“Our libraries are both cultural centres and home for communities; a meeting place offering assistance and support. Despite the fast pace of our lives and the available virtual space, books will always remain important,” these were today’s words of address of Dalia Grybauskaitė, the President of the country and the patron of the Year of Libraries, to the library representatives who came to the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania from all over the country. She thanked the librarians for their passion for books and library visitors. The President also presented individual diplomas of acknowledgement to the most active librarians.

Nearly 1,200 events attended by over 40,000 people, more than 90 innovative services, 215 new products and tools: these numbers are a testimony to the shift of attitude of the renewed Lithuanian libraries towards their visitors and the community. All these changes were partially a result of the three-year Libraries for Innovation 2 project initiated by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is keeping its promises to the visitors and on 7 December will open a door to the world of sounds and arts – Music and Visual Arts Reading Room.

The new Lithuanian government will face two challenges: some uncertainty about the EU’s future and the eternal issue of WarsawVilnius relations, which might become really relevant in the case of some geopolitical turbulence. On Nov. 17, Saulius Skvernelis, speaking in the Lithuanian Parliament after being nominated by President Dalia Grybauskaite to the post of prime minister, stated that he will seek to reset his country’s relations with Poland “(Lithuania’s) relations with Poland of the latest period are not bad. However, they are not of a neighbourly style,” Skvernelis said, adding that Lithuanian-Polish relations are important due to co-operation within NATO and economic ties between the countries. He has said his first foreign visits will be to Warsaw and Riga.

On 28 November, in the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Mr. Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs at interim, and Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, signed a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and the National Library. The signing of the agreement coincided with the solemn opening of a Diplomacy Shelf: a shelf dedicated to publications and books in the field of diplomacy and international relations from the library funds delivered to the National Library by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

On October 18–19, the European Parliament in Brussels hosted an international library exhibition Generation Code: Born at the Library. The interactive exhibition was held during the EU Code Week and demonstrated how public libraries are meeting the digital age challenges by improving digital skills of younger and older generations in Europe. At the exhibition, a virtual library presentation Time Portal developed as part of the National Library’s project Libraries for Innovation 2 was demonstrated for the first time.

On 26 October, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania hosted an international forum on Culture and Sustainable Development. The purpose of the forum was to initiate a discussion on the role of culture and creative industries sector in the process of sustainable development.

We are happy to bring good news to families with little children: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania has opened a space, which was created to respond to your needs.

On 13 October, a space for children was opened in the Children and Youth Literature Reading Room of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The children's space was equipped in cooperation with the Swedish Institute and the Embassy of Sweden in Lithuania in implementing a joint project Spaces for Children. First, the children were invited to enjoy the new space for intellectual activity. They listened to passages of their favourite books read by the actor Šarūnas Gedvilas, played games, and participated in a creative workshop with a Swedish art educator Anna Maria Willner.

After eight years of reconstruction, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was opened on 2 September. The celebration started on Friday with an official opening ceremony and continued throughout the weekend: on 3-4 September, the Library was open for everyone to see the renovated Library spaces and the activities planned and organized there.

Dear visitors of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, last weekend you were invited to the main building opening celebration events and starting from Monday you are welcome back to the reading rooms.

On 13-19 August, the 82nd General Conference and Assembly of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) took place in Columbus, Ohio (USA). The theme of this annual congress of library and information services sector was Connections. Collaboration. Community.

Since 2010, Renaldas Gudauskas, 58, has been the director general of the Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania (Mazvydas was the author of the first printed book in the Lithuanian language, which was published in 1547, and, therefore, the Lithuania’s national library is named after him).

On 23 June 2016, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was visited by a delegation from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, who was introduced to the results of the YIVO Vilnius Project phase one.

The ongoing Venice Architecture Biennale has a Baltic pavilion, where the National Library is represented by a small, 40-page methodical book “Moving Whole Wooden Farmhouses from Farmsteads to Kolkhozes” (“Neišardytų medinių trobesių perkėlimas iš vienkiemių į kolūkių gyvenvietes”) by V. Grincevičius and J. Mikuckas, published in 1954 by the State Political and Academic Literature Publishing House.

The 160-th birth anniversary of the first director of the National Library of Lithuania (at that time – Vilnius Public Library), Professor Eduardas Volteris (1856-1941), was commemorated at the international conference in Kaunas on May 5, 2016. The conference also marks the beginning of the events celebrating the Library's 100-year anniversary in 2017.

The Embassy of Switzerland in Lithuania presented a gift to the Director-General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas from Switzerland’s Pro Helvetia cultural fund – the book compiled by Diccon Bewes “Around Switzerland in 80 Maps”, a selection of historical and modern maps and planners reflecting the history of Switzerland, territorial changes, the development of Switzerland’s connection system and even the view from space.

The Ambassador of the USA Ms Deborah A. McCarthy visited the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania on 3 May. She saw the Library’s collection of Judaica documents.

On 3–4 April, there was the meeting of the UNIMARC Permanent Committee of the International Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) at the National Library of Portugal. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was represented by the Director of the Information Sciences Department Dr. Nijolė Bliūdžiuvienė, who participated at the meeting as a member of the Permanent Committee.

On March 16, The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania hosted the visit of the Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York Dr. Jonathan Brent and this Institute’s Acting Chief Archivist Dr. Lyudmila Sholokhova. During the meeting with the manager of the YIVO Vilnius Project and Director of the Information Sciences Department Dr. Nijolė Bliūdžiuvienė, Deputy Director-General for the Development of Information Resources and Services Sandra Leknickienė and Deputy Director-General for the Infrastructure Aidas Sinkevičius, they discussed the progress of the YIVO Vilnius Project and its perspectives for the two coming years.