National Library of Armenia (NLA)

Overview

The National Library of Armenia (NLA) is a national public library in Yerevan and the official cultural depository for the Republic of Armenia. It is the world's largest repository of Armenian publishing output and serves as the country's national bibliographic center.

History

The library was founded in 1832 as the library of the state gymnasium-school (Male Gymnasium) of Yerevan, forming the Armenian National Library on the basis of an initial 18,000 volumes. On July 4, 1919, the council of ministers of the (First) Republic of Armenia adopted a law establishing "the national public book depository"; since 1999, July 4 has been celebrated as National Library of Armenia Day. During the Soviet era, from 1925 (per the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme) or 1946 (per the library's own account) until 1990, the institution was named for Bolshevik revolutionary Alexander Miasnikian, before being renamed the National Library in 1990/1991 with Armenian independence. The library's main building on Teryan Street, designed by architect Alexander Tamanyan, was originally conceived as a research institute building in 1928; construction began in 1930 and continued, with a change of sponsor, through 1937, and the building was completed in 1939. Three additional buildings were added during the later Soviet period.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The library holds more than seven million items across its four buildings, including the first Armenian printed book, Urbatagirk (Book of Fridays), printed in Venice in 1512; the first Armenian periodical, Azdarar, published in Madras from 1794 to 1796; and the first printed map in Armenian, Hamatarats Ashkharatsuyts (Universal World Map), printed in Amsterdam in 1695. Its maps collection includes more than 11,000 maps and atlases. Digitization of the collections began in 2012, and more than ten million pages of Armenian books and periodicals have since been made available online. On September 25, 2017, the library opened a Museum of Printing across six exhibition halls tracing the history of Armenian book publishing.

Access and Usage

The NLA cooperates with national and international libraries, embassies operating in Armenia, and representatives of the Armenian diaspora to promote Armenian cultural heritage worldwide, and its collection is replenished annually through international book-sharing partnerships.