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Today is the 100th anniversary of the National Library of Azerbaijan. The National Library was founded in 1922, and its official opening was on May 23, 1923. In 1939, the library was named after thinker, playwright and educator Mirza Fatali Akhundzade. Over the years, the scope of the library's activities has expanded, dozens of new departments have been created, and the number of literature in its fund has increased. On such a significant day, the employee of AZERTAC had a conversation with Adiba Ismayilova, deputy director for scientific affairs and library-information service of the National Library, Honored cultural worker, doctor of philosophy in history.

-Ms. Adiba, could you tell us about the idea of ​​creating the National Library, which has a hundred years of history…

-The idea of ​​creating a National Library that can be used by everyone in Azerbaijan was put forward by "Akinchi" newspaper in the 70s of the 19th century. Later, despite the fact that this issue was repeatedly raised in the national press, including "Irshad", "Kaspi", "Taraqi" newspapers, as well as in "Molla Nasreddin" magazine, the initiative to create a National Library was raised again at the state level during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. However, later this issue was postponed due to the sharp tension of the social and political environment in the republic, and the fall of the Democratic Republic did not allow this idea to be realized. It is known from the archive documents that the issue of establishing a central state library in Baku was discussed for the first time at the meeting No. 53 of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated November 13, 1920, and a corresponding decision was made to provide the library with a suitable building, equipment and book fund. In January 1922, the position of director of the Central Library was established by the Public Education Commissariat, and Museyib Ibrahim oglu Salimov was appointed to this position. The newly created library was placed in the building of the former Azerbaijan Higher Economic Council on Uzeyir Hajibeyli Street. At the initial stage, 5 thousand 212 copies of books collected from the libraries of the Imperial Technical Society's Baku branch and the libraries of the Baku Public Society formed the basis of the fund of the Central Library of Azerbaijan. One of the most important actions carried out by the library at that time was the drafting and approval by the Republican People's Commissariat of Education of the decree on the compulsory purchase of two copies of all books, magazines and newspapers published in the republic. This document, adopted at the state level, laid the foundation for the regular and planned addition of new literature to the book fund of the Central Library. Starting from 1923, mandatory copies began to enter the library. On the eve of the opening of the library, the total volume of the fund reached 20 thousand 441 copies. Since the foundation of the library, granting it the status of the Central State Library of Azerbaijan and its opening at the state level took place on May 23, 1923, this date is considered as the day of the establishment of the National Library.

- What were the innovations in the National Library after our country gained independence?

-The years of independence can be marked as the flourishing period of the National Library. It is during this period that the National Library has become a temple of science, which takes important measures in order to reliably protect the national and moral values ​​of our people and deliver them to future generations, a flagship for the implementation of new technologies in order to reconstruct the library service to readers in accordance with the requirements of the modern era, and a real cultural center. The Great Leader Heydar Aliyev always paid great attention to our culture, national and moral values, and this attention did not bypass our National Library, which keeps our national and moral values ​​alive and conveys them to future generations. In 1995-1997, the Great Leader, who came to this temple of science many times and brought a new atmosphere and positive changes to this library with each visit, did not accidentally say that "The library is a sacred place for the people, the nation, the society, spirituality, knowledge, is a source of intelligence". Heydar Aliyev, who valued the book so ingeniously, presented nearly 300 copies of the valuable book from his personal library to the National Library when he came to the library. Great Leader Heydar Aliyev visited the National Library 4 times during the second period of his leadership in Azerbaijan - 1995-1997. In accordance with Article 7 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Library Work", the State Library named after M.F. Akhundzade was granted the status of "National Library" by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated April 15, 2004. This status greatly expanded the scope of the library's tasks and increased its role in the public life of the country.

-Which important projects have been implemented in recent years and how did these projects contribute to the improvement of library work in our country?

-Preparations for the creation of an electronic catalog in the National Library were completed with the application of the VIRTUA program developed by the US VTLS corporation for special libraries, and the presentation of the National Library's website and electronic catalog took place in May 2006. Since 2010, the work of digitization of the books in the library funds has been significantly accelerated, the books in the "Archive of Azerbaijani Literature" and "Rare Books and Library Museum" departments, which are most requested by readers, newspapers and magazines published in our republic at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, have been digitized. an electronic version of almost 90 percent was prepared. One of the latest innovations presented by the National Library to readers and libraries was the creation of a remote virtual book ordering system. That is, every reader with access to the Internet could order any book by entering the "Virtual service" section on the website. In 2008, the Virtual Reading Room of the Electronic Dissertation Fund of the Russian State Library was opened in the Department of Organization and Use of the Electronic Dissertation Fund of the National Library. In the reading room, readers of the National Library of Azerbaijan had the opportunity to use the full electronic text of more than 1 million dissertations and abstracts stored in the dissertation and abstracts fund of the Russian State Library. The department also provided a virtual service to readers with a full-text electronic database of dissertations defended in Azerbaijan.

- Would you also talk about the international relations of the National Library...

-During the years of independence, the international relations of the National Library expanded significantly and began to be successfully represented in international library organizations. The National Library of Azerbaijan was one of the five founders of the Eurasian Library Assembly (UAE), which unites the national libraries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and one of the founders of the only professional library organization in the former Soviet Union. In 2005, the National Library of Azerbaijan became a member of the Conference of European National Libraries (CENL), which is a very prestigious international library organization in the world. It was represented for the first time at the annual meeting of this prestigious organization held in Luxembourg and became a member of that organization with the unanimous decision of 43 countries. In August 2009, the National Library of Azerbaijan became a member of the International Federation of Library Organizations and Associations (IFLA) and for the first time participated in the annual meeting of IFLA in Washington, the capital of the United States of America. At that time, IFLA's president presented IFLA's membership certificate to Azerbaijan National Library. At the same time, the National Library of Azerbaijan is a member of the Union of National Libraries and Archive Organizations of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member countries and the Board of Directors of National Libraries of Turkic-speaking Countries and actively participates in the projects of these international organizations. Today, the international relations of the National Library of Azerbaijan are successfully developing in the direction of bilateral mutual cooperation with world libraries. Today, our National Library has signed memoranda of mutual cooperation with rich libraries of 47 countries of the world and actively exchanges books, information, and experience with these libraries, and at the same time, through international book exchange with national and university libraries of more than 80 countries of the world, books and other exchanges publications. The "State Program for the Development of the Library-Information Field in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2008-2013", which constitutes an important stage in the development and reconstruction of the library-information field in the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a major step in the reconstruction of the activities of libraries, including the National Library, at the level of today's requirements, library-bibliography played an important role in the automation of processes, improvement and electronicization of library-bibliography services to readers. The successful implementation of this State Program led to the National Library of Azerbaijan becoming one of the pioneers among the national libraries of the leading countries of the world and rising to the level of the most modern library of the South Caucasus.

- Which works have been done to adapt the National Library to European standards?

-Since 2014, the works of installing modern-type mobile bookshelves in the collections of the National Library have been started. Mobile bookshelves, which do not let in dust, moisture, light and serve to protect valuable books from sunlight and other external influences, at the same time, help to double the possibilities of placing new books. In recent years, lighting, ventilation and humidity control equipment according to European standards have been installed in the Library, and a gas-powered automated fire alarm and fire extinguisher system has been installed and put into use. Placing the fund on special, mobile bookshelves both improves the service to the reader and serves to protect valuable book collections. At present, the library's national archive fund of Azerbaijani literature, fund of Azerbaijani literature, fund of sheet music manuscripts of Azerbaijani composers and all other documents have been transferred to high-quality modern type mobile bookshelves, and this work is expected to be completely completed by the end of this year. In July 2016, on the basis of the joint project of the Ministry of Culture and the National Library, in order to create uninterrupted and free reading opportunities for the residents of the capital and the guests of our city, the National Library operates under the motto "I read, you can read" 24 hours a day, every day of the week. "Open Library" was created. The books donated to the library by individual readers, writers, poets, prominent figures of science and culture are displayed in the open library and conditions are created for their reading. In 2020-2021, 33,641 copies of literature from various sources entered the fund of the National Library. The work of creating full-text electronic resources in the National Library in the conditions of the pandemic was also satisfactory. Despite the obstacles, 88,048 full-text electronic resources (including books, dissertations, periodicals) were created in the National Library, which were captured by robotic scanners, portable scanners and digital cameras and processed in graphic programs. Due to the suspension of services to readers in the library directly due to the pandemic, a new "Online services" window was created on the library's website, expanding the scope of services to provide users with library-information services in a virtual mode in a short period of time. 246 098 the resource has been sent. The number of users accessing the website of the library (millikitabkhana.az) was 7,500,523 people. The activity of the National Library in the conditions of the pandemic gave a significant impetus to the further improvement and development of the library's electronic services, electronic catalog and electronic library. For many years, our Mother Library has served our people has taken important measures in the direction of reliably protecting national-moral values ​​and passing them on to future generations, has taken the lead in the application of new technologies in order to reconstruct the library service to readers in accordance with the requirements of the modern era, and has signed projects in the direction of promoting our national-moral values ​​and returning to the homeland. Appreciating the great achievements of the National Library in recent years, President Ilham Aliyev said: "Since the beginning of its operation, the National Library of Azerbaijan has gone through a rich development path and turned into a treasure of cultural resources protecting important publications. During the past period, it has been invaluable in increasing the intellectual and spiritual potential of the society. played a role, contributed to the formation of several generations of science and culture figures".

Thus, during its 100-year history, our native National Library has become a temple of science of the Azerbaijani people.

- We congratulate you and your numerous team on the occasion of a remarkable day and wish you success in your work.