The National Library of the Faroe Islands ( fo, Føroya Landsbókasavn) is the national library for the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

, a self-governing country within the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Northern North America. It consists of metropolitan Denma ...

. It is both a public and a research library. The library houses the largest collection of works written in Faroese, works written by Faroese in other languages or translated by them, and works written about the Faroe Islands.

History

The library began in 1828, when the Danish '' Amtmaður'' (governor) Christian Ludvig Tillisch (in office 1825–30) and his ''Amtsrevisor'' Jens Davidsen began assembling books for a ''Færø Amts Bibliotek'' (Danish, 'Faroe

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Library'). They were assisted by the Danish scholar

Carl Christian Rafn Carl Christian Rafn (January 16, 1795 – October 20, 1864) was a Danish historian, translator and antiquarian. His scholarship to a large extent focused on translation of Old Norse literature and related Northern European ancient history. He w ...

and by private citizens, and on 5 November 1828 secured an annual grant of funds from the King. In 1831, the collection included 2,860 volumes. The library acquired its own building in 1830, and Jens Davidsen served as librarian until his death in 1878.Søga og endamál
, Um Landsbókasavnið, National Library of the Faroe Islands

at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

, 14 December 2013 By 1850 there were approximately 5,000 books, but the project stagnated between 1878 and 1905, when the Faroese parliament, the

Løgting The Løgting (pronounced ; da, Lagtinget) is the unicameral parliament of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory within the Danish Realm. The name literally means "''Law Thing''"—that is, a law assembly—and derives from Old Norse ...

, assigned funding. The library flourished beginning in 1921, under the linguist Mads Andreas Jacobsen (1891–1944), who had trained as a librarian in 1920. During the period of the

Faroese language conflict The Faroese language conflict is a phase in the history of the Faroe Islands in the first half of the 20th century (approx. 1908 to 1938). It was a political and cultural argument between advocates of Faroese and Danish to serve as the official ...

, it became a rallying point for national writers and politicians. It moved into a new building in 1931. After the achievement of home rule in 1948, the Løgting greatly increased financial support for the library and its official name became Faroese. The library underwent renewed expansion and under a law passed on 16 June 1952 is a

depository 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 ...

: publishers are legally required to deposit four copies of all printed materials in the collection. Since 24 September 1980 the library has been housed at J. C. Svabosgøta 16 on Viðarlundin á Debesartrøð park, in a purpose-built building designed by

Jákup Pauli Gregoriussen Jákup Pauli Gregoriussen (born 24 April 1932 in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands) is the leading architect of the Faroe Islands. He is also a graphic artist and author of publications about the Faroese church. Life Jákup Pauli was born in 1932 to the ...

. In 2011, as a cost-saving measure, the National Library was administratively combined with the

National Archives of the Faroe Islands The National Archives of the Faroe Islands ( fo, Tjóðskjalasavnið) are located in Tórshavn; they were established there in 1932 as a government archive. It is now the largest collection of documents in the country and has acquired educational an ...

, the

National Museum of the Faroe Islands The National Museum of the Faroe Islands ( fo, Tjóðsavn Føroya) is the national museum of the Faroe Islands, located in Tórshavn. The Museum on Brekkutún 6 The National Museum of the Faroe Islands has exhibitions in the museum building on ...

, the

Natural History Museum of the Faroe Islands Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

, and the Kaldbak Marine Biological Laboratory ( fo, Havlívfrøðiliga Royndarstøðin) to form Faroese National Heritage ( fo, Søvn Landsins).Faroe Islands National Heritage
Gransking. there are also 18 municipal and 13 school libraries in the country, which are primarily managed by the National Library (the first municipal library to be founded was that in

Klaksvík Klaksvík is the second largest town of the Faroe Islands behind Tórshavn. The town is located on Borðoy, which is one of the northernmost islands (the Norðoyar). It is the administrative centre of Klaksvík municipality. History The first s ...

, in the 1950s). In addition, the

Art Museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...

and some other institutions have their own libraries.

References

External links

Official site

Faroese National Heritage

Bøkur og skjøl
Faroese National Heritage {{Authority control Organizations based in the Faroe Islands Libraries in Denmark Buildings and structures in Tórshavn

Libraries established in 1828

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links