| Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences | |
| Native Name: | Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka |
| Native Name Lang: | lt |
| Country: | Lithuania |
| Type: | Research library |
| Location: | Vilnius |
| Location Map: | Lithuania |
| Collection Size: | 3.7 million |
| Num Employees: | 152 (2022) |
| Parent Organization: | Lithuanian Academy of Sciences |
The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (Lithuanian: Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka) is a major research library in Vilnius, Lithuania. The library was established by Tadeusz Wróblewski in 1912. It became part of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1941. The library houses more than 3.7 million documents and has an extensive collection of old and rare manuscripts and publications.
By 1912, attorney and bibliophile Tadeusz Wróblewski had collected about 65,000 books, 1,000 maps, and 5,000 manuscripts. The basis of Wróblewski's book collection was a library inherited from his parents, his father Eustachy, who was a physician and entomolgist, and his mother Emilia, who was an educational activist. Subsequently, Wróblewski successively added to the collection. Among the largest transactions was the purchase of Count Henryk Plater's library of 6,000 volumes in 1907, which included mainly family collections dating back to the 16th century, and the purchase of 's book collection of 10,700 items in 1911.
He established the Society of Emilia and Eustachy Wróblewski Library in October 1912 and donated his collection to the society in February 1913. The library was named after Wróblewski's parents. By the time of Wróblewski's death in 1925, the library had grown to 80,000 books, 1,474 maps, 2,956 manuscripts, and 10,534 engravings, pictures and other works of art. Wróblewski planned to build a building for the library, but these plans were interrupted by World War I, during which he lost much of his property. In this situation, Wróblewski established the Emilia and Eustachy Wróblewski Scientific Aid Society on 19 August 1922. The society continued to function and was chaired by Marian Zdziechowski. Other members included Ludwik Abramowicz (vice-chairman), Jan Piłsudski (treasurer), (manager of the collection).
Since 1924, Wróblewski had been in talks with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education about transferring the library as an inviolable, indefinite deposit to the state. After Tadeusz Wróblewski's death, the agreement to transfer the collection was signed by the Society's Committee on February 1, 1926.
In 1925, the Ministry purchased the Tyszkiewicz Palace in Vilnius for the purpose of relocating both public libraries in the city (Vilnius University Library and Wróblewski Library) into the building. However, after renovations were completed in 1931, only the Wróblewski Library moved in and became known as the Wróblewski State Library. The library had a small museum with exhibits on the iconography of Vilnius, Masonic lodges, and library's founder. From 1 January 1932, the library received legal deposits from four voivodeships: Wilno (Vilnius), Białystok, Nowogródek, and Polesie. The public reading room opened in 1935. In 1937, the library's statute was passed. It stated that the library was a public institution, available to everyone, and its purpose is to collect all materials primarily relating to the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius and the countries of Eastern Europe. By 1939, the library held about 180,000 documents. An important part of the collection was the deposit of the comprising 73,397 works in 10,594 volumes. Before the war it was the second largest library in the Vilnius region after the Vilnius University Library, and the seventh largest state library in Poland.
| Year | Holdings | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | 71,000 | ||
| 1925 | 95,000 | ||
| 1939 | 180,000 | ||
| 1941 | 380,000 | ||
| 1945 | 500,000 | ||
| 1960 | 1,508,000 | ||
| 2009 | 3,784,000 |
After the Soviet occupation in June 1940, the Institute of Lithuanian Studies was merged into the newly established Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in January 1941. Soviet authorities continued to loot and export the library's collection, mainly to Minsk. During the German occupation, the director of the Vilnius State Archive, Juozapas Stakauskas, managed to recover almost all the looted collections. Holdings of many other archives and libraries were transferred to the Wróblewski Library and the number of documents grew to 380,000.
In 1946, the library began receiving deposit copies of Lithuanian publications as well as certain publications from the Soviet Union. In the post-war years, the library changed its focus from a public library geared towards the general public, to a research library geared towards scientists and researchers. After 1965, a number of libraries of various research institutes were turned into branches of the Wróblewski Library. As the library's holdings grew to 2 million items, a new annex was built in 1969–1974. Since 1974, the Library was the only one in Lithuania to receive between 30,000 and 60,000 rubles per year in transfer payments for the purchase of Western foreign literature.
In 2009, the library restored its original Wroblewski name. The name is meant to honor both the library's founder and his parents. The library actively participates in digitization efforts, including the development and maintenance of the major national databases lituanistika.lt (academic studies) and epaveldas.lt (old publications). The library also organizes various exhibitions and events (38 exhibits and 26 other events in 2019). In 2018, the library began creating book museum Bibliopolis.
In 2011, the library had 11,170 registered readers (202 from outside Lithuania) who visited the library 91,333 times and checked out 338,832 documents. The number of visits decreased to 41,725 and the number of checked out items decreased to 109,782 in 2019. As of 2022, the library had 152 employees, 14 departments, and five reading rooms.
In 1956, the library began publishing various catalogues, bibliographies, and other academic studies. From 1956, it publishes an annual bibliography of publications by the members and employees of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. From 2004, it publishes the academic journal Lithuanian: LMA Vrublevskių bibliotekos darbai once every two years.
The library publishes bibliography of Lithuanian language studies Lietuvių kalbotyra (14 volumes since 1963 that cover publications printed in 1917–2010), Lithuanian history studies Lietuvos istorijos bibliografija (4 volumes since 1969 that cover 1940–1980), as well as other specialized bibliographies. The library published several catalogues of its collections, including parchments (1980), autographs (1989), manuscripts (1994), old publications about Lithuania (2007). It also published bibliographies of 15th–16th century Latin books published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (2002) and publications printed in 1576–1805 by the press of Vilnius University (1979).
The library also published academic studies including on 15th–18th century paper and bookbinding in Lithuania (by in 1967 and 1972) and Lithuanian Ex Libris in 1518–1918 (by in 1984). The library also published historical materials, including the first Lithuanian dictionary of Konstantinas Širvydas (1979) and results of the Lithuanian population census of 1790 (1972).
Holdings of many other archives and libraries were transferred to the Wróblewski Library. These included historical archives of the Diocese of Vilnius, Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church (though most were lost during World War II), Karaite community in Lithuania. The library absorbed libraries of the interwar Lithuanian Army, Orthodox, Society of Friends of Science in Wilno, Lithuanian Scientific Society, Belarusian Scientific Society (collections of Anton Luckievich).
After World War II, library's collections were increased by transferring various collections and archives of closed churches and monasteries, disbanded societies, nationalized manors (including personal collections of Römers, Kossakowskis, Tyszkiewiczs), other museums and libraries. Some rare books were taken from the destroyed libraries in Königsberg, including the . Some items were returned from Russia, including items taken to the Russian State Library from the Vilnius Public Library in 1915.
In 2007, the library held 3.75 million items, including 3.48 million books and periodicals and 255,028 manuscripts.
Its collection of old and rare publications exceeds 450,000 items. This includes about 200 publications that are the only known surviving copies as well as 63 incunables and more than 600 paleotypes (books published between 1501 and 1551). The library has more than 12,000 old maps, atlases, and albums. The library also has an extensive collection of periodicals, including pre-1800 periodicals from Western Europe, pre-1945 periodicals published in Lithuania, and pre-1944 Lithuanian periodicals.
The library has a large collection of works that were not originally published. This includes 17 Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform tablets (a gift from), 1,421 parchments from the 11th–20th centuries as well as chronicles written in the 15th–16th centuries, various documents in Latin, Ruthenian, Polish, Russian, German from the 16th–20th centuries, more than 1,000 musical manuscripts from the 14th–20th centuries, more than 20,000 historical photos and postcards. The library also owns personal documents and archives of various scientists and cultural figures.
The Lithuanian national registry under the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme contains 82 items, 15 of which are kept at the Wróblewski Library:
Library's directors were: