Türkiye's first 'National Library' serves for 112 years

İZMİR

The National Library in İzmir has been serving readers for 112 years with a collection of over 1.7 million books.

Founded in 1912 by a group of İzmir residents in the Konak district of the city, the library later moved to its current location in 1933 and became the first library in Türkiye to be named "National" by the decision of the Council of Ministers in 1939. It has been a resource for the people of İzmir for 112 years.

The library, containing approximately 4,000 handwritten books in Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages along with others, is also a resource for researchers and a place for students to study.

Within its body, the library has the books printed in the İbrahim Müteferrika Printing House, which is the first printing house in Türkiye, the book printed in the Gutenberg Printing House, which is the first printing house in the world, the original copy of the Düsturname-i Enveri handwritten during the reign of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and the works of many world-renowned writers. The library also stands out as Türkiye's third President Celal Bayar is among its founders.

Ulvi Puğ, chairman of the Board of Directors of the İzmir National Library Foundation, provided information about the establishment process of the library, mentioning Giritli Ali Refet Efendi, the first donator of the library.

“The first library built by the state is the Beyazıt Library in Istanbul. Seeing the gap in this field, the Union and Progress Party decided to establish a national library during the Ordinary General Assembly Meeting. A group of intellectuals from İzmir, who were members of the Committee of Union and Progress at that time, came together and founded the İzmir National Library. A man named Giritli Ali Refet Efendi founded a library consisting of 10,000 books, but he could not manage it with his personal effort and donated those books to this library, creating the first source of the library.”

Stating that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visited the library three times, Puğ said, “He made two visits during its construction and the third visit after the construction was completed. One copy of each book printed is sent to six libraries in Türkiye free of charge by the Culture Ministry. We are the only library outside Istanbul and Ankara that gets these books. That's why our book collections are so large.

Stating that a new library should be opened in İzmir, Puğ said, “Today, we have approximately 1.7 million books. The only source İzmir can consult is the İzmir National Library. We provide service between 8:30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Our readers are waiting for us in front of the door in the morning. We need to build a new library. We cannot open our books and we cannot have enough readers. Some 25,000 readers come to the library annually. This number decreased slightly during the pandemic period, but the library never closed.”

Noting that they have all the newspaper collections and city plans since the foundation of the Republic, Puğ said, “We digitalized our 150-200 year old city plans in a joint effort with Katip Çelebi University and printed them in a book with barcodes. We will also ensure that all our manuscripts are transferred to digital formats. Readers will be able to access a book more easily and without damaging it.”

Puğ said that the library building was built by Architect Tahsin Sermet, adding, “It is one of the best examples of the architectural style we call First Republic Architecture or neoclassical architecture. It was designed as the original library. There is such good air-conditioning that the books you see behind me are Victor Hugo's original books. Delegations from France came and said, 'How did you preserve them so well?' The library itself is an institution that takes good care of books. We have priceless works. Book enthusiasts and collectors come here, too. We have a book called Düsturname-i Enveri. Enveri wrote two copies of this book. It is a manuscript written during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror. They smuggled a copy to the French National Library at that time. But we have the original and complete copy.”