History and the present

History and the present

History and the present

The library in Birstonas was already mentioned in the press at the beginning of the 20th century, the newspaper "Hope" of 1911 stated that Birstonas resort ‘would improve treatment, would expand the library-reading room’. In 1930, the article "Resort Public Libraries Abroad and in Birstonas" of the literary magazine “Sejos Baras” broadly described the library-reading room in Birstonas Park, its poor premises and poor work comparing to the German resort libraries.

During the interwar period, small libraries, known as bookstores, were established and maintained by the Lithuanian national youth "Young Lithuania" and Siauliai Unions in Birstonas. The small bookstore of the Birstonas branch of the “Young Lithuania” Union with 36 books was opened in 1932. Books donations were requested and benefactors were publicly thanked. In1938, the bookstore already had 270 books.

 The Birstonas Rifle Platoon Library had 168 publications. In 1932, 27 readers were registered, who had read 97 books.

 In 1936, after having passed the Law on State Public Libraries, the establishment of the Birstonas Public Library was also a matter of concern. In 1938, the municipality bought a house with a large land site, where the municipality, the police and the library had to be located.

 However, the library was not established. Soviet occupation began, the Second World War started. The “Young Lithuania” Union was closed in June,1940.

 Birstonas District Library started its activity in 1948. At that time the library stock consisted of 3022 books and had about 200 readers. The library was located in an old wooden house, in the centre of the town, opposite the church, Zemaites str. 3 (now Birute street). The first head of the library was Brone Feiferiene. During the period of 1960-1990, the library was headed by Marcele Jonuskiene, since 1991 – by Alina Jaskuniene.

 In1979, the library celebrated its housewarming in the Cultural Centre building. It had a subscription, a 40-seat periodical reading room, an audio library, a bibliography department. The Children's Literature Department remained in the old, renovated library building. In 1982, the 2nd Library of Birstonas town was established.

 The year of 1993 marked a new turning point in the life of the library. The libraries operating in both buildings were merged into the Birstonas Public Library.

 On the 9th of November, 2006, the doors of the new building were solemnly opened and readers were invited to a beautifully and contemporary furnished library. It provides Birstonas residents and resort holidaymakers with good access to a rich print stock and modern information technologies (the internet access, databases), video library and audio library.

 The year of 2011 inscribed an extraordinary, memorable page in the history of the library. On the 4th of December, the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite visited the library.

Last update: 2020-02-05