The National Library of Serbia presented 200 books by classical and contemporary Serbian writers to the National Library of Malta. On this occasion, the ceremony organized at the City Library of Floriana on 9 July was attended by the head of the National Library of Malta, Cheryl Falzon, a representative of the Ministry of Education of Malta, Alexander Farrugia, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta Christine Caruana, the President of the Maltese-Serbian Community, Predrag Andrejević, representatives of Serbian diaspora and by Ms. Jelena Predojević on behalf of the Serbian Embassy in Rome.

The works of Ivo Andrić, Miloš Crnjanski, Branko Ćopić, Desanka Maksimović, Branislav Nušić, Borislav Pekić, Aleksa Šantić, Emir Kusturica and others are among the books presented.



The idea was realized owing to the cooperation between the Maltese-Serbian Community and the National Library of Serbia. The Serbian Embassy in Italy actively participated in the realization of this initiative, given the large Serbian community in Malta which, in this way, will have an additional link with its homeland. The project is important because it will bring Serbia closer to the people of Malta and offer an opportunity for them to be acquainted with some of the major works by Serbian authors, since one part of the books has been translated to English.



The Director of the National Library of Malta, Cheryl Falzon, offered her generous help for the realization of this initiative and accepted that the donated books be included in the catalogue and thus become part of the Library's collection.

Given the size of the Serbian community in Malta (in third place according to size, after British and Italian communities), the initiative was heartily welcomed by our diaspora and by the youngest readers, since the donation also includes some of the most popular children's books. It has been agreed to continue the project in the following years, in order to regularly update the book collection.