The Municipal Library “B.P. Hasdeu” provides services and programs that substantially contribute to the cultural life of the city. It annually carries out over 5,000 programs and gathers together more than 50,000 participants. The library’s employees have always been preoccupied with connection to the city’s citizens of different ages, training, level of education and skills but who all need to be informed, the Library’s director Mariana Harjevschi stated in a conference held to celebrate the 145th anniversary of the founding of the institution, IPN reports.

Mariana Harjevschi noted that the conference’s title “A Library for the City. A Library for Everyone” shows what path the library has covered as a public institution in the community and its role that becomes more pronounced in the current times. The participatory network consists of 27 branches with a collection of over 1 million volumes and a team of over 300 devoted librarians.

“If, on this anniversary, we looked for an updated descriptor for Chisinau, this would be “city of libraries”. This is what our predecessors said but this is also what we believe today. This descriptor fully matches Chisinau not only because the city concentrates most of the libraries, books and readers but also because the library, reading, the people here can be considered a brand of which any modern city with European aspirations can be proud. Chisinau aspires to modernization, to the European spirit and we, the librarians, its residents, the readers of the libraries of Chisinau also do so together with it,” said Mariana Harjevschi.

National Library director Elena Pintilei, who is the president of the Association of Librarians of the Republic of Moldova, said that the Municipal Library “B.P. Hasdeu” has been a professional source of information that is appreciated at the national and international level. “Through the established partnerships, especially during the last 30 years, the Library shows that it is an important player in its area of activity based on cooperation of institutions, organizations and citizens of the municipality of Chisinau, which is a wonderful opportunity for increasing civic engagement and contributing to local development,” she stated. The National Library donated the set of journals “Moldova” for 2021-2022, which are printed by the National Library, to the central Municipal Library.

“We are glad that we can be a large team of the municipality of Chisinau together with these 27 branches with the over 100 provided services, with technologization attempts,” said the mayor general of Chisinau Ion Ceban.

The Public Library of Chisinau City, which is now called the Municipal Library “B.P. Hasdeu”, was inaugurated on October 19, 1877 on the initiative of mayor Carol Schmidt and worked based on regulations set down by the City Duma.