On the 9th of March, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will host the meeting of the Prime Ministers’ Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers, the meeting of the prime ministers of the Baltic states and Poland as well as the official opening of the international exhibition “To Be Banned: Baltic Books 1918–1940”. 

The Minister of Justice of Moldova Prof. Dr. Alexander Tenase and the members of his delegation paid an official visit to the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The Minister A. Tenase was a long-time Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Moldova and previously taught constitutional law at Moldova State University.  The Professor kindly agreed to give an open lecture to the law students of Lithuania.

On the 26th of February, the Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) in cooperation with the Centre for Jewish History opened an exhibition curiously titled “Jews in Space” at its headquarters in New York. It presents not only treatises on astronomy of Rabbis, ancient calendars and sky maps but also sheds light as to how Jewish astronauts celebrate Sabbath while in orbit.  We are happy to add that the exhibition also displays a copy of the 18th c. astronomy manuscript containing three-dimensional calendar tables which is kept at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.

This year’s first international issue of the business magazine JŪRA•MOPE•SEA is focused on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and ways to prepare for the advent of artificial intelligence. On this occasion the magazine’s editors have published an exclusive interview with Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, the director of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.

The latest issue of The Baltic Times features a discussion between Rokas Tracevskis, senior researcher of external information field at Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Parliamentary Information Unit of the Strategic Development Department, and Ignas Stankovičius, head of the national library’s Parliamentary Information Unit of the Strategic Development Department. The expert on security policy shares his insights on threats to Lithuania’s security, hybrid war (which includes the ongoing information war currently waged by Russia as its crucial element), the experience of the January 13 events, the start of the formation of the Lithuanian military structures in 1991 and even his vision for Lithuania after twenty or even hundred years.

On the 1st of February 2018, the National Library opened an YIVO room with a view to strengthen the cooperation with the Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) based in New York (United States), to improve the research of the Judaica documentary heritage and to implement the YIVO Vilnius project aimed at creating a digital library preserving the historical memory of East European Jews as well as to ensure its continuity. This room will accommodate activities related to the coordination of the project tasks and focused on more efficient dissemination of the Jewish documentary heritage stored at the National Library.

The reconstructed interior spaces of Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania continue to receive praise from the architectural community. The library’s interior created by the architecture studio 2XJ has recently been included among the world’s top five public projects at the prestigious 2017 awards held in China.

Dearest community members of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania,

The Judaica Research Centre of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to attend a series of lectures by two speakers from St. Petersburg which will explore Jewish cultural heritage and its uniqueness. This time we will approach this topic by focusing on tangible and even personal cultural heritage: pictures from a unique expedition and family relics passed down from generation to generation.

On 24 October, the New York-based YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presented a body of Jewish documents of invaluable historical significance preserved by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania and discovered in the basement of the St. George Church (formerly the Chamber of Books) in Vilnius, where they had been hidden during WWII. The materials were previously thought to have been destroyed during the Holocaust.

Hidden in the basement of the St. George Church in Lithuania for nearly 70 years, a trove of lost documents thought to have been destroyed in the Holocaust has been discovered by the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research.

On the 17th of October The New York Times published an extensive announcement about the discovery of a trove of lost Jewish materials which was first hidden during the wartime years and stored in secret in the basement of St. George Church (the former Book Chamber).

On the 17th and 18th of October, Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania took part in the event held in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to the International Print Day and the 500th anniversary of the humanist Francysk Skarina.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with embassies of Latin American countries accredited to Lithuania and their honorary consuls, invite dwellers and guests of Vilnius to get to know more about the rich history and culture of Latin American countries. During the months of October and November different events will bring us closer to Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Guatemala.

The twin cataclysms of 20^th Century history—the Holocaust and 75 years of Soviet rule—resulted not simply in the extermination of European Jewry, but also in the erasure of European Jewish culture and a fundamental disruption of the narrative of national survival.

On 19–25 of August, the 83rd general conference and assembly of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) took place in Wroclaw, Poland under the title of Libraries. Solidarity. Society.

On the 17th of August, Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, met with the delegation of the National Library of China headed by the Deputy Director Sun Yigang. The meeting provided an occasion to discuss the initiatives and fields of cooperation between both institutions. The participants also exchanged symbolic gifts.

We grow fastest when we share our experience with those who pursue the same goals. This is exemplified by a public library innovation seminar held at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania between the 16th and 17th of August under the Young African Innovators Initiative (YALI) of the non-governmental organization Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). The events and visits that took place in Lithuania and Poland between the 14th and 15th of August were aimed at providing the representatives of African public libraries with the experiences and ideas of other developing countries and countries in transition.

Interview with Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania in the run-up to the IFLA Conference

Language is not just a tool of communication. It is an extremely interesting multi-layered structure encoding the experiences of the nation who fosters and develops it – its history, culture, and contacts with foreigners and their traces. A “pure” language untouched by other languages is an exception to the rule. In fact, there are virtually no pure languages in Europe. A quick glance at the dictionary can easily reveal the cross influences between different languages. For example, you can come across French words that have similar forms in the German language, and vice versa.