News

Dr. Andreja Valic Zver gives a paper at the National and University Library of Iceland Monday 16 September, 17–18, on the topic: “Why Should We Remember the Victims?” The meeting at which Dr. Zver reads her paper marks the closure of a photo exhibition at the National Library on “International Communism and Iceland”. The exhibition…

Library Day will be held in Iceland for the third time on Monday 9 September. This time the day is linked to International Literacy Day, which falls on 8 September every year. The theme of the day is “Lestur er bestur – spjaldanna á milli” (Reading is best – from cover to cover). Over 100…

The Minister of Education, Science and Culture, Illugi Gunnarsson, visited the Library on Tuesday 27 August with his assistant Sigríður Hallgrímsdóttir. With them were Ásta Magnúsdóttir, Permanent Secretary, Ingibjörg Ólafsdóttir, secretary to the Permanent Secretary, Eiríkur Þorláksson, specialist, and Leifur Eysteinsson, quality manager. The Minister looked round the Library and its exhibitions, and the group…

Short English version of the Annual Report 2012 is available on the Library’s website. The report is in a similar format as before, but small changes are made each year. The photograps were taken at exhibitions in the Library in 2012.

Landskerfi bókasafna hf. (LB, the Consortium of Icelandic Libraries) and Rekstrarfélag Sarps (RS, the Sarpur operating association) have concluded a service agreement for two years from 1 September. Under the cooperation, LB takes over the day-to-day running of RS, and Sarpur’s manager will start work with facilities on LB’s premises. The aim of the cooperation…

The Ambassador of the Philippines to the Nordic countries, Bayani S. Mercado, visited on 21 June with María Priscilla Zanoria, Consul of the Philippines in Iceland. They gave the Library two books containing copies of the manuscripts of two novels by José Rizal, the foremost hero of Philippine independence. He was a doctor and decided…

Yesterday, the staff of the manuscript collection at The National and University Library celebrated the 130 anniversary of Páll Eggert Ólason (1883-1949). Páll was an active scholar who cataloged the manuscript collection of the library which was published in three massive volumes and one addendum during the years 1918-1947. Páll also wrote other works on…

This morning the 10,000th document was registered in the University of Iceland’s collection in Skemman. Students’ final theses at the University have been registered in Skemman since 2008. Seven universities now take part in Skemman, which is the second most used website run by the National and University Library of Iceland, after Tímarit.is.

The National and University Library of Iceland recently became a member of the Europeana project entitled “Europeana – Newspapers”. The purpose of the project is to gather information about the digitization and dissemination of newspapers, magazines and journals in the possession of European libraries. One of the aims of the project is, for example, to…

The National and University Library of Iceland have recently implemented an international numbering system for notated music, ISMN, the International Standard Music Number. The ISMN is analogous to the International Standard Book Number, ISBN, but serves as a unique identifier for notated music. Icelandic music publishers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the ISMN system…

Bjarni M. Gíslason (1908-1980) was born at Stekkjarbakki, Tálknafjörður, Iceland. He was a sailor as a young man and published his first book of poetry at the age of 25, „Jeg ýti úr vör“ (I launch the boat), the same year „Sigling“ was released on a record. Bjarni sailed to Denmark that same year, 1933,…