Library Opens New Chapter for Romania

For years its unfinished façade and empty rooms have reminded Romanians of the legacy of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's long rule.

Construction of the new National Library began back in 1986, but came to a halt in 1989, when the Communist regime fell. New works, based on new projects, started in 2009.

Now Romanian book-lovers have reasons to rejoice as the library is ready finally to open its doors.

The 120,000-square-metre library has 14 large reading halls, six conference halls, an aula seating 400 places, 30,000 square metres of book storage space and multifunctional space for exhibitions, auditions, book stores and cafes.

The library is to start this month to host one-off events while access to the public is expected to begin this spring, after most of the collections have been rehoused in the new building.

The funds used for the library came from a loan granted to the Romanian government by the European Council Development Bank.

Officials describe the opening of the National Library as the most important cultural investment made in the last 20 years in Romania.

“The completion of this work marks the triumph of ‘We can’ against the negativism that dominates Romanian society,” Prime Minister Emil Boc said recently.

Kelemen Hunor, the Minister of Culture, said the library boasted a world-class infrastructure, which could rival anything of its kind in Europe.

Seen from outside, the 100-million-euro glass-and-steel building looks impressive and many readers anxiously awaiting its opening.

“I'm eager to sit on a library’s terrace overlooking the Dambovita river and read my favourite books. Besides, I hope the new library will have good internet services”, says Luiza Sames, a 27-year-old student.  

But not everyone is optimistic that the new library will significantly improve the future of reading in Romania as a whole. "In recent years the number of people reading literature has constantly fallen. Many people are now interested only in television, movies and the internet," literary editor Mircea Paraschiv said.

A recent study carried out by the research center CURS showed that as many as 52 per cent of Romanians do not read books at all. Another 28 per cent read only "from time to time" while only 5 per cent read "for at least an hour a day".

During the Communist era, Romania invested heavily in literacy campaigns and books were available in large numbers at cheap prices. Over the past 20 years, however, the situation changed radically, with television and internet replacing reading as most people's daily habit.