Abstract
This year, the National Library of Latvia (NLL) is celebrating its centenary. Five years have passed since it was housed in a new, specially designed and constructed building. Two decades ago, we were focused on defining the functions of the new library project, the need for which had been defined 10 years after its founding, and design work had begun as early as 1989. Twenty years ago, it was concluded that the new library should be accessible to the public: to some extent public, to some extent academic. This was imposed by the fact that Riga has no metropolitan-type, central city libraries, but the University Library, also founded in 1919, had been destroyed twice, but now the university campus was being developed just 500 m from the NLL. The year 1999 saw the beginning of the digital era – the Library launched the National Digital Library programme.
Ten years ago – in 2009 – the construction of the new building had already started. Questions about the implementation of its functions, in what was now a real setting, were at the forefront. It was necessary to plan not only the logistics of basic functions – of collection development, processing and access, but also the acquisition of robust technological equipment, the organisation of public space for various cultural and social events, and its adaptation to research and education purposes. No less important were infrastructural technical solutions – safety, microclimate, mobility, requirements for people with special needs, catering and so on. Particular attention was paid to the presence of high-quality art both inside and outside the Library.
As a result, from 2014 the NLL started intensive operations in a completely unrestricted conference and exhibition centre (including a permanent, museum-type exhibition on publishing – Books in Latvia). At the same time, reading rooms with wide-ranging, open-access collections are located across eight levels. The millionth visitor to the building was welcomed as early as in 2017, but the number of registered readers has reached some 150,000, close to 8% of the country’s population, and the number of e-visits has increased by 40% year on year. In 2018, the NLL received the Library of the Year award at the London Book Fair.
Contemplating the next 10 years, the Library has been thinking in three dimensions – the library’s physical environment, digital challenges and new non-traditional directions. The NLL’s priority and lynchpin for this period is the Library’s collection. We will work purposefully to build, preserve and research a versatile collection, ensuring its inclusion in the European and global cultural space and its accessibility in the digital environment. We will improve our data and maintain services, conduct research, create exhibitions and events, creating user-friendly access to the NLL collection. Our collection is an indispensable part of Latvia’s and international cultural heritage that provides a unique scope of knowledge and content in all areas of Lettonica and other research. The NLL collection will continue to develop as support for Latvia’s representation and international recognition and for people’s sense of belonging to the Latvian cultural space.
I would, however, like to touch on some specific future directions that better describe the three dimensions we are considering.
Special collections and cultural heritage, and the digitisation and contextualisation thereof
Keeping up with statements by UNESCO, IFLA and LIBER attests to the fact that cultural heritage is being given more attention by libraries. This applies both to the unique portion of analogue collections and the reuse of its content in the digital environment. This is particularly the case with national libraries. For the NLL – early printed works, manuscripts, music, maps and ephemera account for about half of the entire holdings. This is and will continue to be part of the perpetual NLL collection. It is also a priority group for digitisation projects. Consequently, the NLL is working to promote the reuse of these resources both through Europeana and in cooperation with academic institutions. The NLL is urging other memory institutions to seek common solutions in the next decade for the preservation of documentary heritage, both on paper and in other media. The preservation of digital heritage will also become pertinent over the next decade.
Along with the traditional methods of data organisation and access (open access, linked data, etc.), the library, in collaboration with universities and research institutes, is also very active in the development of programmes such as the Digital Humanities. To facilitate this, the NLL has established a team of researchers representing a number of sectors – in the bibliography institute, in the service, special collection and strategic development departments. The interaction between digitisation and research has become an established direction – the creation of specific digital collections where researchers, alongside creating metadata systems, take into account ‘contextualisation’.
The Latvian National Encyclopaedia
For small nations, the credible and consistent compilation of information cannot be offset either by private initiatives or wikis. After several attempts, the NLL managed to establish an encyclopaedia editorial board, tasked with creating a national, general-knowledge electronic encyclopaedia. Practically, all of the country’s leading researchers and specialists in 55 sectors (around 500 authors) are involved in the creation of the encyclopaedia. The European Commission has demonstrated interest in our virtual-encyclopaedia methodology. It is anticipated that, over the next 10 years in Europe, reliable and comprehensive information resources will flourish in the form of electronic encyclopaedias. Latvia’s example shows that, in small countries, this can be achieved very successfully by national libraries.
Working with children
Another unique NLL niche is working with children, and the authors and publishers of children’s books. This is about the promotion of reading habits in society, first of all in young people. The entire 7th level of the NLL building is dedicated to these activities. However, the work of the Children’s Literature Centre is not only at the national level. The Children’s Jury has been running for 18 years and involves 20,000 children and 700 libraries. It has also reached out to 57 Latvian centres in 26 countries. The programme has a significant impact on Latvia’s literacy indicators. Consequently, by developing new forms, the NLL will continue to promote the nation’s reading.
Skills for the knowledge society
The NLL skills training programme includes continuing professional education for memory-institution specialists and non-formal education for members of the public. The NLL is an accredited education institution that has created a multifaceted programme for its diverse audience, including training in the following knowledge society skills: information literacy, literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, career management, financial literacy and civic literacy.
Particular emphasis is placed on the generation preparing for higher education. They have been given their own space, -15+. The NLL’s partners in this are the University of Latvia and other universities, formal and non-formal education organisations and NGOs. The reuse of digital resources is of particular importance here.
Competence centre
The compiling of Latvia’s National Digital Library has been underway for 20 years, leading-edge technologies have been introduced – all texts have undergone optical character recognition (OCR), collections and data are organised in a Digital Object Management System. The library has developed a set of manuals and carries out training that improves the quality of cultural heritage digitisation throughout the sector. For these reasons, the management of the large-scale Digitisation of Cultural Heritage ERDF project has been entrusted to the NLL. The assignments are: to digitise large volumes of various materials – newspapers, books, maps, photographs, archive and monument files, film reels, audio recordings and museum artefacts, the 3D scanning of monuments, the recording of current cultural events; to create a unified cultural heritage aggregator; and to create a unified all-cultural data centre, on the basis of the NLL Data Centre, serving the needs of archives, libraries, museums and other memory institutions.
Conclusions
The role of the national library has reinforced the traditional core functions of the NLL and has multiplied our intellectual resources originating from Latvia. At the same time, our task is to create new target audiences and new services. The availability of public space has provided opportunities for diverse events and activities. The digital and analogue spaces must operate interactively. We continue to promote public events (550 were hosted in 2018), based on the Library’s content, technology and staff. Staff will not be only bibliographers but also data analysts and mentors. Consequently, participation in the country’s cultural, educational, scientific and social lives will be expanded significantly. The library works hand in hand with archives, museums, galleries, the IT cluster, media, education institutions, research centres and the non-government sector.
Rainis – the famous turn of the 19th- and 20th-century Latvian poet, playwright and politician – coined a phrase which has become part of national folklore: What changes, endures! We agree with Rainis. However, in evaluating our excellent and crucial partnership experience, the catchphrase for the NLL’s centenary became: Friendship endures!