National Library of Kosovo
The National Library of Kosovo is located in the city of Pristina. Kosovo is a state in Southeastern Europe, located in the central Balkan Peninsula. It is an important link connecting central and south Europe, the Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea. Its capital and largest city is Pristina, which houses the country’s main cultural institutions, such as the National Theatre of Kosovo, National Archaeology, Ethnography and Natural Science Museum, National Art Gallery and the Ethnological Museum. Of these, the National Library of Kosovo with over 1.8 million books, periodicals, maps, atlases, microfilms and other materials is especially appreciated. Although there have been libraries in Kosovo since the 1300s, the National Library was formally founded in the 1940s. A modern building was designed by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjaković, a pupil of the noted Croatian architect and teacher Drago Ibler. Andrija Mutnjaković was especially influenced by elements found in architecture of the Kosovo region including the cube and the dome. These two forms are visible in historic buildings in the Byzantine and Ottoman styles seen around Kosovo. As Mr. Mutnjaković explained to an interviewer in 2011, his architectural concept using domes was
linked to the tradition of pre-Romanesque architecture of the Balkans.
The library contains 99 different-sized domes. A metal grid over the outside wall of the building shields readers from too much direct sunlight. It is also a decorative element, referring to filigree jewelry. This is a local crafts tradition in Kosovo, in which silver is shaped into complex, lace-like works of art. The building’s 16,500 square meters contain reading rooms with 300 and 100 seats, a periodicals room, special collections areas, cataloguing and research sites, a 150-seat theater and a meeting hall that can accommodate 75 people. There is room for about two million books in the library. In 2013 the number of items of all kinds reached two million, with over 380,000 books, almost 300,000 periodicals, almost one million newspapers, and others. Over five years from 2004 to 2009, the library acquired 30,000 new titles. Among its collections are old Latin manuscripts, maps, photos, and other rare and precious documents. The oldest book in the collection is a Latin volume by Marin Barleti, an historian and Catholic priest who lived in the 1400s and 1500s. Father Marin wrote a life of George Castriot, known as Skanderbeg or Alexander the Great, an Albanian nobleman and military commander. This biography was originally published in Latin between 1508 and 1510.
New projects
The National Library of Kosovo has launched an ambitious project to digitize its most important holdings, with the goal of making them available online for researchers. In 2008, the Documentary Centre of Kosovo was founded with this goal in mind. First to be digitized were materials which in poor condition, historical books and manuscripts, microfilms and othermuch-requested material. Of the digitized materials were rare books, photographs, manuscripts, monographs, printed music, newspapers, and maps. Last November, in a special ceremony, the library celebrated the generous donation of the personal library of Esad Mekuli (1916–1993), an Albanian poet and scholar, first president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo. Esad Mekuli is considered father of modern Albanian poetry in Yugoslavia, and he remains an influential figure in Kosovo today. His centenary was commemorated last year as well. After studying veterinary medicine, he was arrested during the Second World War. After the war, he earned a doctorate in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Belgrade, Serbia, and edited both literary and scientific journals. While publishing books and articles about veterinary medicine, he also produced several collections of poetry and over 80 books of literary translations. Among the celebrated authors he translated included such writers represented in the collection of the Thammsat University Libraries as Vladimir Mayakovsky; Alexander Pushkin; Jack London; Nikolai Ostrovsky; Sophocles; Pablo Neruda; and many others.
At the library’s ceremony, Asad Mekuli’s daughter
recalled that the deep conviction of her father was that education and culture of a people are what provide spiritual growth and long-term economic prosperity and at the same time, strengthening, elevating, and protecting it in a dignified place in the family of European peoples: “I experience a library as the heart of a people. Cultural institutions, particularly a magnificent National Library such as ours, are the main pillars of the preservation of spiritual and intellectual heritage of this nation for generations to come.”
This was the main reason that the family of Esad Mekuli has decided that his library, along with other material about his life and work, should be donated the National Library of Kosovo.
The library and its collection suffered damage during a time of local conflict during the late 1980s and 1990s. Since then, it has been restored with the advice and assistance of experts from UNESCO, the Council of Europe (CoE) and International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). A variety of training programs were established, including Legislation and Administration, Mobile Library, Reconstruction, Book and Reading, Information Technology Professional Training and Development, Cultural Heritage, Children and Youth, and Open Access Programme, among others.
Thailand and Kosovo
The Kingdom of Thailand recognized the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state in 2013. The same year, diplomatic relations were established between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Kosovo. The Kosovan Minister of Foreign Affairs announced in October 2016 that Kosovo would open an embassy in Bangkok sometimes in the near future. Thailand will be seen as a gateway to other neighboring countries in the ASEAN region. Cooperation in other fields between Thailand and Kosovo is also being planned, including bilateral economic, educational and cultural cooperation. In 2015, KosovaLive360, an online news agency, featured a Thai restaurant located in Pristina. Its owner, Chintana Siripreedanukul, wears traditional Thai dresses at work, and has been living in Kosovo since 2006. Every two years or so she finds time to travel back to Thailand to visit her family. Khun Chintana is quoted in the article:
I hope Kosovo will continue to develop more. I really want to see Kosovo develop because Kosovo is a nice country… Pristina is a small province, but it’s the same for me in Thailand. I don’t live in the big city, I don’t live in the capital. I live in the part that’s relaxed. Pristina has very nice people; when we start to talk, they are very nice, and I have a lot of friends. I’ve been here nine years—it’s like my second home.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)