania, kindly invites you to the exhibition of the old documentary heritage, “Theatrum Libri.” The exhibition is a call to look at the archive as a dynamic historical phenomenon in a new and modern way.

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, commemorating the centenary of the first archive in the Republic of Lithuania, kindly invites you to the international conference “Theatrum Libri: The Press, Reading and Dissemination in Early Modern Europe,” which will take place on December 1-3.

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is a parliamentary library: it has been performing this function since 1991 in accordance with the Regulation of the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Law on Libraries. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the parliamentary library, the National Library is holding the international research conference ‘Political Leadership in a Parliamentary Democracy’ on 23–24 November 2021.

In the Middle Ages, between 820 and 830 AD, in Galicia, at the Western boundaries of Europe, a funeral structure was discovered. This was soon identified as the tomb of the Apostle St. James the Greater. This discovery changed the history of Europe: the news spread all over the continent and, from everywhere on it, thousands of pilgrims headed to Santiago de Compostela, since then and over the centuries, seeking to worship the Apostle.

Dear visitors, on the 4th of November the National Library is closing at 5 p.m.

“Voices of Violence” is a project that tells the stories and experiences of women living in Denmark, Iceland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who have been exposed to sexual violence, sexism and gendered harassment. The video exhibition is showcased as part of the Scanorama film festival.

In commemoration of the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania declared by the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania arranged an exhibition of publications of documents titled “Shenot Eliyahu/Elijah’s Years: The impact of Vilna Gaon on Lithuanian Jewish Culture” in 2020. The exhibition was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman. It provided an insight into the Vilna Gaon as a person, his intellectual and pedagogical activities as well as his impact on Vilnius Jews, their mentality and culture. The exhibition featured the documents that reflected the Gaon’s life, as well as his own works and those of his students. Prepared on the basis of the National Library’s Judaica Collection, the exposition conveyed the abundance and richness of this collection.

On 14 October, the National Library was visited by the staff members of the National Library of Latvia Renāte Berga, Deputy of the Lettonica and Baltic Centre (Special Collections Department) for bibliographic work, and Jana Dreimane, a researcher at the Lettonica and Baltic Centre (Special Collections Department). The guests met the National Library’s Director-General Renaldas Gudauskas and presented to him a recently published catalogue of the Riga Jesuit College (‘Catalogue of the Riga Jesuit College Book Collection (1583–1621). History and Reconstruction of the Collection’), which, among other information, contains that about copies of publications by the Riga Jesuit College preserved at the National Library. They also visited the exhibition Rari, rarissimi e piccole curiosità, which features rare, highly valuable, exceptional and very interesting documents: everything that is unique, unusual, and mysterious and that amazes us and stirs our curiosity (curiositas).

In a solemn meeting of the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO held on Friday, 8 October, at the Small Hall of Vilnius University, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library was awarded a certificate confirming that the book of songs by Kristijonas Endrikis Mertikaitis titled Wiſſokies Naujes Gieſmes arba Ewangelißki Pſalmai (1817) kept at the National Library was recognised as an item of documentary heritage of regional significance.

Exhibition opening: Friday 8 October 6-8pm, including Introductory Exhibition Tour with Jillian Edelstein and curator Dominik Czechowski. Please register via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..