The National Library of Latvia

The National Library of Latvia is located in Riga, Latvia’s capital, on the Daugava River leading to the Baltic Sea. The National Library of Latvia was founded in 1919 after the independent Republic of Latvia was proclaimed in 1918.  In 2014, a new National Library of Latvia building opened, designed by the Latvian-born architect Gunnar Birkerts. One of modern architecture’s most admired creative spirits, Mr. Birkerts worked for the Finnish American architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen and the Japanese American Minoru Yamasaki, born in Seattle. Finally, Mr. Birkerts opened his own office in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Now in his 90s,

According to one report, Mr. Birkerts was inspired by the independence of Latvia from the Soviet Union, declared in 1991. He considered a children’s story in Latvia about a princess sleeping on top of a glass mountain. Men trying to marry her try to climb the mountain, but it is too slippery. For Mr. Birkerts, the smooth glass mountain was a symbol of freedom and so he designed a library using this image. It is known locally as the Castle of Light. The building is very large, over 40,000 square meters, or 170m long and 44m wide, more than recently built libraries in Europe such as Birmingham, UK and Stuttgart, Germany. The National Library of Latvia owns about two million books among 4 million items, including periodicals, posters, manuscripts, and maps, among other items. The collection is especially strong in the humanities and social sciences. In 1998, the library launched an ambitious digitization project for its newspapers, maps, books, sheet-music and audio recordings. The library has digitized over 3 million pages of newspapers and journals, most of what was published in Latvia in Latvian, German, Russian and other languages up to the start of World War II. Also digitized were over 7000 books published in Latvia, considered historically or artistically valuable, along with thousands of historic posters, postcards, prints and other images. These include over 25,000 photographs showing the people and buildings of Latvia. Latvian copyright law allows for cultural heritage institutions to digitize holdings without asking permission of copyright holders, which facilitates digitization.

Built of concrete, glass, and wood, the The National Library of Latvia’s interior features Canadian maple floors and Latvian birch panels on the walls. All the stairs and bannisters are made of wood. There are 1,200 seats for readers. When the building was completed, 14,000 Latvian people formed a human chain along 2 km to pass books from the old library to the new one. On the library website, Mr. Birkerts explains his design:

Contemporary architecture should be like a bridge crossing the borders of time – rooted in the past, looking towards the future. The need appears to create a new language of form, a language that would treat the previous ones with respect. Looking at the building we see an intriguing form. It is visually attractive to us. What is it like? It is expressive. It is a library, a functional symbol. It is a reminder of an outstanding historical event, important for Latvia, the making of its statehood, as well as praise to the rebirth of the state and its renewed collections of cultural treasures… This architecture tells about the merging of humanism and culture, it carries references to history, folklore, literature, music and visual art. Moreover, it expresses the architect’s love of his land and its history.

It tells of green fields and meadows, of many-coloured flowers;

It tells of dark pine forests and white birch groves;

It tells of slowly flowing, dark, dreamy rivers, their streams are so slow, that at times it seems that they are flowing backwards…

It tells of the ever present folklore, of the human emotions expressed in the folk songs and legends. Legends of the determination that will make a brilliant castle rise up from the dark waters. It tells of the courageous riders riding up the mountain of ice to save the princess. It takes a strong will and persistence to accomplish it.

Among the library’s rare books are the oldest surviving examples of printing in Latvia, a church manual from the 1500s. Among other items on permanent display in a special exhibition are books associated with the noted Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis (1933 – 2013).

Thailand and Latvia

The Thammasat University Libraries has newly acquired The Art Nouveau Architecture of Riga: Exhibition Catalogue. Its author is Professor Janis Krastins, an architectural historian and member of the Latvian Association of Architects. The book was given to the TU Libraries by Ajarn Adul Wichiencharoen, and it is shelved in the Adul Wichiencharoen Room of the Pridi Banomyong Library. It celebrates Art Nouveau architecture – meaning literally new art, a style that was in fashion in the early 1900s, before World War I. About one third of all buildings in the center of Riga are in this style, making the Latvian capital the city with the highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture anywhere in the world. The TU Libraries also own a number of other books about aspects of Latvia, including Latvia: the Challenges of Change; Improving the Business Environment in Latvia : the Impact of FIAS Assistance; and Creating a 21st Century National Innovation System for a 21st century Latvian Economy.

Research exchanges

In 2015, in an issue of Policy Futures in Education, an example of joint research between Thailand and Latvia was published, Lifelong Learning Strategies and Practice in Latvia and Thailand. Coauthored by Professor Sumalee Sungsri of the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Wattana, Bangkok, Thailand, the article noted:

The importance of lifelong learning has been recognized for many years and consequently many countries, disregarding their geographical location, differences in education systems and traditions, have adopted their lifelong learning policies to develop the lifelong learning system. The goal of the present comparative research is to study the comprehension of the term lifelong learning in one European country (Latvia) and one Asian country (Thailand), analyse the policies introduced, and single out priorities and the main challenges in the implementation of lifelong learning policies in each country. The paper proposes some examples of best practice in implementation of lifelong learning in Thailand and Latvia. The best practices of implementation of lifelong learning policies and strategies in each local area of the country, particularly in rural areas, are provided as a best practice of Thailand… The comparative research discovers that although the two countries have different history, traditions and they are located in geographically different areas, there are similarities in their lifelong learning policy and they can learn from each other how to best implement lifelong learning policy.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)