Who owns the National Library of Latvia? / Article / LSM.lv

The ABC of culture

LTV “Kultūrdevas” ABC explains the significant history and significance of Latvian cultural facts.

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The idea to build the building of the National Library of Latvia was first expressed in 1928, but 60 years later – in 1989 – Latvian architect Gunārs Birkerts, who lives in the USA, developed a building project, which he was inspired by Rainis’ play “Golden Horse”. Birkert saw the National Library of Latvia as a symbolic mountain of glass, where the naive Antiņš walks up and awakens the Sunscreen lying in it. This vision of his on the left bank of the Daugava finally got its physical form only in 2014.

Unofficially, the library is also called the Castle of Light – a combination of words that first appeared in Ausekls’ poem of the same name, denoting a storehouse of intelligent knowledge. In 2017, the BBC’s Department of Culture and Architecture named the LNL building one of the 10 most beautiful libraries of the 21st century in the world.

The LNL’s collection contains more than 4 million items, and since 2006 efforts have been made to gradually make them available on the Internet as well – in the digital library. The Latvian National Encyclopedia has also been established under the auspices of the library, which was published in both digital and paper format in the country’s centenary in 2018. In order to ensure the accumulation of all our spiritual values ​​for future generations, a legal deposit law has been introduced, which stipulates that any publisher is obliged to donate some copies of the publication to the library.

The library was opened in a year when Riga could be proud of the title of European Capital of Culture. On the opening day, the campaign “Path of Light – Chain of Book Friends” was implemented, during which about 12,000 people gather in a long chain to help books go hand in hand from the old LNL building on Barona Street to the new residence on the left bank of the Daugava.

It was a symbolic way of telling the public that we will all build the new library together.

Since the opening day, people have been invited to donate one special book to the library. So far, the library has managed to collect about 7,000 books in 50 languages, which are located in one of the central elements of the LNL building – the People’s Shelf.

Another crucial object of the LNL sightseeing, of course, is the Song Cabinet created by Krišjānis Barons.

However, the first inhabitants of the library were neither librarians nor book readers, but lovers of extreme sports. The management of the library still treats them with understanding, because – the library belongs to us all. A documentary short film “My library is my spots” was made about these first conquerors of the LNL.

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