National Library of Serbia

The National Library of Serbia (NLS) (Serbian: Народна библиотека Србије / Narodna biblioteka Srbije) is the national library of Serbia, located in the city of Belgrade, (Vračar municipality).

History

The establishment of the Library is connected to an historical event in February 1832, when Dimitrije Davidović, publisher of the first Serbian newspaper, sent a letter about establishing a national library in honour of Prince Miloš Obrenović. The same year in November, Prince Miloš ordered the Legal Deposit of copies in the National Library.

During World War I, the Library building and collections were damaged by bombing, so the remaining holdings were moved from Belgrade to Niš and Kragujevac for their protection. After the War, and according to the National Library Act and the Press Law, both from 1919, the Library became the central state Library and obtained the right to acquire an obligatory copy from all over the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The bombing in the World War II completely destroyed the Library building along with a book collection of 500.000 volumes, a collection of 1424 Cyrillic manuscripts and charters, a collection of maps and prints of 1,500 items, collections of 4,000 journals as well as 1,800 newspaper titles, its rich archives of Turkish documents about Serbia and the complete correspondence of distinguished figures of the cultural and political history of Serbia and all holdings lists and catalogs.

After the liberation of......
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