Research Centres

Adolfas Damušis Democratic Studies Centre

Gedimino 51, 6th floor, Room 607
Tel. +370 5 239 8638, E-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Opening hours: September - June, July - August

Adolfas Damušis Democratic Studies Centre (ADDSC) is a specialized structural unit of the Documentary Heritage Research Department at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania involved in the research of the ideas of the democratic political thought of the 20-century Lithuania undergoing the process of modernization and its historical heritage.

The mission of the centre:

  • pursue the research of the democratic political thought and the statehood development of Lithuania during its interwar-period of independence;
  • discuss the ideological and cultural views of the Lithuanian society and expatriates of the occupation periods and the forms of civic and political expression;
  • collect, organize and disseminate documentary and non-material historical heritage;
  • popularize research findings, contribute to building civil society, to fostering public historical memory and the cultural identity;
  • stimulate historical and political research along with academic partners;
  • maintain contacts in the Lithuanian and international research scene.

The centre houses a gradually expanded fund of some 1000 publications including the collections donated by the following sponsors, among many others:

  • Rožė Šomkaitė;
  • Vincas and Aldona Šmulkščiai;
  • Rasa Razgaitienė;
  • Nijolė Bražėnaitė-Paronetto;
  • The Lithuanian Research and Studies Centre (Chicago, USA)

A. Damušis Democratic Studies Centre provides open access to library visitors who are involved in the research of or are interested in this topic. For more detailed consultation, please register by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Judaica Research Centre

Gedimino 51, 5th floor, Room 506
Opening hours: September - June, July - August>

Judaica Research Centre is an open institution with a focus on cooperation in the field of education actively disseminating information about the Jewish documentary culture preserved in the collection of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. The activities of the Centre include ensuring development of research of Jewish documentary heritage, organization and implementation of educational and information projects and dissemination of comprehensive information about their results.

The constantly growing open collection of printed documents includes publications on the following topics:

  • cultural studies;
  • religion, theology;
  • classic and modern Jewish literature (in different languages);
  • universal Jewish history;
  • Jewish history in Lithuania;
  • publications in Yiddish and Hebrew;
  • biographies of famous Lithuanian Jews;
  • Jewish cookbooks;
  • reference books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, bibliographic publications.

Publications available in the Judaica Research Centre:

  • Mattityahu Strashun’s collection;
  • documents published in Yiddish and Hebrew in Lithuania (1759–1940);
  • documents published in Yiddish and Hebrew abroad (16th c.–1940);
  • periodicals published in Yiddish and Hebrew until 1940.

Everyone interested in Judaica is welcome in the Judaica Research Centre.

Please order the documents in the Centre. Ordering via the Library's information system is not available.

Statehood Centre

Opening hours
Monday to Thursday 8.00 - 17.00 (Lunch break 12.00 - 12.45)
Friday 8.00 - 15.45 (Lunch break 12.00 - 12.45)

The purpose of the Statehood Centre is to foster the public’s need to get to know the history of their country’s statehood and the processes through which a modern state is developed as well as to contribute to the establishment of democratic values and civil society.

The Statehood Centre is used for the purpose of hosting cultural and educational activity, encouraging the development of citizenship, taking an in-depth look at the country’s history and the transformations of the state, today’s political and societal phenomena as well as current events.

The open collection includes the private library of Professor Vytautas Landsbergis, Chairman of the Lithuanian Supreme Council-Reconstituent Seimas, which includes the following items:

  • books,
  • periodicals,
  • sheet music.

The library is gradually adding to the collection housed in the space, which also includes publications on a variety of topics not just in Lithuanian, but in English, German, French, Polish, Latvian, Estonian, Russian, Swedish, Finnish and other languages. The collection includes works from the following fields:

  • contemporary politics,
  • diplomacy,
  • musicology,
  • folklore,
  • religion,
  • history,
  • Lithuanian and foreign fiction,
  • art history and criticism, art albums.

The open collection housed in the library’s reading rooms is freely accessible to visitors, and its publications cannot be ordered via the information system of the library. Information about all of the publications available at the library can be found in the library’s online catalogue. Publication codes begin with the letters LV.

Visitors can order documents from depositories (codes begin with the letters LVF) Monday to Thursday until 4 p.m. and on Fridays until 3 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, the library only issues documents that have been ordered in advance. Visitors can order publications by filling in an order form at the Information and Registration Point on the 2nd floor.