Basic information of the sector
The jurisdiction of the Ministry in the field of libraries is:
- To draft legislation and develop draft policy planning documents regulating the sector of libraries;
- To ensure implementation of policy of the library sector in the libraries and state agencies subordinate to the Ministry;
- To cooperate with the libraries of Latvia, their founders, public organizations of the libraries and Latvian Library Council;
- To carry out registration of libraries, organize the accreditation of libraries and to issue accreditation documents;
- To cooperate with the governing institutions of libraries and libraries of other countries as well as international library organizations.
General information on the libraries of Latvia
The total number of libraries: 1784 (including school libraries)
77 303 279 stock units (including school libraries).
The total number of registered users: 940 549 (including school libraries)
Number of visits: 21 282 327 (including school libraries)
Delivery: 27 583 660 (including school libraries)
The library services encompass all activity fields and all age groups of the population. From the 2 217 053 of Latvia population more than 42 % have registered as active library users. There is one library per 1243 inhabitants. Each user has attended a library on average 23 times per year. In the libraries there is 3654 computer for the staff and 7712 computers for the library users.
The following libraries operate in Latvia:
• 1 National Library of Latvia
• 1 National Academic Library
• 819 public libraries: including 807 municipal libraries; Latvian Library for the Blind with 7 branch libraries; 4 other public libraries
• 49 libraries of higher educational establishments
• 876 libraries of general education and vocational education establishments
• 38 specialised libraries
Library Division of the Department for Implementation of Cultural Policy
Postal address of the division:
K.Valdemāra iela 11a, Riga, LV-1364
Phone: +371 67078110
Fax: +371 67078107
