The winners of the photo competition #♥_nlb_nlb that the National Library of Belarus held on the eve of its 100th anniversary were given a tour of the collection on September 23 at the library.
The visitors learnt about the history of the institution, the architectural elements of the building, the reading room system, and the extensive collection of the nation's major library throughout the tour. They also ordered a fashion magazine and tracked its delivery to the reader. Students had access to the "most beautiful diamond" for the first time, the holdings where they could see both contemporary publications and those written decades before the National Library of Belarus was established.
The periodicals that started publishing in the second half of the 19th century and are still published today were shown the contest winners by Yulia Tverdokhlebova, head of the Special collections keeping department. The tourists, for instance, compared the September 1861 issues of the journal "Around the World" to the most recent issue from September 2022. Yulia Borisovna also showed to the tourists the collections of newspapers, music publications, audio-visual and electronic documents. The variety of the collection of visual documents left an impression on the visitors. These included reproductions of paintings by foreign, Russian, and Soviet artists, works by Belarusian graphic artists, postcards from the 19th and early 20th centuries featuring views of Belarusian cities, Great Patriotic War posters, and much more. Our guests were interested in music manuscripts by Belarusian composers and autographed publications.
The contest winners walked to the observation platform to shoot unique pictures of the autumn city from a height of 73 metres after the tour!
We appreciate everyone's good spirits and cordially encourage everyone to have a guided tour to the National Library of Belarus.
The article is provided by the Excursion and methodological work department.
