Library

We celebrated the Year of the Estonian Book with several exhibitions and activities.

On 30 January 2025 we opened the Year of the Estonian Book with the exhibition “The Evolution of Estonian technical book”. The opening event featured speeches by curator Siret Mikumets, TalTech Rector Tiit Land, Professor Emeritus Jakob Kübarsepp, and Library Director Tõnis Liibek. We also watched the opening speech of the patron of the Book Year, President Alar Karis, via a televised broadcast.

We took part in the Estonian Librarians Association’s initiative to organize “alphabet events” throughout the year, as the alphabet forms the basis of our written language and 500 years of the Estonian written language was also celebrated. The alphabet was divided across the year so that each month focused on specific letters and related keywords. Based on these, we highlighted works, reading, and materials from library collections. Using the keywords, we created exhibitions of books that could be borrowed and social media posts. In the book exhibitions we highlighted humorous works, adventure stories, literature supporting mental health, poetry, popular science books, etc. The Instagram alphabet posts were created in cooperation between the library and the museum and covered topics such as biography, digital collection, phonography, oil shale, the Song Festival grounds, smart textiles, and more.

The Book Year was also celebrated in 1935, when exhibitions and events were held across Estonia to introduce local communities. In 2025, our library also prepared an exhibition introducing our area: “A Place Written in Words – Reviewing Mustamäe”, which presented the story of Mustamäe and Tallinn University of Technology campus through books. The exhibition also highlighted writers and authors connected to Mustamäe and pointed out references in their texts to various streets and locations in Mustamäe. In designing the exhibition, we were able to use exhibits and photos from the Tallinn City Museum collection. The exhibition attracted interest from the Mustamäe district government and, after being displayed in TalTech Library, it travelled to the Mustamäe Riigigümnaasium, where it was partly integrated into the teaching activities.

In addition to the larger book exhibitions, visitors to our reading areas could also explore other topics related to the history of books, such as ex libris, bookbinding, calligraphy, as well as bookmarks and the oldest Estonian-language works in our collections.

We also held a book fair and three book presentations. Inspired by the President’s Book Club initiative, the university’s Marketing and Communications Office launched the TalTech Book Club, where university staff met to discuss literary works.

The Book Year concluded with exhibitions of books that every Estonian should read during their lifetime and works by authors connected with Tallinn University of Technology.