2. Our history can be divided into two phases:
First period in 1918-1940
Second started in 1991
3. The first military libray in the territory
of Estonia was established in 1847 –
The Marine Officer´s library
4. Libraries were founded together with the
defence forces
Firstly mentioned in the newspaper
“Sotsiaaldemokraat” in 1917
Officers called the nation to give books to the
soldiers as gifts
5. No finances for new literature
No directions
No specialised librarians
Classification of books and circulation system
did not exist
6. By 1926 there were 20 libraries
Special course for librarians was held in 1926
In 1927 appeared in print a book “A
handbook for the organisation of the defence
force libraries”
7. Specific two-steps classification
In the General Staff library were constructed
preferred-lists of military books
The directions how to bind and lend books
were given out
8. The last message from the military library
have appeared in 1939
In 1940 the Soviet Union occupied Estonia
The defence forces were liquidated
Our libaries stopped existing
9. In 1991 Estonia started to rebuild our
national defence
Military libraries started from zero
Most of the units were formed in 1992 and
1993
Libraries were established by the staff of the
units
10. Estonians from outside the country collected
books through donations
An article about poor conditions of libraries
appeared in print in aprill 2000
Officers had been turned to the public for
donations
11. It was advertised a campaign “Give a book for
soldier”
40 000 books were gathered
We got only fiction, not military literature
12. Libraries of units worked individually
Problems and concerns were identical
An idea of formulating a one central defence
force libary turned up
13. Headquarters library was opened in 4. of May
2004
Library started to serve Headquarters of
Defence Forces and Headquarters of Naval
Force, Air Force and Land Force
14. Preliminary plan was to start with 3 different
fields of operation:
1. Creating the set of defence force libraries
2. To be ready for developing into a central
library of the defence forces
3. Start with Estonian military bibliographic
database
15. We started up by uniting the 2 libary
databases into one
After that we started to connect all the
libaries step-by-step
We organised a training to librarians how to
use electronic catalog and how organise
electronic circulation
17. Headquarters and Estonian Defence College
libraries are special libraries in militay area
Libraries in Units :
A place for soldier to spend his free time
A place to borrow books to read
They almost don´t have special military
literature, except manuals and textbooks
18. I compared books in foreign languages in my
libary with other bigger scientific libraries
funds
75 % of the books we have in our library are
uniq in Estonia
20. The aim of the database is to register all the
books, newspapers and magazines in
Estonian language about military matters
Includes collection of articles about Estonian
Defence Forces and Estonian military history
21. Includes rare Estonian militay books in pdf-
format (in collaboration with National Library
EOD-project)
Reader can find a list of undergraduate
papers, master´s and doctorate thesis and
scientific publication issued bu employees of
defence forces (bibliographic records only)
22. Our libraries have become quite important
units in the structure of Estonian Defence
Forces
In institutions libary is very good instrument
to motivate employees
23. We hope that leaders of Estonian Defence
Forces will continue to support the
development and existence of military
libraries