Tallinn Central Library (

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

: ''Tallinna Keskraamatukogu'') is a library in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

, the capital city of

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

. The library was the first

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

for a town in Estonia, and served as the nation's

legal deposit library Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

for ten years during its early existence. The library currently provides services to those who are unable to access a physical branch through a bookmobile, and provides access to works of modern Estonian literature via e-book throughout the world to anyone with internet access.

History

It was established on 14 October 1907 as Tallinn Town Free Public Library, and was the first town library in Estonia. The library was led by Aleksander Sibul from 1921-1950, and he made it into a central library that had multiple branches and departments. Between 1938 and 1948 the library contained an active archival department that collected 40,000 units of archival materials and received the legal deposit copies for all of Estonia. The library maintained this archival material until 1951, at which time it was distributed to other libraries.

Twenty-first century

In 2004 it was proposed that the library should have a

bookmobile A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookm ...

, and the library acquired one named Katarina Jee in 2008. Katarina Jee has the capacity to hold 3,800 volumes at one time and serves areas where branch libraries are absent or temporarily unavailable. The service provides books both in Russian and Estonian, with 70% of the materials being Estonian-language titles. In 2012 the Tallinn Central Library created ELLU, an e-book lending program for works of modern Estonian literature. Tallinn Central Library is the only library in Estonia that provided copies of modern Estonian literature via e-book, and access to the ELLU system is available to anyone in the world, with registered users being reported from countries in Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2017 the library expanded their e-book offerings to allow English and Russian speaking patrons to access e-books, via OverDrive e-library. By now it also includes access to magazines. From 2020 library provides access to Naxos Music Library.Palm, Linda
Tallinna Keskraamatukogu pakub veebi teel kuulamiseks klassikalist muusikat ja džässi
– Postimees (in Estonian). 22 June 2020. Retrieved 10. June 2021.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Libraries in Estonia Public libraries Libraries established in 1907