Authors urge Estonia to fund national library properly

Eneken Laanes and Joonas Hellerma have called on the Estonian state to adopt the necessary laws and provide sufficient funding so the National Library of Estonia can fulfil its duties and readers and researchers can access its collections, ERR reported.

In an article published by Sirp, the authors said the library’s excessively prolonged renovation and the lack of access to the cultural heritage it manages had exposed a gap between users’ expectations and the state’s cultural priorities.

The library is now scheduled to reopen in May 2027. This would mean its main building has been closed for nearly six years, from 2021 to 2027. The renovation would last almost as long as the building’s original construction, which took roughly eight years between 1985 and 1993.

The library provided services for a time from temporary premises on Narva Road, but those premises have also been closed for some time, sharply reducing access to its services.

Although the contractor handed over the building some time ago, ordering furniture and assembling the book collections will still take considerable time. The authors said it was unclear to the public whether the work had been organised efficiently and was progressing quickly enough, given the National Library’s importance and its status as a public law institution.

They said it would be difficult to imagine comparable public law institutions such as Estonian Public Broadcasting or the Estonia National Opera operating at reduced capacity for six years or being out of use for a period of time.

The authors argued that libraries should not be pushed down the list of state funding priorities. From the beginning, they said, there had not been enough money to keep all collections accessible during the renovation or to provide temporary premises for all the library’s functions, regardless of how long the work took.

They said a state that cared about its culture could not keep its national library closed and its collections out of use for such a long period.

Although the long wait is expected to end next May, Laanes and Hellerma said the renovation should provide lessons for the future. The National Library is not only a physical place but also a mental environment and part of the circulation of the state and its people.

They described the library as a democratic and open space for work, learning and communication, including for people who lack such opportunities because of limited living space or other reasons. Its environment for concentration, learning and thought represents a part of society that has not been commercialised or otherwise occupied.

The library preserves cultural heritage accumulated over decades and provides changing, comprehensive access to it. It also hosts meetings and exchanges of ideas, where new initiatives can emerge.