The Wroblewski Library of
the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences

Žygimantų g. 1, LT-01102 Vilnius, Lithuania
Telephone +370 5 262 95 37, E-mail biblioteka@mab.lt

Lietuviškai

Rare Books Department

Žygimantų St. 1,  LT-01102 Vilnius T. Vrublevskis' name reading room
+370 5 262 36 69
retispaudiniai@mab.lt
+370 5 240 48 34 (Old Periodicals Section)

Dr. Daiva Narbutienė
Head of Department 
daiva.narbutienemab.lt

Reader Service
Readers are assisted in the Tadeusz Wroblewski Reading Room (2 Floor, Room 30; the reading room is shared with the Manuscript Department and has 18 work places) and in the Old Periodicals Reading Room (3 Floor, Room 32; 6 work spaces)

  • Mondays–Fridays 8.00–19.00

The documents from Rare Books Department have to be ordered till 16.45. The readers, who intended to work in the specialized reading rooms after 16.45, are kindly requested to order the documents in advance.

Functions:

  • document acquistions;
  • preservation and presentation of the holdings;
  • reader Service.

The department was founded in 1957 by the merge of the Old and Rare Book Sector, the Art Sector and the Cartography Sector.  In 1991 the department was divided into two new units:   the Rare Book Department and the Old Periodicals Department.  On February 14, 2011  these departments were merged to form  the Rare Book Department with the Old Periodicals Section.

The Department acquires, catalogues and keeps all books published  before 1800, bibliographic and polygraphic rarities, books in Lithuanian published before 1918 (if published abroad, before 1945), significant Lituanica publications published from 1800 to 1944, 19th-20th-century Lithuanian and Lithuanistic periodical literature (pre-1945), rare non-Lithuanistic periodical literature (pre-1800), Lithuanian émigré periodicals, albums of art reproductions, engravings, postcards, photographs, small documents, cartographic publications.  The department has in its holdings approximately 400 thousand publications, among them 63 incunabula, more than 600 post-incunabula, more than 160 thousand newspaper and journal issues and a unique collection of cuneiform tablets.

The  department‘s holdings  and the old book markings (bookplates, labels, stamps, ownership inscrioptions) are studied and described in scientific literature. The expositions of the materials from the department‘s collections are mounted regularly in the Tadeusz Wroblewski Reading Room.

The electronic catalogue of the holdings of the Rare Book Department was started in 2001.  It  can be searched  through  the Electronic Catalogue of the Library.  The entire holdings of the department reflected in the electronic catalogue can be found by entering CIM or SPER (Old Periodicals) in the search field.  Search of the department‘s documents can also be conducted through Special Collections of the Library as well as in the card catalogues of the Tadeusz Wroblewski Reading Room and the Old Periodicals Reading Rooms.

Virtual exhibitions: