Since the rigged presidential elections in Belarus in 2020, more than 40,000 Belarusians have come to Lithuania – most of them to Vilnius. Having become masters of self-organization due to the circumstances in their own country, the people from Belarus have also created structures in Vilnius: co-working spaces and self-help groups, crowdfunding campaigns for urgent evacuations from Belarus, and now also support for Ukraine. But Vilnius, once a spiritual capital that twice became the intellectual center of the Belarusian nation in the 20th century, quickly lost its symbolic character for many and became a real place with worries and problems, with a migration office and parking tickets. And the outside perspective on the new arrivals also changed: With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, many Belarusians no longer experience only solidarity, but sometimes also scepticism as citizens of a satellite state of the aggressor. But since then, the incredulous looks that made mutual trust difficult have also become rarer. The knowledge of the violence that the Belarusians carried with them is now on every screen. 

Dear visitors! Please be informed that from the 29th of August National Library’s opening hours will be as usual.

The exhibition of the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum devoted to the life and work of the legendary theatre director the winner of the Lithuanian National prize for Culture and Arts Jonas Jurašas.

On 1 September 2022, there will be an interactive exhibition launched at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (in the Atrium, 3rd floor) devoted to Lithuanian heritage treasures entered into UNESCO’s lists and registers.

7–9 August saw the presentation of the art project of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania ‘Representation of the Cultural History of Lithuania in the Contemporary Interactive Artistic Format’ at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland by this Library’s Director-General Prof. Dr Renaldas Gudauskas. On 8 August, Renaldas Gudauskas participated at the world premiere of the documentary film ‘Prologos’ created by Marius Kvedaravičius, a film director and cultural anthropologist, who was killed by Russian occupants in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine on 30 March this year. The film was presented by its producer Uljana Kim.

On 24–30 July, on an invitation of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Director-General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr Renaldas Gudauskas participated at the 87th IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin was also the venue for the annual meeting of the conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL). The secondment’s purpose was to participate at annual IFLA and CDNL events and represent Lithuania’s National Library.

The Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre under the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport will be reorganised and merged with the National Martynas Mažvydas Library of Lithuania. This proposal was approved today by the Government. All reorganisation procedures are scheduled for completion by 1 January 2023.

“Our common task is to restore our society and state and continue building them. However, only free people in a free land reveal the powers of that creation. Therefore, we must come to our free land and defend our own and children's lives. We are already coming. There are many of us. So life is changing quickly, and we are now standing on the threshold of a historical turning point.” (Vytautas Landsbergis, March 12, 1990)

An exhibition of lace and drawings by the folk artist Jadvyga Lapinskaitė-Dirvianskienė, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of her death, will be on display in the atrium of the 5th floor of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania from 11 July, 2022.

On 14–16 June this year, Director-General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas participated at the meeting of the Council of the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Association (EBLIDA) and at a conference at the Goethe Institute in Athens.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to the exhibition “Colours of a Chameleon”. It presents photographs of the Lithuanian news agency ELTA since 1978 to1982 and examples of underground avant-garde art from a similar period. This exhibition is the result of a study of Soviet propaganda (press) photography.

Please be informed that from 1^st of July to 28^th of August the National Library will switch to summer opening hours.

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 5th of June (Father's Day). 

Shards of a subject.

Shells of thought.

Things, details, shadows and the manufactured stories of their feelings – these are the main subjects/characters inhabiting my painterly world. They are like childhood friends, like silent observers.

Dear All,

while looking forward to Easter and celebrating it, we shall once again realise that hard times do not last forever and that traditions persist even during hardships, world wars and epidemics and will remain with us during the current complicated time period.

Dear visitors, please be reminded that the National Library is closed during public holidays so it will not be open to the public on 17 and 18 April, i. e. on the first and second day of Easter. The Library’s opening hours are one hour shorter on a day before a public holiday thus our Library will be open until 5:00 pm on 16 April.

On 6–8 April, the director general of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, participated by invitation of the Lithuanian embassy in Prague in the ‘Czech-Baltic Century’ literary exhibition initiated by the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian embassies. The event was dedicated to a hundred-year-long diplomatic history between the Czech Republic and the Baltic states.

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.