The National Library of Albania: Tradition and Modern Vision

The National Library of Albania (NLA) was founded in 1920. Its historic collection goes back to the very beginning of the year 1917. On 10 December, 1922 the Official Newsletter announced its inauguration. It is the primary national cultural institution and the oldest in the Albanian State. The NLA occupies two buildings and is organized and functions under the authority of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports. The NLA, located in Tirana, is charged as keeper of the national heritage with collecting, processing, restoring, preserving and making available to the public the written cultural heritage of the Albanian people. At the national level it organizes library education and continuing professional education, and is the study research centre in the field of librarianship, the cataloguing in publications centre, the national ISBN Agency, and the only preservation and restoration centre for special collections. Its collections comprise: books, periodicals, maps, atlases, microfilms and other library materials. The special collections are valuable for national as well as European culture. The library is open 72 hours a week to anyone over 16 years old. Users can borrow library materials or use them in the reading rooms. The library's website enables the users to search a directory as well as services, such as the OPAC, digitized catalogues, and the digital collections. The NLA organizes exhibitions, book promotions, conferences and so on. As a legal deposit institution the NLA publishes the National Bibliography. For the national library network it publishes the scientific-cultural review Bibliothecae, textbooks, professional guides, and manuals. It is a member of IFLA, LIBER, CENL, CDNL, The European Library and has been invited officially to become a partner in the World Digital Library.