The Lebanese National Library (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: المكتبة الوطنية, French: ''Bibliothèque nationale du Liban''), located in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, is the

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant wo ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. It closed to the public in 1979 due to the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

, and its surviving collections were placed in storage. Restoration of its volumes and planning for a new site began in 1999.

History

The library was established in 1921, with a donation from Viscount Philippe de Tarrazi of twenty thousand books, many rare manuscripts, and the first issues of national newspapers.. De Tarazi's instructions were that his donation should form "the core of what should become the Great Library of

Beyrouth Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...

." It was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education in 1922.. It moved to the Lebanese Parliament building in 1937. The Lebanese government decreed in 1924 that a copy of every book printed in Lebanon must be submitted, and also provided the library with a staff of eight clerks. A formal copyright deposit law was enacted in 1949 and amended in 1959, but it was never enforced. The government also failed to provide the library with a qualified librarian, or to clearly define its objectives. The library was repeatedly bombed and looted throughout the

. At one time, it had a collection of 100,000 volumes and 2,000 rare manuscripts; an unknown number of these were burned or stolen. In 1979, the building was closed and the surviving manuscripts and documents were stored in the National Archives, and modern printed books were stored in a separate building between 1982 and 1983. The Lebanese National Library only existed in name during the 1990s. An impassioned plea for a National Library of Lebanon was published in 1998 by the Lebanese Association of Antique Dealers, under the signature of Jean-Pierre Fattal. The following year, the European Commission decides to send a study mission to Beirut in order to assist the Lebanese government. This mission is immediately followed by an exhibition titled "collective memory" which was presented at the Sursock Museum in the Lebanese Capital. Its objective was to focus on the importance of the library rehabilitation project. The Lebanese government decides then to install the National Library in the Faculty of Law of the Lebanese University, in the district of Sayaneh, according to plans set by the architect Jean-Marc Bonfils (1963 -2020). Planning for a new site for the National Library began in 1999.. The goal was for the library to contain everything published in Lebanon (around 2,000 books annually) and all publications about Lebanon and the Arab world. The project, which also involved the restoration of the collection, was estimated at $7 million, of which $1.5 million was donated by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

and the rest pledged by other governments and private donors. By 2006, more than 3,000 volumes had been restored.. The collection was again threatened during the 2006 Lebanon War by

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i bombing near its storage facilities at the Port of Beirut.

References

External links

The Lebanese National Library (The Revival Project)The Lebanese National Library Foundation

History

See also

References

External links

Further reading