About Belarus

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Belarus National Library

The National Library of Belarus (Minsk Library) is the most valuable object of cultural heritage of the Belarusian nation. Its mission is to accumulate, preserve and provide knowledge of the humankind to the society. The constructions commenced on November 2002.

In the course of the construction the engineers developed cutting-edge security, fire safety and electricity supply systems. The buildings of such proportions are normally built within 72 months, but the term was cut to 36 months. Geologists made a research of the ground to discover that in most areas beneath the basement there is rather solid clay and cleared the site for the works.

The single monolithic slab of reinforced concrete on which Minsk Library is based is up to 2 meters thick. By the way the building of Minsk library weighs about 270 000 tons which is almost four times as much as Ostankino TV tower in Moscow. The diameter of the ground floors is 180 meters and each of them can accommodate six football pitches.

About 5000 people and 200 companies took part in the construction. In the most intensive periods there were up to 3000 people at the site. The works carried on 24 hours a day in any weather. For the first time they built immediately after they planned – the drawings that were drafted on one day became concrete on the next day.

The architects of Minsk Library based their calculations on the UNESCO standards and now for instance the glass floor can carry load of up to 2 tons per square meter. Most visitors find it rather risky to walk across such floor, but the Library staff even jump on it – and it is still there!

The Minsk Library boasts of the shortest item delivery time – you can get your book within 10-20 minutes. In Public Library Francois Mitterand, France, the readers get their books within 1 hour 15 minutes on average. The vaults of Minsk Library today accommodate about 8 million items and in 35 years it will store 14 million items. The library has a seating capacity of 2000 for the readers, which is twice as much as the old building. A keen reader will be able to read all the books stored in the library in 1255 years.

It is estimated that the building will last for 500 years, but the engineers maintain that it will be there even a thousand years later. It took the architects Viktor Kramarenko and Mikhail Vinogradov 20 years to fulfill the project that was designed in the USSR. The project won an international competition in 1988 simply because there was none to compete with it. They nearly started building it, but the collapse of the USSR postponed the construction.

The shape of the Minsk Library building – the diamond – was very hard to lobby. The architects decided to place the books into the diamond-shaped vault on the upper floors instead of the basement for the sake of safety. They believed that Minsk Library must enter the 21st century in the shape of a precious stone rather than just a book storage. 

 

When the Minsk Library was almost complete it became clear that it is in this unique building that the international class congress rooms must be located. Especially for these facilities the courtyards of the 2nd and 3rd floors were kept free.

It was extremely hard to relocate 8 million items from the old building into the new one. Rare books require a special micro climate and therefore they were all packed into special containers and boxes. Since there were no elevators the personnel lined up along the stairs passing the items to each other. It was important to relocate them all simultaneously so as not to alter the order.

The present-day building of the Minsk Library offers the most frequently-visited observation pad in town. The whole of Minsk can be observed from a bird’s-eye view. The Museum of Rare Books of the Minsk Library boasts of exhibits that date as far back as 14th century. They are kept on display for 3 months and then replaced with other old books for the sake of their preservation. Tourists marvel at the heaviest hand-made books or at the smallest printed books and visitors from Asia often stay longer in front of a Koran or some Indian manuscript.

INTERESTING FACTS

The total length of electric wires of the Minsk Library is over 700 kilometers. The book shelves are 90 kilometers long – almost twice as much as Minsk ring road. The hallways and passages of the Minsk Library are 5 kilometers long. However, dedicated readers will not be able to cover this distance because most of these areas are restricted. The local security system features over 200 surveillance cameras that can outperform a small local TV channel.

Up to date there are 100 000 reader card holders in Belarus and if you like to have a better look at Minsk Library, you are most welcome to the Minsk city tour!