The National Library of Azerbaijan (), officially named the Mirza Fatali Akhundov National Library of Azerbaijan ( Azerbaijani: ''Mirzə Fətəli Axundov adına Azərbaycan Milli Kitabxanası'') after

Mirza Fatali Akhundov Mirza Fatali Akhundov, also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Iranian Azerbaijanis, Iranian Azerbaijani national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

of the Republic of Azerbaijan, located in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

and founded in 1923.Mammadov, E.E. History of books and libraries in Azerbaijan: Teaching aid for universities
/ Scientific editors: professor J.R.Mehrad, Ph.D. in technology E.Ch.Mammadov; reviewers: docent E.Y.Ahmadov, docent K.I.Aslan, Ph.D. in history A.T.Abdullayeva; Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku State University. - Baku: Adiloglu, 2022. - 174 p. - Məmmədov E.E. M.F.Axundov adına Azərbaycan Milli Kitabxanasının dövri mətbuat fondu: tarixi, müasir vəziyyəti, oxuculara xidmət və inkişaf perspektivləri (1923-2007-ci illər): Monoqrafiya / E.E.Məmmədov; Elmi redaktor
t.ü.e.d., prof. A.A.Xələfov; Azərbaycan Respublikası Təhsil Nazirliyi, ADMİU. Bakı: Mütərcim, 2018, 256 s., It is named after

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

s feature the statues of various writers and poets:

Nizami Ganjavi Nizami Ganjavi (; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,Mo'in, Muhammad(2006), "Tahlil-i Haft Paykar-i Nezami", Tehran.: p. 2: Some commentators h ...

, Mahsati,

Uzeyir Hajibeyov Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn bey oghlu Hajibeyov (18 September 188523 November 1948) was an Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani composer, musicologist and teacher. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music. He composed the music of the Az� ...

, Shota Rustaveli,

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

and several others. A vast, eight-stage repository occupies the four floors of the building and is equipped with special elevators, which deliver the books to the outlets. The capacity of the reading rooms is 500 seats. Orders are also accepted by

e-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

upon electronic registration. The library includes 25 sections and 26 sectors. The fund of the library covers approximately 4,513,000 publishing materials.

History

The Azerbaijan National Library (ANL) founded on May 23, 1923. The building was designed by Azerbaijani architect Mikayil Huseynov. It was initially known as the "General Library and State Book Storage" of Azerbaijan. On July 11, 1939, the library gained its present name. In 1962, the library was finally granted permission to create exchange ties with the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. In 2004, by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the library was given the status of "National Library". In 2005, it joined the Conference of European National Librarians, which includes 54 libraries in Europe. In 2005, the Department for Foreign Literature was established to participate in international book exchanging and to cooperate with relevant departments of foreign libraries, as well as the organizations operating in the field of library. The department cooperates with more than 60 countries including

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, etc. In 2000, the National Library named after M.F. Akhundov established an internet hall. In 2001, a training center was opened by the library. It uses an automated management system since 2003. In 2023, the 100th birthday of the National Library was celebrated.

Present day

Today, the building houses

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s, journals,

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s, sound and music recordings,

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

s, stamps, prints,

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s, including copies of all the newspapers published during the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

period. The National Library of Azerbaijan is also the official and central repository of the country. It receives four copies of every new book and two copies of every magazine and newspaper published in Azerbaijan. The library, the only one of its kind in the country, has microfilm and photos of newspapers published in Azerbaijan before the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

Usage of the National Library

Citizens of Azerbaijan, as well as citizens from other countries, who have reader card may use the library free of charge. But some services such as scan of the documents, photocopy, ordering book from other/foreign libraries are payable. Any Azerbaijani and foreign citizen may get a reader card by submitting their identification documents such as IDs or passports and driving license. The reader card is given to all user groups for once use. Usage of reader card not belonging to you is forbidden. Library items are given to the readers by control paper, which is filled in by the reader at the control point. Entering the library halls with mobile phones in general mode, outdoor clothes and cameras, as well as with big bags is forbidden. The library allows the readers to use their personal laptops. But plugging flash drives and discs into the computers of the library is also forbidden. It is strictly forbidden to photocopy the documents protected in the Rare Books Fund and museum of the library, the archives of the Azerbaijan Literature Department and the newspapers printed in the newspaper fund, and the manuscripts of the Notaries and Fonts Department. Photocopies of these literatures are only permitted by the department for organization of electronic resources. It is forbidden to take literature from the Rare Books Fund and the Azerbaijan Literature Archive Fund.

Reading halls

Every citizen of Azerbaijan/ other countries with a reader card can use the periodical press hall. Four-year magazines (125 in Azerbaijani and 20 in Russian) and five-year newspapers (236 in Azerbaijani and 22 in Russian) in the hall which has 67 seats. Exhibition hall has been established to hold literary events, book presentations, meetings with authors, and exhibitions. All the events are open to all users. There are 1,869 items, including 757 in Azerbaijani and 1,112 in Russian in the reading hall for exact and technical sciences. The readers may request books from the basic book collections. Approximately 2,500 copies of magazines and newspapers in various languages are stored in foreign language hall with 20 seats for users. The hall has been provided with alphabetical catalogs of the books in different languages. The rare books, as well as the books about Azerbaijan covering the period until 1920 are stored in the rare book and library museum. Humanitarian sciences hall with 36 seats introduces 4,237 items (2,072 in Azerbaijani and 2,165 in Russian) and provides the users with alphabetical and systematic catalogs. The Students hall rendering services especially to higher school students and the young is up to 250 seats. Approximately 9,500 items (in the Azerbaijani and Russian languages) including encyclopedias, guidebooks, dictionaries, etc. and covering different fields of science are in the use of the readers in the hall provided with alphabetical and systematic catalogs. 16 readers can use the music publication hall at the same time. There are sound records, copies of Azerbaijani and foreign compositions, copies of music handwritings and draft theatrical plays of Azerbaijani composers and playwrights, as well as copies of music books in different languages stored in the hall.

The National Library's international relations

* A Memorandum of cooperation in the field of the library was signed between the national library of Azerbaijan and national library of Estonia on June 6, 2010. * The National Library of Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Swiss National Library on May 4, 2011. * The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia signed a memorandum on mutual relations with national library of Azerbaijan on 20 December 20013. * A memorandum of understanding on mutual cooperation was signed between the National Library of Azerbaijan and the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria on April 17, 2015. * Partnership Agreement regarding Partnership in the European Library was signed by the National Library of Azerbaijan and the Foundation of Dutch Law on Stitching Conference of European National Librarians on May 2, 2016 * A Memorandums on cooperating in the field of libraries was signed between national libraries of Azerbaijan, Russia and Egypt on September 29, 2017. * National Library named after M.F.Akhundov signed a memorandum on cooperation with the Austrian National Library. * A memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Library of Azerbaijan and the Qatar National Library on April 17, 2018. * A Memorandum on cooperation in the field of libraries was signed between the National Library of Azerbaijan and the National Library of Belarus . * A Memorandum on cooperating was signed between the Azerbaijan National Library and the National Library of Morocco on April 7, 2015. * A memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Library of Azerbaijan and the Regents of the University of California, on behalf of its Los Angeles Campus (UCLA) on January 9, 2018.

References

External links

*
UN System Depository Libraries profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Library Of Azerbaijan 1923 establishments in Azerbaijan Library buildings completed in 1923

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

Libraries in Baku Archives in Azerbaijan Libraries established in 1923