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Tallinn Central Library co-operated with several factories
and supplied fishing boats at anchor in Tallinn with books.
They also co-operated with the Association for the Blind.
In 1983 Lasnamäe Children’s Library and the Central
Library music section were opened. At the end of the
decade new branch libraries were opened in Mustamäe and
Pelgulinn as a special project. In 1986 there was a fire in the
main building of the library.
As there were no extensive repairs done the fire service
turned off the electricity on 26 November, imposed a
fine and left the building to the cold and dark. After long
negotiations with the highest fire service officials and
contracting for new repair projects the library was allowed
to open again to readers on 13 January 1987.
On 3 October 1986 The director Niina Aršas retired. Helgi
Peeba directed the work of the library until the end of 1989.
At the 80th anniversary of the library’s establishment
Estonia had reached the brink of a new age. The national
awakening that began in the second half of the decade started
to influence the work of the library more and more. There
was one more significant change – on the 23 September
1988 the library took on the name of A. H. Tammsaare. In
1990 Anne Skrõpnik became the director.
At the beginning of 1991 the library got back “The Workers’
Cellar”, a branch of
the History Museum
located in the cellar
of the building.
After leaving the
Workers’ House in
Suur-Karja street at
the beginning of the
1920s the workers
were given part of
the former Russian
Social House cellar by the city authorities. Workers’
movement activists gathered here to hold their meetings.
The museum was established in the library’s cellar at the end
of the 1950s. In 1991, after extensive repairs, the Russian
language repository was located here.
In the autumn of 1991, after independence was again
declared, the elimination of outdated literature began.
The entire inventory and catalogue were looked through.
1n 1992–1995 the collection of the Central Library
was reduced by 59,000 books. Superfluous copies were
given to other libraries. In 1992 the library subscribed to
244 magazines (33 Estonian, 197 Russian, 10 in other
languages) and 77 newspapers (40 Estonian, 37 Russian).
In 1994 the number of magazines was reduced to 202 and
newspapers to 103. Book circulation was 2.04 in 1995, 2.7
in the Russian section, 2.5 in the Estonian and 1.3 in the
foreign language section. A similarly high circulation had
been reached in the 1960s.
Though there were 25 branch libraries in 1992, this
number was reduced to 21 in 1993 due to the separation
of two parts of the city from Tallinn and other reasons as
well. In 1994 there were 70 travelling libraries, the greater
part of them on ships. In 1994 there were only 27 travelling
libraries as the library stopped providing its services to ships,
and started establishing travelling libraries for hospitals and
prisons.
In 1993, in collaboration with the Finnish firm
Akateeminen Tietopalvelu OY, the library undertook a trial
run of a cataloguing module for entering new literature.
The first computers at the library were also donated by the
Finns.
On 12 August 1994 the new statutes of Tallinn Central
Library were accepted by the local authorities of Tallinn.
In November new regulations were ratified for the use of
libraries: Individuals not registered in Tallinn had to pay
a security deposit of 25 kroons to borrow a book, and 20
cents a day for overdue books.
In 1995 the number of books in Tallinn Central Library
reached 436,139 (1,204,304 including the branch libraries).
The greatest number of books were in Estonian, the greatest
number of titles Russian. Half the books were fiction, poetry
and children’s books,
half were non-fiction.
In 1997 the 90th
anniversary of the
library was celebrated.
A booklet entitled
“Tallinn
Central
Library” by
H.
Jürman and H. Peeba
was published.
In 1998 Kaie Holm became the director. In this time the
library has become an institution that meets contemporary
needs for collecting and storing information. New branches
have been opened, most of the branches have undergone
extensive repairs, only two or three of them are awaiting
renovation. In 2005 a new building was constructed for