Lithuania - Libraries and museums

The National Library at Vilnius has 9.2 million volumes. Founded in 1570, the Vilnius University Library has 5.3 million volumes. Vilnius also has the Central Library of the Academy of Sciences, with 3.66 million volumes. There are dozens of other special collections in the country, including libraries maintained by the Union of Lithuanian Writers, the State Institute of Art, and the Institute of Urban Planning. In 1997, there were 1,478 public libraries in the country.

The majority of Lithuania's museums are in Vilnius, and these include the Lithuanian Art Museum (1941), the National Museum (1856), the Museum of Lithuanian Religious History, and, founded in 1991 just after gaining independence from the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian State Museum, dedicated to the country's suffering under and resistance to Soviet occupation. The Museum of the Center of Europe, an open-air museum displaying large-scale works by European artists, was opened in Vilnius in 1994.