The Children’s Spaces is a non-conventional library for our youngest readers. It has been established following the Swedish children’s library model which is based on the features of psychological and physical development of children. Here, the focus is on the ways children see and explore the world or how they discover various objects in their surroundings, including books. In this part of the library, books are not shelved alphabetically: our youngest readers and their parents can find the books by category. They can choose books about animals or adventure, funny or terrifying books, poetry or literature in foreign languages, thus there is no need to remember the name of the author of the book’s title. The books are displayed to attract children’s attention with their front covers facing outwards. Their spatial arrangement is also important: the bottom shelves contain toy-books for the smallest readers who still crawl on their hands and knees; picture books arranged by category are placed on the shelves at a height that toddlers can reach; and older children can get the books from the top shelves using a special step ladder.

Libraries seek to modernise access to information by updating their collections of traditional print publications with electronic resources in their attempts to build a knowledge society and to ensure high-quality and responsive provision of information to their users. Electronic publications are vital for today’s libraries which strive to provide a fast and comprehensive access to the latest scientific information to their users.

On 25–26 September, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will host an international academic conference aimed at investigating the World War II war crimes trials and their mediatization processes. It will be the first conference of this kind organised in Lithuania by the Branch Office of German Historical Institute Warsaw and Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology of Klaipėda University.

On 12 September, there are 100 days left until the official 100th anniversary of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. This national cultural institution meets this day by presenting new publications surveying the 100th anniversary of the National Library and future vision as well as diverse festive programme.

The spring of 2018 saw the publication of a unique book titled The Story of BATUN – Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (1966–1991) by Estonian-born author currently residing in the U. S., Sirje Okas Ainso. The book depicts the independence struggle of the three Baltic countries outside Lithuania. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will host the launch event for this unique publication as well as a discussion with the author which will be moderated by diaspora researcher Dr. Ina Ėmužienė. The event will be held in English.

During this year’s General Conference of IFLA, organization that unites the world’s libraries, the poster of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was selected as the Best IFLA Poster 2019. 198 posters had been presented from various countries.

Congestions, long travels, flight delays and queues at check-in counters... You can now escape from a mundane routine life into the world of adventure via Interactive Library portal ibiblioteka.lt. If you are a holder of a LIBIS Reader’s Card, you can experience over 2,000 travels even after the summer break has come to an end. All the users of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania can get free access to electronic books by Lithuanian authors or e-books by foreign authors translated into Lithuanian. Register today and delve into the world of light romance novels or deeply moving dramas and travel for free around the world.

For many of us, the library was a magical place when we were children. Perhaps you remember how you would come across an exciting book cover while raiding the bookshelves and tried to find a quiet spot so that you could delve into a fairy tale that lurks inside. Your childhood ended, and your habits changed. You grew up, and the library did too. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania welcomes everyone who want to get some serious work done at the Library’s Coworking Space and who want to be part of our diverse community.

The international Baltic Sea Festival starts on 24 August. Festival’s programme spans seven festival days of first-class music and seven livestreamed conversations, where some of the most interesting personalities from our region come together to talk about music and sustainability.In Lithuania, the talks are held with one of Europe’s brightest composer stars Justė Janulytė and award-winning multimedia journalist Berta Tilmantaitė. The talk is moderated by Swedish Radio journalist Fredrik Wadström.

On 7 August, among the first visitors greeted at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania were a delegation of 22 teenagers from the conflict zone in Donbass as well as the group’s leaders accompanying them. The delegation came to Lithuania to get to know Europe better.

Visitors are welcome to attend a modern photography exhibition titled “New York’s Constructs” opened at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. In her opening speech, the exhibition’s curator Gerda Paliušytė pointed out that the exhibition and its title were inspired by a photography series of the 1980s by American artist Barbara Kasten. “I am very excited about everything that we have today at this exhibition space. Besides B. Kasten’s assemblages “New York’s Constructs 13” and “New York’s Constructs 14”, visitors will be able to see other works of modern photography by John Divola, Wei-Li-Yeh, Ulrich Wüst, Marijonas Baranauskas, Romualdas Rakauskas, and Itsuko Hasegawa. I would also like to extend my thanks to the National Library (the exhibition is dedicated to its 100th anniversary) and to the Lithuanian Council for Culture as well as Goethe’s Institute in Lithuania for all the support we have received in compiling this exhibition.”

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania invites you to attend the exhibition of paintings by Nijolė Dirvianskytė (born 1944), a painter, folk artist and one of Lithuania’s most prominent representatives of naïve painting.

An international research conference “Reading Vilna in Jewish Writing and Urban History” will take place in Vilnius, 5–7 August, 2019. The organizer of the conference is the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in cooperation with the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies of Vilnius University, and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Judaica Research Center. The conference is supported by the Research Council of Lithuania.

This exhibition borrows its title from the name of a sequence of works by the American artist Barbara Kasten. Created in the early 80s, Kasten’s “Construct NYC” is a series of photographs depicting different small-scale architectural environments carefully arranged in Kasten’s studio. These “stage-sets” consist of combinations of geometric figures made from industrial materials, as well as neoclassical sculptural elements – forms reminiscent of those found in the skyscrapers surrounding Kasten’s studio in Chicago. The colourful photographs, which are created by using Hollywood lighting techniques, seem to document the tension between our presumptions about reality and the artist’s management of physical materials and their intrinsic qualities – a tension exposed by the precision of camera angles. Correspondingly, this exhibition of photography under the same title considers architecture both as a process of mental activity and a political practice, a form of communication which is seen leaking and stretching in different directions, accompanied by the urge to construct and the proximity of void.

On the occasion of the Statehood Day and the National Anthem Day, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė awarded state orders and medals to Lithuanian and foreign citizens for their merits to the Republic of Lithuania and for promoting the name of our country in the world.

Dear visitors, please be reminded that the National Library is closed during public holidays so it will not be open to the public on 6 July. The Library’s opening hours are one hour shorter on a day before a public holiday thus our Library will be open until 8:00 pm on 5 July.

Please be informed that from July 1st to August 25th the National Library will switch to summer opening hours.

As part of the project Labelling of Digital and Digitised Content, the National Library has integrated Rights Statements into the digital object labelling tool/manual cc.lnb.lt which are also available on the online platform europeana.eu.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is opening the anniversary exhibition by the photographer Antanas Sutkus, recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts.

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania held launch event for the book titled Spain, a Global History by Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, writer and diplomat. The book has been recently published in both Spanish and English. Among the event attendees was historian and writer Dr. Artūras Vasiliauskas. The event was facilitated by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Lithuania, José María Robles Fraga.