The National Library of Estonia () is a national public institution in Estonia, which operates pursuant to the National Library of Estonia Act (). It was established as the parliamentary library () of Estonia on December 21, 1918. According to the act, the National Library of Estonia is the custodian of Estonian national memory and heritage, and acts as the repository centre of the Estonian literature and national bibliography, the main information provider for the Estonian parliament and many other constitutional institutions, a national centre of library and information sciences, a site for the continuing education of librarians, and also as a cultural centre. Since September 16, 2008, the director general of the National Library is . Functions The National Library of Estonia is: a national library, collecting, storing and making publicly accessible the documents published in Estonia or about Estonia, regardless of their place of publication, maintaining national databases of the Estonian national bibliography and statistics on Estonian print output, serving as the Estonian ISSN, ISBN and ISMN agency; a parliamentary library, providing information services for the Riigikogu, the Government of the Republic, the Office of the President of the Republic, and state authorities; a research library, providing information for research activities in humanities and social sciences, and various information services; a library research and development centre, providing library and information science information, coordinating research, and development activities and library standardisation in Estonia, organising user surveys, and training, and further professional training for the staff of Estonian libraries, publishing materials on library and book science and the Estonian library journal, Raamatukogu, organising national surveys of library statistics and actively participating in international library co-operation; a cultural centre, where various book and art exhibitions are held, along with conferences, concerts, theatre performances, movie evenings and other cultural activities. Information services The National Library of Estonia provides information services in the following fields: humanities: history, ethnology, philosophy, folklore, psychology, religion, culture, linguistics and literary science, Estonian and foreign literature, art, music, film, theatre, etc. social sciences: economics, law, politics, political science, sociology, etc. international organisations: European Union, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), etc. international courts: Court of Justice of the European Communities, International Court of Justice (ICJ), etc. information sciences: information science, library science, librarianship, book history, etc. cartography and geography. Rare book collection specialists offer consultations on old books. There