100 stories from the hiking route

1950 – Library starts operating in Elistvere village

Information

Topic

Village life and society work

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 58.57585278

Longitude: 26.685422

L-EST 97

x: 6495999.3
y: 656187.3

Location

Ähijärve-Aegviidu Hiking route

The predecessor of Elistvere Library the Raigastvere National Library Association was established in 1917 by the Raigastvere Primary School (about 2.5 km from Elistvere). The idea came from the headmaster of the time – August Mauer. Books were bought with the money gathered at fundraisers. The collection consisted mostly of works of fiction with a few natural science books thrown into the mix.
In 1930, Karl Mardar came to be the headmaster of the Raigastvere Primary School, dedicating the rest of his life to the school and the library. He took over the management of the library: he procured new books, adjusted them to be suitable for the library, and lent them to those interested. At the time, “adjusting books to be suitable for the library” meant that Maldar signed the book with an inventory number, stamped it, and covered it with paper to protect it. On the paper, he wrote various words of wisdom: “Do not use the book as a potholder”, “Keep the book new”, “Do not fold the pages of the book” etc. In 1945, the library was registered as the National Library of Raigastvere and Karl Maldar became the paid manager of the library.
Meida Pääsukene came to be the manager in 1950. In the same year, the library was moved to Elistvere and renamed as the Elistvere Library. The library operates in Elistvere to this day.