The history of the Public Historical Library of Mithimna “Argyris Eftaliotis” from 1859 until today..
On July 26, 1859, in Turkish‐occupied Mithymna or Molyvos, as the city has also been called since the Middle Ages, was founded the philological association “Brotherhood of the Muses”. The first and main purpose of the association was the establishment of a Public Library. All residents of Mithymna and the surrounding areas had the right to borrow books, regardless of social class and age, to use the public reading room and to participate in intellectual activities and events. Later, the association offered educational work, appointing and paying teachers, but also philanthropy, helping poor students and their families. The founders of the “ Library of the Brotherhood of the Muses in Methymni”, one of whom was the father of Argyris Eftaliotis, influenced by the ideas of the Greek and European Enlightenment and the messages of the French Revolution, envisioned the spiritual and national awakening of the country, and its liberation from the Turkish occupation through education.
Since 2009, the Library is the tenth Historical Library of the country due to its long life, but also due to its Old Collection of about 1,000 valuable and rare books. Through centuries the old books of the Library helped to learn the Greek language defending the Orthodox faith and spreading the sciences and still today provide the possibility of historical and philological study, but also the study of the evolution of the Greek book due to their artistic – typographical value. The Library houses about 20,000 books. The oldest book dates from 1673 and the most important series of books are printed the 19th century, coinciding with the international industrialization of the book and the development of printing in the newly established modern Greek state.
For these reasons, the Library is an important source of research on Greek and European culture. The Old Collection of newspapers and magazines, as well as the Library’s Archive, are also an important and reliable source of scientific study.
The Library hosts volumes from the personal archive of then Mithymnaean demoticist writer Argyris Eftaliotis, with manuscripts of him and of the father of demoticism and heart friend, Yiannis Psycharis. In 2009, the name of Argyris Eftaliotis was added to the name of the Library, as a minimum tribute and gratitude for his contribution to the acquisition of “national literature and intellectual culture”.
The glasses of Stratis Myrivilis, donated by his daughter Drosoula and his granddaughter Christina, are exhibited in the Library, along the permanent exhibition of photographic archival material that illuminates its historical course through time.
Today, the Library goes beyond its traditional role and modernizes through its participation in European programs and the utilization of new technological means. Collaborates with schools, universities in all Greece and abroad, local institutions and associations.
Events, activities, and occasional seminars are organized throughout the year. Implementing programs of the Ministry of Education, the Library has digitized rare books, that are referring to Lesbos and to the cradles of Greek civilization on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, in order to preserve and make them accessible to the citizens of the world. A milestone in the long history of the Library is the digitization of its treasures in the framework of the “Digital Herodotus” project (2012‐2014).
