The National Library of Latvia welcomes novice digital humanists to enrol in the Second Baltic Summer School of Digital Humanities that will be held in July 23–26, 2019, at the National Library of Latvia (Riga, Latvia). The registration will be open until June 30.
From 21 to 22 May 2019, an international conference – Digital approaches in cultural heritage: towards a pan-Baltic cooperation network – will be held at the National Library of Latvia (Rīga, Latvia, Mūkusalas iela 3). It will explore digital heritage-related topics that are of common interest in the Baltic Sea region – existing and potential networks of collaboration, joint projects for research, digitization, digital repatriation, and the development of digital tools that could foster consistent development of institutions in the region and beyond.
From its foundation in 1919 until 2014, when the move to the new building designed by Gunnar Birkerts took place, the National Library of Latvia never had its own home. The construction of this home had been planned since 1928, but for almost a century, the Library was forced to adapt to a range of architecturally diverse historical constructions – imposing bank buildings, apartment buildings, factories, cellars – a total of 38 addresses, none of them suitable for library operations. People moved from one place to another, but the collection was sorted and moved even more frequently.
The exhibition addresses the working conditions and objects in the environments of the Library's historical homes. It reveals the world of objects as a part of human social life, prompting us to think about the institutional and the personal, the unnecessary and that still useful, the valuable and the sentimental.
A photography exhibition about the men of today – "Swedish Dads – Latvian Dads" (Tētis Zviedrijā – Tētis Latvijā) – by Swedish photographer Johan Bävman will be opened at the Level 7 gallery of the National Library of Latvia at 17.00 on 9 April. Its content is adapted from the exhibition Swedish Dads, which portrays men who have taken paternity leave. The exhibition will be open 6-30 April and entrance is free.
The opening of the international archaeology exhibition entitled "Latvia and Poland: So Far Away and Yet So Close. More Than 100 Years of Common History" will take place on 7 March at 16.00 at the National Library of Latvia (Gallery on level M).
On Tuesday, February 26, at 18.00 social anthropologist Tobias Köllner will give a public talk "On 'Entangled Authorities': The Interplay between Orthodox Religion and Politics in Contemporary Russia". The event will take place at the Baltic Research Centre for East Asian Studies (ASIARES) Reading Room (Level M), National Library of Latvia. Event language: English. Admission free.
This weekend, 12 January at 12.00 and 13 January at 14.00, Swedish artist Janeric Johansson will be in Riga and will offer two guided excursions at his exhibition Paintings for Latvia. The exhibition can be viewed at the Conference Centre (level -1) of the National Library of Latvia. Language: English. Free entrance.
The National Library of Latvia (NLL) is closed to visitors on public holidays, on the second Monday of each month (Maintenance day) and during diplomatic events. Summer opening hours apply from 1 July until 31 August.
