Collection of libraries within the "Network of Light"

From 2006 to 2008, using a grant awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a co-financing from the national and municipal budget, a library development project was carried out in Latvia to provide more than 800 of the country’s municipal public libraries with broadband wireless internet and connect them to a united network called the Network of Light.
This collage consists of 393 selected photographs of those municipal public libraries to give an overall impression of what the Network of Light looks like in real life and its physical manifestation.
A whole range spanning vast city libraries to tiny ones in the countryside are represented. There are buildings solely used as libraries but in most cases they share a space with the municipality, a school or a recreation centre, a supermarket or sometimes even a flat in a multistorey building.
All of the photographs in the selection are taken from the state-owned database of cultural institutions kulturaskarte.lv and are used only for informational purposes. It is evident that most photographs have been taken by the librarians themselves thus adding an additional dose of charm and warmth to them.
Visual material compiled by Ansis Starks.