Reading in Ankara from the National Library to the Nation's Library

Begin the day in Bahçelievler at Turkey's legal-deposit library. The National Library was founded on 15 April 1946 as a department within the Ministry of Education; Adnan Ötüken was put in charge of the preparatory office on 21 December 1946, the collection began to accumulate in a building on Mithatpaşa Street in 1947, and the library opened to the public on 16 August 1948 in a building on Kumrular Street. On 23 March 1950 it received its own law. Planning for the present building began in 1965; the 52,500 square metre structure designed by Orhan Akyürek, İnal Uşşaklı, Demir Gökmen and Ünal Demirarslan was completed in 1982 and opened with a state ceremony on 5 August 1983.

The numbers convey the scale. According to 2021 figures there are more than 1.4 million printed books, more than 27,000 manuscripts and hundreds of thousands of bound newspapers and periodicals; under the 1934 legal-deposit law, one copy of every publication printed in the country comes here. There are five reading rooms and an academics' room; the largest is named after Müjgan Cunbur, who ran the library for years, and seats 1,169.

Come knowing the entry conditions. This is not a public library; you enter with an entry card. Academics, public employees and retirees, members of professional chambers and bar associations, journalists and visually impaired readers receive permanent cards; university students and graduates receive annual cards; a researcher who does not qualify may petition for a card valid for up to six months. High-school students are not admitted. Cards are issued at the registration unit on presentation of an identity document. School groups of high-school level and above may request a guided visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays, up to twenty people, by applying at least fifteen days ahead.

Even for the traveller who does not qualify, the stop is worth it. Leave the M2 Milli Kütüphane station, take in the mass of the building and its garden from outside, wonder who the Wilhelm Thomsen of the street name was, and carry on with the route.

Source: Milli Kütüphane resmi sitesi (Tarihçe, Üyelik Koşulları, Hizmet Alanlarında Yararlanma, Gezi Talepleri); Wikipedia; Arkiv.

Cross from Bahçelievler to 100. Yıl; the two-storey house with a garden on Nene Hatun Street is Ankara's most endearing library. Its story begins with a will. The retired governor Hamdullah Şükrü Kenanoğlu donated the house to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1985 on condition that it serve children; he believed the reading habit is formed early, and he asked that the library carry the name of his spiritual father, "Ali Dayı", Uncle Ali. Kenanoğlu died in 1989; the library kept its name and its purpose.

In 2010 the Ministry reorganised the house from top to bottom and reopened it as the "first model children's library". The ground floor is the pre-school section for ages three to seven, with sea- and forest-themed rooms for puppet theatre, drama and visual literacy; the upper floor serves ages seven to fourteen with research materials and educational games. The garden is set up like an open-air classroom, with birdhouses, tables fitted with magnifiers, a weather board and a glass easel. A baby section was added later; the collection is around sixteen thousand books.

Membership runs on the single system valid in all public libraries under the Ministry: free on presentation of ID, and for children under fifteen the e-Devlet membership is opened by a parent. A member may borrow three books for two weeks. This is a children's library; an adult visitor sees the garden and the house and keeps the visit short so as not to disturb the activities inside. If you come with children, ask about the programme; the staff shape the day's activity around the interests of the children present.

Check the closing day and current hours on the official page. The address is 100. Yıl Mahallesi, Nene Hatun Caddesi No 57. It is reached from Kızılay by bus or taxi; beyond the avenue the street is quiet and the house sits among trees.

Source: Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü (Ali Dayı sayfası); Ali Dayı Çocuk Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi; Adnan Ötüken İl Halk Kütüphanesi üyelik sayfası; Yeni Ankara.

Return to Kızılay and turn into Kumrular Street; Ankara's first public library is here. The institution opened on 25 July 1922 in the ground-floor rooms of the Ministry of Education building, and the opening was announced the next day in the newspaper Hakimiyet-i Milliye under the name "Maarif Umumi Kütüphanesi". Then came a long migration: to a building on Kediseven Street in Ulus in 1939, temporarily to Yenimahalle in 1971, and in 1983, once the National Library had moved to its new building in Bahçelievler, into the present building. In 1985 it took the name of Adnan Ötüken, founder of the National Library.

The building is a stop in itself. It is the U-shaped structure the German architect Paul Bonatz designed in 1944-46 for the Saraçoğlu quarter, with 3,800 square metres of floor space on a plot of over 4,500 square metres; the quarter was declared a first-degree urban conservation area in 1979. Seen from the courtyard, you find the civil-servant housing architecture of the early Republic turned into a library.

Inside is Ankara's most visited public library, with, according to the official page, more than 76,000 volumes and more than 136,000 active members. According to Wikipedia, two curious parts of the collection are the Sillogos library that came from the Greek literary society of Istanbul and the manuscripts of the Hacı Bektaş Veli lodge; ask a member of staff if you want to see them. There are children's and youth sections, periodicals and event halls.

Membership is open to all ages and free; you go to the registration desk with a document showing your Turkish ID number, those over fifteen may also register through e-Devlet, and for children under fifteen a parent opens the account. It is a few minutes' walk from the Kızılay metro and Ankaray stations, reached through the streets behind Güvenpark.

Source: Adnan Ötüken İl Halk Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi (Tarihçe, Üyelik); Wikipedia.

Walk from Kızılay to Sıhhiye; at the head of Kızılay Street, near Kurtuluş Park, stands the building of the Turkish Historical Society. The society was founded on 15 April 1931 and its library opened the same month; today it counts as the country's largest library in history and archaeology, holding about 250,000 volumes, manuscripts, maps, microfilms and rare works of which 7,500 have been digitised. The special collections include the inscription rubbings of Halil Edhem Eldem.

At this stop the building matters as much as the books. The project by Turgut Cansever and Ertur Yener began in 1951; the building was finished in the mid-1960s and the society moved into it on 12 November 1967. In 1980 it received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture; the award report praises the way its inner courtyard joins the inward-looking character of the traditional Ottoman building with contemporary construction technique. It is one of the most cited examples of modern architectural heritage in Turkey, and the stone cladding and window rhythm of the facade read from the street.

Entry is researcher-oriented. The society's library page lists who may use it: university faculty, master's and doctoral researchers, researchers employed by institutions, and independent researchers. The fifty-seat reading room occupies about 1,200 square metres. Registration is required to enter the room; check current registration conditions and hours on the society's website. A traveller who only wants to see the building views the facade and entrance from outside.

The address is Hacettepe Mahallesi, Kızılay Caddesi No 1. It is a walk from the M1 Sıhhiye station; the Hittite Sun Disc Monument stands in the middle of the junction on the way. Sıhhiye is the transfer point for going on to Beştepe.

Source: Türk Tarih Kurumu resmi sitesi (Kütüphane sayfası); Wikipedia; Kültür Envanteri; Arkiv.

Close the day in Beştepe, in the last and largest building of the Presidential Complex. The Presidential Nation's Library opened on 20 February 2020; its 125,000 square metres of floor space seat more than five thousand readers. According to the official site, more than five million printed items in 134 languages stand on the shelves; with the documents of the State Archives and the digital collections, the total number of resources exceeds 140 million. In 2025 it received more than two million visitors.

Tour the halls in turn. The Cihannüma Hall is the library's signature space; the Rare Works Library keeps manuscripts and early printed books; the Research Library, the Periodicals Hall and the Audio and Video Library are separate; the Nasreddin Hoca Children's Library offers 25,000 books to 197 children, and there is a Youth Library as well. The architecture uses Seljuk and Ottoman motifs within a contemporary mass, with white and green marble to the fore. The Cihannüma Hall and the second-floor reading rooms are open around the clock, seven days a week, apart from a weekly cleaning closure, which is why an evening visit works.

The entry conditions are clear and published on the official site. The library is open to the whole public; everyone over five is asked for identification. Turkish citizens register free of charge through e-Devlet or at the desk with their ID; foreigners holding a Turkish ID number beginning with 99 may also become members. A visitor with only a passport enters with a fast-pass card but cannot use services such as internet, computers and internal lending. Because this is a legal-deposit library, no book is lent outside; an internal lending system operates between the halls. There is a reservation line for group tours.

Getting here by public transport takes a little effort. EGO routes 167 and 449 stop in front of the library and routes 339-7 and 479 across from it; transfers are made at Sıhhiye, Maltepe and AŞTİ. Check current routes on the EGO Cepte app. The address is Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi, 06560 Beştepe.

Source: Cumhurbaşkanlığı Millet Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi (Sıkça Sorulan Sorular, Kütüphane Kuralları); T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı; EGO Genel Müdürlüğü; Wikipedia.