As it turns 80, the «Dimitrie Cantemir» District Public Library in Ungheni has 8,473 readers on its registers — almost a third of the town’s population. It is the figure with which one of the town’s oldest cultural institutions enters its anniversary year, 2026.
From a house with 200 books
The story began in 1946, in an ordinary house on what was then 28 June street — today Mihai Eminescu. It held, according to the institution’s official history, 200 books and had about 100 readers on the registers. The first director, Galina Sergheeva, started her work «in a missionary way» — collecting books, house by house.
Eight decades later, the collection of the library and its town branches has grown to 96,137 documents. From 200 to more than 96,000 items: that is the distance between a room with shelves and a full-fledged institution.
A third of the town, at the shelves
According to its own 2025 analytical report, the 8,473 users registered at the end of the year make up about 32% of the town of Ungheni’s population — a level of community reach that few public institutions achieve. In the same year, the library and its town branches drew 106,252 visits and lent out 233,258 documents.
A necessary clarification: these figures concern the central library and its town branches — among them branch No. 1 in Dănuțeni, the «Luceafărul» branch, the Children’s Library and the «Gheorghe Barițiu» Romanian Book Branch — not the whole district network, which numbers 57 public libraries.
More than shelves
At 80, «Dimitrie Cantemir» is no longer just a book depot. It hosts an American Corner — the «Colțișorul American» —, a FabLab, that is a digital fabrication workshop, and a «Gheorghe Barițiu» Romanian Book Branch, opened in partnership with the County Library in Brașov, a thread of cooperation across the Prut. It has 31 volunteers and takes books home to 33 families who cannot reach the building.
The same library was, at the end of June, the host of the «Cornova ungheneană» exhibition — a sign that its role has long gone beyond lending books.
At 80, the library has not yet announced an anniversary programme — neither it nor the Culture and Tourism Department of the Ungheni District Council — and the exact day of its 1946 founding does not appear in its public history either. What stays certain is the marker: the institution that began with 200 books has become, at 80, the place a third of the town walks into, year after year.