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The National Library of Belarus
(NLB) was founded on September 15, 1922, originally as the Belarusian
State and University Library. Since that year the Library has
received a free legal deposit copy of printed publications issued
in the USSR and two Belarusian deposit copies. In 14 May 1926
the Library was reorganised into the independent institution
- the Belarusin State Library.
Since 1926 till 1933 the Library had opened its branches in
Vitebsk, Mogilyev, and Gomel. In 1934 the branch opened in Minsk
at the House of Government. It is the Presidential Library at
present.
In 1932, in connection with the tenth anniversary of the Library,
it was named after V.I.Lenin. In that year the Library received
a new building (project of G.Lavrov). At that time it was the
first special library building in the USSR. There was a reading
hall for 400 users and a reading hall for scientific experts.
Reference and Loan Departments were founded. The Book Stock
had been created for 800000 units. But the Book Collection has
already totaled more than 1 million units.
At the beginning of 1941 there were already more than 2 000
000 units in the collections of the Library. The number of the
readers totaled 15 000.
In the years of the Great Patriotic War the book collections
and bibliographical aids of the Library were harried and destroyed
by the German occupants. The collection of deposit copies suffered
chiefly. Only 33 000 units remained of it. BSSR Archives of
print, newspaper collection, the collection of Belarusian Literature
Division, the Division of Rarities and Old-prints, Loan and
Reading Rooms were evacuated wholly. One of the buildings was
burned together with the reserve book collection placed there.
Only 321 000 volumes of 2000000 lasted to the moment of the
liberation of Minsk. During the war the richest special facilities
of the Library were destroyed. Only one building of the Library
in damaged state was preserved.
In 1944, a few days after the liberation of Minsk, Governmental
Decree concerning the renewal of the Library was adopted. But
in early 1943 a group of the librarians has already begun this
work in Moscow. Since the beginning of the war measures had
been taken to receive and preserve free legal deposit of printed
publications issued in the USSR. Great help in the renewal of
Library's collections and the first steps in the organization
of the Library were performed by the State Library of the USSR
named by V.I.Lenin, the State Library of National Education,
the State Fund of Literature and other libraries and institutions
of the USSR.
In October 1944, the Library has already been opened for its users.
Since spring 1945, the constant search of the book collections
has been started. The Library's books were partly found in Germany,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. By 1948, the collection
of the Library had been restored (in quantitative ratio) though
many gaps remain unfilled up-to-day.
In 1961, a new additional building was constructed. In that time it helped to improve the working conditions of the readers and the preservation of the Library's stocks.
In 1972, in connection with its fiftieth anniversary, the State Library of Belarus was awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
In 1992, in accordance with the Government Decree of the Republic
of Belarus, the State Library of Belarus was renamed into the
National Library of Belarus. |
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