This year UT Library celebrates its 220th birthday

University of Tartu Library was founded 220 years ago, in 1802. The Library’s birthday will be celebrated with a number of events through the whole year of 2022.  All through the year, people can also gift the library with books which the library needs but does not have.

Director of the UT Library Krista Aru said that the library has always been the place where the university and high school students come to work hard on their studies, but also to spend good time with their friends. “Our library has been the place where the wisdom and the youth meet for more than two centuries,” she said. “Many people keep coming back even after their graduation, because of the inspiring and inviting environment.”

In addition to the special events of the jubilee year, the library will continue its traditional events, such as the Winter Seminar for memory institutions in March, the International Literary Festival Prima Vista and the Night Library in May, the Day of the Estonian Book and the Open Science Week in October. “These events will definitely be more festive this year,” promised Aru. The memorial conference dedicated to the former Director of the Library Peeter Olesk will be held in May; in October, the library will organise the vision conference for research libraries. “As the last event of the year, we will in December present the book about the history of the library, researched and written by our long-time librarian Malle Ermel,” said Aru.

All through the jubilee year, we invite everyone to gift the library with books which are needed but, up to now, still missing from its collections. “We are very thankful if people are willing to give us the books that they do not need any more but which would be a very necessary addition to our collections,” said Aru about the call “Give a gift to the library”. The list of the books that the library will gladly accept is available here and it will be constantly updated all through the year.

23 June 1802, the day when the first loan of books was registered the loans diary, is held as the foundation day of the library, which at that time had 4000 volumes. The first Director of the Library was a Professor of German origin Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern. Today the library holds about 4 million publications of different types.