2017 has been a productive year for the National Library of Moldova (BNRM). It launched a Training Center for librarians, including those in districts, won several grants and set up cooperation with international institutions. Such achievements will help the Library attract even more readers next year and become more than a cultural hub – a community center, Library director Elena Pintilei told IPN.
She said the National Library marked its 185th anniversary in 2017. In December, it published the National Calendar for 2018, an encyclopedic edition requested by librarians and culture figures. The calendar has 260 pages with 225 articles about national and international personalities, as well as information about relevant events in Moldova and abroad.
Together with several embassies, the Library also celebrated 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moldova and countries like the Czech Republic, Russia, China and others. It continued its work as member of the Conference of European National Librarians.
The BNRM also won a heritage grant, the grant of the US Ambassador, and launched a very important project “Preserving Bessarabian manuscripts from the Tsarist period (1812-1917)”. With the framework of the project, it will buy equipment and train specialists to preserve and restore old documents. The project is at the initial stage and will continue in 2018.
“The National Library managed to re-position itself in the National Library System. Thanks to the new Law on libraries, the BNRM will be more than a cultural hub – a community center. We hope the law will help us achieve what society and the community expect from us”, said Pintilei.
According to her, the institution will launch new services for users, so that it opens up more and its databases become more accessible. New rooms will be furnished and a Book Museum will be opened.
“We want to make the most of our resources and materials via exhibitions and other specific activities. We hope to attract as many users as possible and I am confident we can do it”, said Pintilei.
One of the main missions of the BNRM is to compile, preserve and offer to its users a complete collection of valuable national and foreign publications. Collections are completed via purchases, donations, exchanges between libraries and so on. Every year, the Library fund adds 13-14,000 documents. At the moment, the BNRM has 2.5 million documents in 30 languages.
Anyone above 17 years of age can become a BNRM user. It has 11 reading rooms, 9 of which are specialized. Overall, it can host up to 480 readers at a time.
