This year marks 250 years since the National and University Library was first established. To this day, the Library remains one of the most important cultural and educational institutions in the country.
The National and University Library has been preserving thoughts for 250 years
The 250th anniversary of the founding of the National and University Library is an opportunity to look back in time and recall the events that shaped the development of the library, the building of the collection and the services provided to users. It presents a selection of stories whose echoes can still be heard today, as they have had a significant impact on all that has followed. They are the cornerstones of our development, which also shed light on the role of NUK more broadly.
First the Lyceum Library, then the Imperial Royal Study Library, the National Study Library, the State Library and now the National and University Library, the story of this period is one of continuous care for users and materials. The library receives 250,000 visitors and users a year.
The collection has more than 3,000,000 items. And not only in physical form, more than one million digital objects are also available in the Digital Library of Slovenia, which is also managed by NUK.
That is why the National and University Library, which today resides in the Jože Plečnik Library Palace and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is almost first and foremost a place where we can witness the rich creativity of a nation and touch its cultural greatness.
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The quarter of a millennium collection consists of a core national collection of Slovene literature, which has the status of a cultural monument, a core collection of study literature and a collection of special library materials. Photo: archive NUK
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Digitisation of Prešeren's Zdravljica. Foto: archive NUK
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The story of the National and University Library is that of a symbol of dedicated collecting, expert editing, responsible preservation and increasing access to knowledge. Foto: archive NUK
In this spirit, the exhibition 'Keeping the Minds - 250 Years On' will be on display until the beginning of December. Stories, documents, photographs, a variety of materials, data through a historical cross-section and a presentation of past and present NUK activities offer visitors a walk through 250 years of the library's development.
There are the first inventories of the collection, catalogues, official correspondence and material from bequests, gifts and compulsory copies, a selection of recently acquired material from special collections and a selection of works from the pens of librarians and other library staff.
The exhibition is designed in two parts, with the material on display from the opening until September telling the story of the Library's beginnings and the collection of material; the second part will showcase the diversity of the Library's material, its curation and conservation.
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From the initial 637 books, important works by national and international authors were collected and passed on in various ways, so that by the turn of the twentieth century the library held more than 36,000 volumes, and today, 250 years later, the collection numbers more than 3,000,000 items. Photo: archive NUK
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Stiški manuscript. 1st half. 15th century. (Ms 141). The most important Slovenian medieval manuscript preserved in the National Library of the Czech Republic. It was written around 1428 in the Cistercian monastery in Stična. The Slovenian texts are inscribed in a codex with the Latin texts, located on the last pages. Photo: archive NUK
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Nachricht für das lesende Publikum! 1 February 1794. Notice to the Reading Public! announced to the Ljubljana public that on 15 February 1794 the Lyceum library "is opened for public use under the supervision of the Consul of Studies and will be open to all lovers of reading of all classes from 10 a.m. to 12 noon daily, 14 hours weekly, during the ten months of the school year." (Konrad Stefan, History of the C.C.C. Study Library in Ljubljana, 2009.) Foto: archive NUK
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The history of NUK shows how it is also the threads of unfortunate coincidences that weave the library's development and memory, and how our great ancestors dealt with them and thus paved the way for us to move forward. Photo: Miran Kambič/slovenia.info
Date: 28. May 2024
Time to read: 5 min
