Library collections:

Knygų fondas (Book Collection)

Retųjų spaudinių fondas (Rare Prints Collection)

Periodikos fondas (Periodicals)

Bibliotekos rankraštynas ir fototeka (The Library's Manuscript Collection and Photo Archive)

Smulkiųjų spaudinių fondas (Small-Print Collection)

Kartografijos fondas (Cartography Collection)

Book Collection

The library’s largest collection consists of over 117,430 books. In addition to the collection of the Lithuanian Scientific Society, there are books from personal libraries—those of Jonas Basanavičius, Simonas Daukantas, Eduardas Volteris, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Vincas Krėvė, Balys Sruoga, Father Juozas Stankevičius, Jonas Jablonskis, Mykolas Biržiška, Kostas Korsakas, Kazys Grigas, Algis Samulionis, Vytautas Vanagas, Danutė Krištopaitė, Jonas Balys, and others. The library inherited books from the Institute of Lithuanian Studies (1939–1941) and the Lithuanian Folklore Archive (1935–1939). It also houses the first editions of Lithuanian literature (by Kristijonas Donelaitis, Simonas Stanevičius, Motiejus Valančius, Antanas Baranauskas, Vincas Kudirka, Maironis, Žemaitė, Jonas Biliūnas, and others), Liudvikas Rėza’s Dainos, Georgo Neselman, August Schleicher, and Daniel Klein, primers, calendars, and contemporary works of Lithuanian prose and poetry. A significant number of books in Polish, Russian, German, French, and other languages on the history of Lithuania and neighboring nations, as well as works by world literary classics that are in some way related to Lithuania.

The library continues to systematically acquire the latest scholarly and theoretical literature in the fields of philology and the humanities, informational publications necessary for Lithuanian studies, as well as works of Lithuanian fiction.

Rare Books Collection

The Rare Books Collection contains over a hundred books from the 16th–19th centuries in Latin, Polish, Russian, German, French, and other languages, covering the history of Lithuania and neighboring nations and related to Lithuania in one way or another. These include Jonas Bretkūnas’sPostilė (1591), Mikalojus Daukša’sPostilė (1599), Konstantinas Sirvydas’s dictionary Dictionarium trium linguarum (editions from 1677 and 1713), Motiejus Stryjkovskis’s Kronika (1582), Philippus Ruigius’s Betrachtung der littauischen Sprache (1745), one of the first Lithuanian primers, Mokslas skaitymo rašto lietuviško (1796 edition), various Gospels, catechisms, and many other valuable publications.

Periodicals Collection

The Periodicals Collection houses the first unique examples of Lithuanian periodicals: Nusidavimai apie Evangelijos praplatinimą tarp žydų ir pagonių (1832–1892), Keleivis iš Karaliaučiaus (1850–1880), the calendar published by Laurynas Ivinskis, Metų skaitlius ūkiškas ant metų viešpaties (1846–1878), and others; newspapers and magazines from the period of press censorship: Aušra (1883–1886), Nemuno sargas (1884–1887), Varpas (1889–1905), Tėvynės sargas (1896–1904), etc.; the first periodicals published in exile: Vienybė lietuvininkų (1886–1920), Garsas Amerikos lietuvių (1894–1899), Unija (1884–1885), and others; publications from the period of the restoration of the press: Vilniaus žinios (1904–1909), Lietuvių laikraštis (1904–1906), Draugija (1907–1914), Lietuvių tauta (1907–1936), Viltis (1907–1915), Vaivorykštė (1913–1914), and others.

Currently, the library holds over 75,000 items of journals, periodicals, and newspapers, primarily in Lithuanian, Polish, German, and Russian.

During the first decades of building the periodicals collection, every available periodical published in Lithuania or related to it was collected. In recent decades, the focus has shifted to periodicals and serial publications devoted to Lithuanian philology, history, culture, and public life. Each year, the library subscribes to approximately 20 titles of Lithuanian-language and cultural periodicals published in Lithuania.

The Library’s Manuscript Collection and Photo Archive

The library’s manuscript collection holds approximately 73,600 inventory items of manuscripts, divided into 150 fonds. These are the archives of individuals, various societies, organizations, and editorial offices.

The collection of manuscripts began with the founding of the Lithuanian Scientific Society. In 1907, the archives of Antanas and Jonas Juškus were received, followed by the manuscripts of Simonas Daukantas and Laurynas Ivinskis; in 1909, the manuscript collections of Dionizas Poška; in 1908, those of Motiejus Valančius; and other documents from the 17th–18th centuries. The largest collection is the archive of Dr. Jonas Basanavičius, rich in manuscripts of an ethnographic, folkloric, archaeological, linguistic, and historical nature, personal documents, and numerous letters. The archive also contains works by Mikalojus Akelaitis, Jonas Biliūnas, Julius Janonis, Jonas Mačys-Kėkštas, Lazdynų Pelėda, Maironis, Antanas Baranauskas, Vincas Pietaris, and linguist Dominikas Sutkevičius.

It also preserves various editorial documents from periodicals of the time, documents of the Lithuanian Writers’ Society, as well as a substantial collection from the Lithuanian Scientific Society itself—meeting minutes, correspondence, and various other writings. Of particular value is the two-part manuscript of Kristijonas Donelaitis’s Metai.

The largest part of the manuscript collection consists of individual 19th–20th-century personal collections—archives of Lithuanian writers, public figures, and scholars who lived in Lithuania and abroad. These include the collections of Vincas Krėvė, Antanas Vienuolis, Jonas Jablonskis, Liudas Gira, Balys Sruoga, Kazys Binkis, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Salomėja Nėris, Petras Cvirka, Kazys Boruta, Ieva Simonaitytė, Balys Sruoga, Eduardas Mieželaitis, Albinas Bernotas, Jonas Aistis, Bernardas Brazdžionis, Kazys Bradūnas, Tomas Venclova, Ričardas Gavelis, Alfonsas Maldonis, Justinas Marcinkevičius, and many others.

The collections of scholars who worked at the institute are also being compiled: Kostas Korsakas, Jonas Lankutis, Algis Samulionis, Albertas Zalatorius, Vytautas Kubilius, Janina Žėkaitė, Juozas Laurušas, Vytautas Vanagas, and Pranas Razmukas, a long-time institute employee and custodian of the library’s collections.

The photo archive holds 710 folders containing photographic documents of individuals, institutions, organizations, associations, cities, ethnography, and more—that is, 27,330 photographs, postcards, and albums. In 2018, a substantial photo archive of portraits and cultural activities of Lithuanian writers (Justinas Marcinkevičius, Ieva Simonaitytė, Juozas Baltušis, Eduardas Mieželaitis, Kazys Bradūnas, and others) by the renowned photographer Ona Pajėdaitė was received.

Small Prints Collection

The Small Prints Collection contains over 22,000 items from various periods, including posters, leaflets, programs, invitations, bulletins, posters, statutes and regulations of institutions and organizations, publications on their activities, and more.

Cartography Collection

The Cartography Collection contains 1,250 items of various maps dating from the early 19th century to the present day.