Lithuania

National Libraries

National Library of Lithuania
Lietuvos Nacionaline Martyno Mazvydo Biblioteka is located in Vilnius. It was founded in 1919 and houses over seven million items. It is completely open and accessible to the public and has eighteen reading rooms. The website provides access, location, collection and contact information. It also contains a complete list of links to other library related sites, not just in Lithuania. This link, "3W Resources" is available from the home page.

The Lithuanian Library of Medicine
This library, founded in 1944, contains the largest collection of medical and related sciences texts in the country, including rare and valuable historical texts. The library also operates ten branch libraries at hospitals and medical centers throughout the country. Contact and location information for each of those is available on this website. The website is neat and the links are easy to follow. It contains a lot of helpful practical information about the functions and services of the library. There is no date on the website so there is no way of knowing whether or not it is up to date. The events on the "News" page are all from 1999.

Image from The Lithuanian Library of Medicine

Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
This library is also located in Vilnius. Its goal is to "serve researchers and anybody interested in scientific literature, manuscripts and other information." This is a very thorough site. It is structured using frames and contains a lot of information. The library is divided into nineteen departments and there is a link to a brief information page for each one. Each of these departments gives their contact information, the name of the head of the department, the aim of the department, and then a general description of the department. This site does not have any dates on it, and the link to the catalog is not working. The site is still a wonderful way to find out what the library has to offer and how to get in touch with it.

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University Libraries

Vilnius University Library
According to this website, this university library was founded in 1570. As of January 1999, it contained over five million items. In addition to the general collection, this library holds great numbers of manuscripts, historical documents and books, and historical photos. It also is a United Nations Depository library. The website gives contact, collection, services and resource information. Most pages were updated during 2001, some as recently as November. There is also a "WWW Resources" page which provides links to search services (Lithuanian and general), online magazines and newspapers, online reference tools, and citation guides.

Vilnius Pedagogical University Library
This is an up-to-date, user-friendly website. Most pages were updated in September 2001, the events listed are from late November 2001, and there is access to an online catalog and to electronic databases for students and staff at the university. The collection contains close to 800,000 items, most of which are textbooks, followed by scientific materials, then fiction. This site has a "Links" page which contains active links to useful sites for students at the university, as well as links to the catalogs of other libraries, to search engines and online reference pages.

Library of the Kaunas University of Technology
The history section of this website contains some wonderful old photos of the collection and staff of the Kaunas Library, the oldest library in Kaunas, founded in 1920. The library's collection is developed based on the curriculum at the university. The collection is divided into five major subject categories: Science and Engineering, Humanities and Social Science, Standards, and Rare Books. This is an academic library but it is completely open to the public. According to the website, any Lithuanian or foreign citizen will have access to the collection. There is a main library and six branches. There is also an interesting listing of projects that the library has been involved with over the years. Most of them relate to furthering the technological capabilities of the libraries and increasing electronic access.

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Public Libraries

Public Library of the Klaipeda Municipality
This library was established in 1920 in Klaipeda. Today, it has six departments and fourteen branches. The website has pages aimed at children, at youth, and at the general population. The pages for children and for youth really focus on activities, collections and branches that have special facilities that will interest people of those ages. For example, the children's page shows information about internet sites and library branches for children. The site for youth focuses on music, the internet and a special youth services center.

Public Library of Siauliai
This is a city municipality library. The website contains information on this particular library, as well as on the ten branch libraries affiliated with it. Most of the webpages were updated early in 2001. A telephone number and address is provided for each branch library, as well as for departments within the libraries. Descriptions of the departments and services are on the website. There is no access to the online catalog but there are explanations of the catalogs and collections.

Public Library of Zarasai District
This is a district municipality library with twenty-three branches. The district shares borders with Latvia and Belarus. This main library contains over 300,000 items in many different languages. The library is involved in a special project, The Project Zarasai Public Library Services for Children and Community. A great deal of interesting information is provided on this project and the history of the Zarasai District.

Public Library of Alytus District Municipality
This is the largest library in southern Lithuania. It oversees five departments and branches and has been operating since 1925. Its collection contains over 400,000 items. In 1999 the library began to collect sound recordings. Computers and other digitized media have been available to the community since late 1999. Hours of operation and contact information are provided.

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