The global market and media research company Kantar has conducted a survey of Lithuanian libraries to find out how library visitors rate the quality of the services provided by these institutions, their opinion about the libraries’ internet service as well as to gain insights on the habits, motives and benefits of the usage of the public internet access in libraries. The survey which took place from 28 May 2019 to 3 October 2019 involved a sample of 4,668 visitors aged 15 or older. In summarising results from the survey, Renata Sadunišvili, Insight and Marketing Research Director at Kantar, said that Lithuanian libraries have earned a very high level of trust among visitors, they are making real efforts to change and improve the quality of life of visitors and that they meet their expectations and have established themselves as strong centres of community life. “There is one challenge that the extensive, unified and strong network of Lithuanian libraries and its professional staff is tackling. That challenge is to develop strategies, implement them and uphold the high levels of service,” said the insight and research specialist.

On 23 January, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations opened the exhibition titled “Reflections in the Shattered Mirror” at the United Nation’s headquarters in New York. The exhibition is dedicated to the history of the Jews of Lithuania and is held to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to attend an International Exhibition of Children’s Book Illustrators. “Running with the Wolves” is an exhibition of illustrations which features the works of 38 illustrators from Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. It is a smaller version of the namesake exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the of independence of all three Baltic states and displayed in the London Book Fair 2018. The exhibition is curated by Estonian illustrator Viive Noor.

The Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania has declared 2020 as the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of the Jews of Lithuania. The government-approved event programme will see an active participation of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania which will significantly contribute to raising public awareness of the legacy of the Jewish culture and history in Lithuania and which is set to hold an international academic conference titled “Literature and Intelligence of the Jews of Lithuania in the 17th–20th Centuries”, open a documentary exhibition “Shenot Eliyahu: Vilna Gaon’s Influence on the Culture of the Jews of Lithuania”, and organise a series of educational events titled “Fundamentals of the Worldview of the Jews of Lithuania”. The library will also partner with Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in developing the travelling documentary exhibition titled “Books Don’t Grow on Trees (Z. Kalmanovičius): Preserving and Passing on Memory”. Besides those already mentioned, the National Library has scheduled other events dedicated to the year 2020 in cooperation with Lithuania’s representative offices in foreign countries.

In 2019, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania conducted a quantitative Net Promoter Score (NPS®) survey to find out what proportion of the library users are satisfied with the National Library’s services and tend to recommend them to others. To summarize the data on the library’s services, different aspects and means of customer service as well as the overall ranking of the library’s services, it can be concluded that the library’s Net Promoter Score was 88.5 out of 100 percent in 2019.

Visit the Martynas Mavydas National Library of Lithuania to observe the installation “Awakened from books” by Jolita Vaitkutė, a younger generation artist.

Dear All,

The finishing year has been interesting, creative and full of events. When parting with it, we are sharing our reminiscences about the journey that we embarked upon this year when celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the National Library.

When celebrating its centenary, the National Library had a particular interest in the efficiency and development of partnerships. A successful example is the signing of a cooperation agreement with the market investigation company “Kantar”. This agreement resulted in a representative impact assessment study of Lithuanian libraries.

Libraries have always been institutions that bring people together and allow them to use the information preserved there. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is not only a custodian of the treasury of information but also provides innovative services to the users. Up to the present day, the Library has been inviting junior visitors to Make, Discover, Preserve, Be Inquisitive, Recognize and Capture at the PATS SAU (“Do-It-Yourself”) Makerspace, and on 18 December, it is presenting a creative space for adults, the Media Workshop.

An international project “Digital Approaches in Cultural Heritage: Towards a Pan-Baltic Cooperation Network” carried out in 2018-2019 has come to a close. It was organized by the National Library of Latvia in cooperation with the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuanian, the University of Rostock, the National Library of Estonia, and the National Library of Sweden.

Dear visitors, on the 20th of December National Library is closing at 6 p.m.

On the occasion of its centenary, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania organized an international research conference. Among its participants, there were executives of national libraries from numerous European countries, representatives from Lithuanian public libraries, communication and information professionals and representatives of the publishing sector. The event attracted librarians, book researchers, bibliographers and historians from countries of Eastern, Central and Northern Europe (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and North Macedonia) as well as from Portugal, Great Britain, etc.

Prof. Dr. Andrius Vaišnys, Chair of the National Library’s Scientific Council

The Martynas Mažvydas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania celebrates its centenary. On 14 November, the Library hosted the centennial afternoon titled “Life Library”. Among the guests of the event there were His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, members of the Seimas and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, Ambassadors to the Republic of Lithuania, honorary social, research, cultural and education figures, publishers and the National Libraries partners and fellows.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to attend a solo exhibition of paintings by Mykolė titled “Five Regions” dedicated to Lithuanian landscapes featuring artworks that convey the subtleties of different landscape settings and the change of seasons. The series of artworks that depict the country’s different regions will be exhibited at the same time thus Lithuania will be represented as a unified whole encompassing differences, unique features and natural beauty in general through the lens of contrasts, otherness and diversity.

On the occasion of its centenary, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is organizing an international research conference. At the conference’s main session, Luiz Oosterbeek, Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal and Secretary-General of the International Council of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) UNESCO, France, will share his insights and experience regarding critical reasoning and flexibility; Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian of the British Library will speak about collaborating to advance knowledge and mutual understanding among librarians, partners and leaders; and Dr. Jānis Krēsliņš, Senior Academic Librarian for Research Affairs at the National Library of Sweden, will be giving the presentation “Memory in a Time of Digital Inattentiveness: an Institutional Perspective”.

The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to watch a story of a young Ukrainian woman, who went looking for her father, who had fallen in the Russian-Ukrainian war, and turned into a warrior’s daughter.

On October 9, an international scientific seminar “Experiences of Documentary Heritage Research and Dissemination in European Libraries” will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania. The event is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Researchers and scientists from Great Britain, Poland, Latvia, Belarus and Lithuania will present their papers.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, the exhibition “Verba Volant, Scripta Manent” displays the most valuable, interesting, and significant 14th-21st-century books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, sheet music, and shellac records. Many objects on display are included in the UNESCO Lithuanian National Memory of the World Registry.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to the “Conductor with a Brush” – an exhibition of children's book Illustrations by Kęstutis Kasparavičius. The exhibition was organized on the occasion of the international conference "Visual Language in Children's Literature". The conference is organized by the National Library together with the Lithuanian Branch of the International Association of Children and Youth Literature (IBBY) as part of the Reading Promotion Program approved by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. The international conference and other events will be held in October 9-10 this year at the Conference Hall of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania and the National Library.