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The National Library of Moldova (Romanian: Biblioteca Naţională a Republicii Moldova, BNRM) located in Chișinău, Moldova is the main library of the state, which is responsible for conservation, valorization and protection of written cultural heritage. The National Library operates according to the guiding principles of UNESCO referring to this type of libraries, it is part of the European Digital Library. Founded in 1940, it traces its roots to the Gubernatorial Public Library of Bessarabia established in 1832. At present, the National Library is one of the objectives with great value of the national patrimony and presents the treasure written and printed cultural heritage of the country. Library ensures wide public access to its collections for research, study and / or information. The Director General is Elena Pintilei.
The library is accessible to all users who have reached the age of 17.
From 1992 until his death on April 8, 2015 the director of the National Library was Alexe Rău, Ph. D., a library scientist, philosopher, poet and essayist.
The National Library is a state institution subordinated to the administrative Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova. The Library operates under the principles of autonomy, freedom, political disengagement, cultural national identity and of legislation and its status. National Library of Moldova represents the treasure of cultural heritage written and printed, which is tasked with:
The Gubernatorial Public Library of Bessarabia (later Public Library) was established in Chişinău by an order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire which remains the founder of the library until 1917. On August 22, 1832, took place the inauguration of the library, at that time the governor of the country was A. I. Sarokumski. The doctor of law, Peter Manega, came from Bucharest and he was preoccupied of finding, renting this building and also the purchase of books fund. The first librarian was Gabriel Bilevici, an intellectual with studies done in Chernivtsi, a professor at the Gymnasium nr. 1- a school for the boys from Chisinau, where there hosted for a while library. The books from the private library of the Colonel I.P. Liprandi, and from Kelhner and from professor Arhanghelski, also the publications donated by G. Polonski și Balen de Bal- laid the foundation for the library’s initial stock. The school director A. Grinevici from Bessarabia, adopted the rules of the public library from Odessa to that of Chisinau.
In 1831, the monger Bogaciov makes available for Public Library in Chisinau one of his houses in which it was inaugurated the library. In 1832, the monger I.Kriukov buys Bogaciov’s house and make a proposal to the library to extend the lease until 1853. After Peter Manega has obtained in 1832 the money needed for lease renewal to Kriukov's house, library remained there until 1834- in three small rooms. In 1835, Peter Manega rent for library a new building, built by the same monger Bogaciov, opposite the city boulevard, which does not have an entry from the street. The following librarians - Kozlov, Saburov, Tanki - tried, but failed an improvement of conditions of the institution.
Only after 1857, the new librarian Venedict Beler, professor of German Language and Mathematics at Gymnasium No. 1, manage to convince the governor Fonton Verraion that the library can no longer remain in a provisional state. In 1860, the library is transported into a beautiful space located in area of the current USM. V. Beller deals from switching inventory and making the public to know about a composition of the collection and providing access to it. The year 1860 was called in the press “Anul bibliotecii lui Beller”. Due to the lack of finance, at the request of gubernatorial administration, in 1869 library was transferred to the financing of the city. In 1877, according to the order of the Ministry of Interior, library with all its heritage is moved to the headquarters of the Duma.
The following have been Directors:
One of the major tasks of BNRM is the establishment, maintaining and providing access to a collection of national editions and foreign valuable publications. The collections are completed by legal deposit, purchase, donations, and interlibrary exchange. BNRM is keeper of a precious fund of documents, totalling 2.5 million in 30 languages. The thematic and linguistic horizon of the collections is universal. The BNRM Collections include traditional (monographs, serials) and nontraditional (disks, magnetic tapes, microfilm, maps, electronic documents, etc.) items.
The Collection contains over 21 thousand documents, including manuscripts, old Romanian books printed in the country and abroad, foreign books published before 1725, books with a polygraphic presentation and artistic significance, ex-libris books, typographical curiosities, personal collections, and old periodicals. The collection includes books that formed part of initial fund at 1832, when the library was inaugurated. Among them, an important role for books is held by General Liprandi, and two volumes of Aristotle commented by Donati Acciaioli and Simplicius. The Library holds the second edition of Cazaniei lui Varlaam (first book written and printed in Moldova, the Three Hierarchs in 1643), edited Râmnic (Muntenia) in 1792; Apostle, published in Bucharest in 1683, Moldova's description Cantemir, the German version (1771), Russian (1789), Romanian (1825); Trebnicul “Petru Movilă”, published in 1646 and illustrated by Elijah engraver.
The library possesses an audiovideo collection including sound recordings (26 000), printed music (66 000), and books and periodicals in the field of music. The collection includes all genres of classical and modern music.
The art and map collection has over 193 000 documents, including albums, art reproductions, posters, postcards, prints, and photographs. It has albums of "Classici dell'arte Rizzoli" and encyclopedias and dictionaries of art.
Moldavistica collection consists of about 15 thousand documents and provides informational and documentary for users interested in the social-political, economic and cultural Moldova seen from the outside. The collection includes documents on Moldova, published in the republic and beyond its borders.
The referential library represents the most valuable collection of dictionaries, bibliographies, journals reports, catalogs, books of addresses, guidance, guidelines, laws, legal acts, official statements, statistical yearbooks in different languages of the world (about 60 thousand volumes).
World literature Collection contains approximately 60 thousand documents. Destination collection: providing information and documentary of researchers the field of literature. The collection includes books about literature in general, documents about the evolution of literatures and languages of the world countries.
It is one of the most voluminous library - 612 000 volumes - and includes magazines (5000 titles), newspapers (2500 titles), different reports and other works of scientific institutions etc.
In 2000, the National Library was awarded the status of library - the keeper of materials and publications of the United Nations in Moldova. Today the collection contains about 3000 the United Nations document, in English and French languages.
BNRM users can become persons who have attained the age of 17. Entry permit is issued for a 5-year term and is subject to re-registration at the beginning of each year. The registration and user registration is based on the following documents: identity card, job identity card, student card, identification card pensioner. Collections availability is ensured through loan documents for users in the reading rooms, interlibrary loan and loan documents at home (for some categories of users). If users do not find the information needed in the village or in the country, they can turn to other libraries, including other states, through interlibrary loan.
Being a part of the EDL in 2010, BNRM launched the National Digital Library Moldavica (BND). This performance is the result of actions and projects performed BNRM cooperation and integration on national and European level. Received as a full member of the Foundation Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), BNRM becomes soon the participant of the project of continental European Digital Library, whose mission is to digitize the written cultural heritage of European countries and organize electronic versions of property documents in a digital library accessible on the Internet. Nationally, BNRM initiated and developed in collaboration with 8 big libraries, 5 museums and the National Archives, the National Programme Memory of Moldova, restricted Programme UNESCO Memory of the World (Memory of the World), which is primarily aimed at safeguarding, conservation and communication of cultural heritage to future generations. The register of the program include old and rare editions, manuscripts, documents and archive documents, artifacts, museum objects which reflects the core of national written heritage. To integrate into the TEL (The European Library) and to compatibilize with it in all logistical and technical aspects, etc., BNRM participated in 2008-2009 at FUMAGABA project, initiated and funded by the European Commission (CENL).
One of the EU donors Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, has provided a grant account for BNRM of which was purchased a scanner (Atiz) and a large capacity server for archiving digital documents created. BND contains digital copies of documents from the 6 categories of publications of BNRM patrimonial funds: manuscripts, old national periodicals, maps, postcards, ex-librises. BND allows BNRM, on one hand, to extend the life of originals by limiting direct access to them, and on the other - to open a new stage in terms of people's access to cultural heritage written and printed, or, digital copies made accessible in Internet, in any place and in any home where there is a computer connected to the Internet. Being part of the European Library, BND can be accessed in any European country on site TEL.
In 2011, in collaboration with the League of Librarians BNRM, they developed and began implementing a new system of thought and action in the field of librarianship, crowned by a system of assessment and national awards in the field - GALEX. Awards GALEX are granted in the following categories: Best librarian from national libraries, Best librarian in public libraries, Best politician supporter of libraries, Best founder of library, Best writer promoter of books and reading, best editor supporter of libraries, the best promoter and supporter of libraries, books and reading in the media, best project of librarianship, best work in library. The first national GALEX laureates were: Raisa Melnik (Head of Section, BNRM) and Maria Cudlenco (Director, Old Crihana Public Library); Iurie Leanca, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; Gheorghe Duca, President of ASM; Boris Focsa, Minister of Culture; George Erizanu, writer; Anatol Vidraşcu, Publishing Director "Letter"; Dorin Chirtoaca, mayor of Chisinau; Vasile Petrea, businessman etc.
Text from the Wikipedia article “National Library of Moldova”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.