User:RrezeDonjete/The National Library of Kosova

The National Library of Kosovo (Bibloteka Kombetare e Kosoves) is Kosovo's national library, the highest library institution in Kosovo established by the Assembly. It is located in Pristina.

The mission of the National Library of Kosovo is to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual heritage of Kosovo. The library holds exhibitions and holds an archive of Kosovar newspapers. It also provides a number of other services.

It is known for its unique history, famous building designed by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjaković and the aroused controversies about the appearance of it.

Founding
History of libraries in Kosovo dates back to early periods, even in the XIV-XV centuries. Collections of the Christian and Muslim religious communities are considered as the oldest archives libraries in Kosovo.

Note that the former official names of the National Library of Kosovo are originaly in Albanian and can be found in the library's journal Bibloletra .

Kosovo's institutional library was officially founded in December 1944 in the city of Prizren, which at the time was the capital of the country.

In 1982 the library was moved in the current building which was built in Pristina, now days the capital of Kosovo. During years the National Library's name has changed depending on the political position of Kosovo.

Years 1989-1999
This period of time is known as the occupation period for Kosovo, it's when Kosovo's autonomy status was taken away by Yugoslavia, Albanian employees were discharged from their jobs by Serbian authorities and Albanian students were prohibited education. For public and private libraries in Kosovo, this was a time when many library collections were burned and destroyed. During this time the National Library of Kosovo was used as a residence for a large number of Croatian and Bosnian refugees that had left their countries because of the Yugoslav wars. After NATO's intervention in Kosovo it was revealed that the National Library of Kosovo was also used as a command and control center from the Yugoslav army. Equipment in the National Library had been stolen, reading room furniture smashed, and the card catalog had been dumped in the basement. The librarians were kept out for a week while the KFOR peacekeeping troops checked the building for any hidden explosives.

According to national and international organizations about 100.000 books in Albanian language have been supposedly sent at at the paper mill in Lipjan for pulping. Among those books were collections of national heritage, which explained the nation's origins and history.

Reorganization
After the war in Kosovo there was a great will and desire to reconstruct the library buildings and re-establish library services at all levels..This was done with the help by a special group of experts from UNESCO, the Council of Europe(CoE) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

With the encountering condition they created different training programs like: Legislation and Administration, Mobile Library, Reconstruction, Book and Reading, Information Technology Professional Training and Development, Cultural Heritage, Children and Youth, Open Access Programme, Initiative Support, Twinning. During years of reorganization the National Library of Kosovo was helped by a lot of institutions such as the US Embassy, OSCE, Zentralbibliothek Zürich, German Artist Iniciatives, Raiffeisen Bank.

Architecture
The most significant point of the current library is its building. There are various about its style, which have resulted in different versions also regarding to building. The current building of the National Library of Kosovo was inaugurated on 25 November 1982. It was designed by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjakovic. Its space consists of 16,500 square meters. It is made ​​with zenith windows, with a total 99 domes of different sizes and is entirely covered in a metal fishing net, which have their own particular architectural symbolism.

It houses two reading rooms with respectively 300 and 100 seats, a periodicals reading room, rooms for special collections, cataloging and research, a 150-seat amphitheater and a 75-seat meeting hall. It has the capacity to accommodate two million volumes. The materials are located on two levels below grade and are closed to the public.

The foyer of the library is used for various cultural events.The floor of the hall is a perfect work of diverse mosaic marble stone. The largest dome of the library is the main ornament of the hall's high ceiling, thus providing ample natural lighting.

Style and Controversy
The third found version tells that “this project was made for a competition for the Sarajevo National Library: - domed architecture is linked to the tradition of pre-Romanesque architecture of the Balkans, and it bothers me when people read wrong. Several years after the contest for the Sarajevo library, a gentleman called me and told me that he would like to realize this project. He was weird, and I thought that someone of my friends kidding. Later it turned out that it was the director of the Pristina library. We became friends, and over time, and today we have contact. He gave me a completely free hand. In Pristina, I was 20 years old, but they did always informed about updates.”

Despite the official statements of the architect about the style of the National Library of Kosovo there are many controversies when it comes to the appearance of the building and its meaning. One of the most famous versions is the version which connects the hat above building with the nacional Albanian hat “plisi”. This was the reason why Serbian politicians reacted very strongly when they saw the opening of library making a relation between geodesic dome with traditional Albanian hat.

The second verison is that the main idea of this mdel was to To reconcile the roots of the Serbian and Albanian. Its doms are a combination existing Turkish baths in Prizren and Pec Patriarchate in, and the overall impression is of some villages retrofuturističnog stake.Hexagonal aluminum fence adds to the sense of security of the building. Another thought over it is that the project was planned for a Kuwait sheikh but was not accepted by him.

Library cooperation
The national library is responsible for coordinating all Kosovo libraries inside of country. Also is responsible for supplying information for higher education and research and access to various databases.

Collections
The National Library of Kosovo has 1.890.194 library units, with 475.324 titles, which 382.806 of them are books, 281.591 are magazines, 984.022 newspapers and 241.775 other units. In between 2004-2009 the library was enriched with 30.000 new titles.

In 2013 the number of the library's collections reached over 2 million.

Collection of rare old books, old newspapers and magazines, Albanian manuscripts with Latin, Greek and Arabic graphics are a precious treasure of cultural heritage stored in this institution. Also, maps, photo documents and other valuable documents present a great cultural heritage.

The oldes book found in Nacional Library is “Historia e jetës dhe bëmave të Skënderbeut, Princit të Epirotëve” by the famous author Marin Barleti. This book is written in Latin language.

Cataloging and Classification
National Library of Kosovo uses three international cataloging standards. AACR2 which is ISNC standard, ISBD which is IFLA standard and MARC 21 standard.

National Library of Kosovo uses two standard classification of materials, Universal Decimal Classification and Subject Classification.

Organization
The National Library is a state institution which reports to the Ministry of Culture and it is regulated by law. There are several mini libraries inside the National Library like the American Corner, Library of Contemporary Art,NATO Library, Music Library, Fehmi Agani Library, Library of Krist Maloki, Authors Archive Library, etc.

Digital Library
Digitization for the National Library of Kosovo is a project of great importance. During this process, the National Library of Kosovo aims to put online the national heritage and other materials dealing with Kosovo to promote them and to make it easier for natives and individuals from other countries to have access to it. In 2008, with a view to developing a portal resembling the American Memory, Memory (Kujtesa), the Documentary Center of Kosovo was established.

Due to the very large number of documents that must digitized, a process that takes a lot of time , the Library has established a sequence of criteria for documents that must be digitized before others and one of the basic criteria is the cultural and historical value of that material. Based on those criteria, these are the documents that have priority in digitization : most requested material which is in poor physical condition , historical books and manuscripts , microfilms and other very required materials.

In general, materials that are most commonly digitized are rare books(49 %), photographs(44 %), manuscripts(39 %), monographs(35 %), music(30 %), newspapers(9 %), maps( 1 %).

Besides digitizing its own material the National Library of Kosovo provides access to some of the most popular electronic resources in the world and that made possible through the Electronic Library Consortium of Kosovo. For services for electronic resources in different libraries of the world the National Library of Kosovo was supported by Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, and by companies like EBSCO and GALE with financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Pristina. While Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo supported the Oxford Music Online and the OSCE Mission in Kosovo supported OXFORD Scholarship Online and Oxford Journal.

Other libraries in Pristina
There are many other libraries in Kosovo, such as the Library of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Albanology Institute Library Pristina and other school and faculty libraries, which are developed in scientific and educational institutions.

One of the main goals of the National Library of Kosovo is the establishment and reactivation of many new libraries in order to develop the librarianship of Kosovo.