National library of serbia
National Library of Serbia
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| Country |
 Serbia
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|---|---|
| Type | National Library |
| Established | 1832 |
| Location | Belgrade |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, databases, maps, prints, drawings and manuscripts |
| Size | 6M items |
| Criteria for collection | Legal deposit of materials published in Serbia; materials about Serbia or materials published by the people of Serbia residing abroad; selected foreign scholarly publications and other materials. |
| Legal deposit | Yes (Legal deposit law in 1832.) |
| Other information | |
| Director | Laslo Vlašković (acting) |
| Staff | 270 |
| Website | www |
The National Library of Serbia (NLS) (Serbian: Народна библиотека Србије / Narodna biblioteka Srbije) is the national library of Serbia, located in the capital city of Belgrade. It is the biggest library, and oldest institution in Serbia.
The establishment of the Library is connected to an historical event in February 1832, when Dimitrije Davidović, publisher of the first Serbian newspaper, sent a letter about establishing a national library in honour of Prince Miloš Obrenović. The same year in November, Prince Miloš ordered the Legal Deposit of copies in the National Library.
During World War I, the Library building and collections were damaged by bombing, so the remaining holdings were moved from Belgrade to Niš and Kragujevac for their protection. After the War, and according to the National Library Act and the Press Law, both from 1919, the Library became the central state Library and obtained the right to acquire an obligatory copy from all over the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The bombing in the World War II by the Luftwaffe of the main country's Library in a city proclaimed officially open completely destroyed the Library building along with a book collection of 500.000 volumes, an invaluable collection of 1424 Cyrillic manuscripts and charters, a collection of old maps and prints of roughly 1,500 items, collections of 4,000 journals as well as 1,800 newspaper titles, its rich and irreplaceable archives of Turkish documents about Serbia and the complete correspondence of distinguished figures of the cultural and political history of Serbia, and all holdings lists and catalogs.
After the liberation of Belgrade in 1944, under the changed social conditions, there was a period of intensive reconstruction of the lost collections and rapid development of the Library. After the devoted work of the Library staff, the Library again opened its doors to the public in 1947. In 1954, on the 150th anniversary of the First Serbian Uprising, the construction of a new building for the National Library was allowed, and the new Library building (Architect: Ivo Kurtović),was opened with a special ceremony on 6 April 1973. It is located in the Vračar municipality, sharing the naturally elevated plateau with Temple of Saint Sava, as the highest peak of that part of Belgrade.
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Wikipedia