| Founded in 1922, the library moved to its current location on May 23, 1923. It was initially known as the General Library and State Book Storage of Azerbaijan. On July 11, 1939 the library was renamed to Akhundov Azerbaijan State Library (after Mirza Fatali Akhundov, an Azerbaijani dramatist and philosopher). In 1962, the library was finally granted permission to create exchange ties with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In 2005, in accordance with the decree issued by the Cabinet of Ministers, the library took the name Akhundov Azerbaijan National Library. In 2005, it joined the Conference of European National Librarians.
The library is divided into 25 departments and 26 sectors. It has about 4.5 million items (books, printed materials, newspapers, maps, dissertations and records)[1], including copies of all the newspapers published during the Soviet period. It receives four copies of every new book and two copies of every magazine and newspaper published in Azerbaijan. The library, the only one of its kind, has microfilm and photos of newspapers published in Azerbaijan before the Bolshevik Revolution. |
