In most web browsers, you can zoom in and out by holding down the Ctrl key (the Cmd key in OS X) and pressing either the "+" or "-" key at the same time.
Another option is to use the mouse: hold down the Ctrl key and move the mouse scroll wheel. To return to normal size, press the Ctrl and 0 keys at the same time.
28 November 2024
On November 28, Tallinn Central Library presented its new, bright and contemporary look and the new Katarina Jee library bus, which is our first large example of the new signature graphics.
Tallinn Central Library now has the brand name of Tallinn Libraries. Also, our department of literature in Estonian and the department of literature in foreign languages were renamed and are now called Tallinn Südalinna library (Estonia pst 8) and Tallinn Liivalaia library (Liivalaia 40). The collections have not changed, however. Südalinna library still has mainly literature in Estonian, and Liivalaia library has literature in foreign languages.
As a result of these events, there are changes in the ESTER e-catalogue.
Search from Tallinn Libraries (TlnL) scope
7 October 2024
Items from the Estonian National Library for the Blind are now available in the ESTER sub-catalogue.
Estonian National Library for the Blind serves people with visual impairments or other disabilities, disorders or diseases that prevent them from reading printed texts.
The library produces, collects, preserves and lends audio and braille information, touch books, e-books and films with descriptive translation. There are more than 10,300 items, the largest part of which are audio books (almost 7,000 items).
Search from RaRa Library for the Blind scope
25 July 2024
The Baltica collection of the Academic Library of Tallinn University is now available in the ESTER sub-catalogue.
The Academic Library of Tallinn University gathered the materials of the Baltica collection into one scope, which makes it easier for readers to find the necessary literature in the e-catalogue.
Search from AL TLU Baltica Collection scope
17 January 2024
Readers of ESTER libraries made 3 147 431 checkouts and checkout renewals in 2023.
ESTER libraries have 428 254 readers and they checked out and renewed 3 147 431 items during 2023.
There were 1 654 771 loans returned to ESTER libraries in 2023.
Online catalogue ESTER has 3 553 472 titles and 10 627 261 items of different library materials.
The most borrowed book in 2023 was the novel 'Rehepapp, or November'(Old Barney or November) by Andrus Kivirähk.
24 October 2022
Two libraries have joined e-catalogue ESTERThe online catalogue of Fenno-Ugria’s library includes items in Estonian, Russian, English and various Finno-Ugric languages. The library includes language textbooks, dictionaries, academic literature, non-fiction, childrens’ books as well as fiction and poetry. The catalogue is searchable in Estonian, Russian and English. The Fenno-Ugrian library is located in the center of Tallinn.
More information: Fenno-Ugria library
Search the online catalogue of the Fenno-Ugria Organisation library
The library of the Estonian Theater Union (in 1945-1987 operated under the name of the Estonian SSR Theater Association) was founded in 1951. In the same year, The Theater Association started publishing theater-related books. The library has a complete collection of publications of the Theater Association and the Theater Union. The library also preserves important works from the point of view of Estonian theater history and theater practice. At different times, the library has also received personal books of theater people, for example the home collections of the director and theater pedagogue Paul Sepa (1885-1943), the founder of Draamastuudio Teater Otto Aloe (1894-1972) and the director Vello Rummo (1921-2009).
More information: Estonian Theatre Union Library
Search the online catalogue of the Estonian Theatre Union Library
27 September 2022
A shared lending platform service of Estonian libraries Minu Raamatukogu (MIRKO) is open
On September 27, on the occasion of the Year of Libraries, the shared lending platform of Estonian libraries, Minu Raamatukogu (MIRKO), was opened. The service offers more than a million books for ordering and allows you to borrow up to five books, delivered either to a selected parcel machine or directly to your home by courier.
The books will arrive in 2-4 days, and you only have to pay the shipping cost (the fee includes sending the package to you and back to the library). You have 21 days to read the books, the due date can be renewed twice (if there is no demand for the book in the library).
As a new solution, MIRKO also allows you to transfer borrowed books to a friend so that the loan of the book is registered for the new user.
15 March 2022
Search in online catalogue ESTER can now be limited to UkrainianTo limit search results with a specific language, click on the gray box "Extended search", next to the blue search box on the main menu page (see picture 1).
A more detailed search opens that allows the library's patrons to perform searches of the database with specific language in mind (see picture 2). The exact page is displayed if a patron first submits the search and clicks on the option "Modify Search".
Limiting a search with a specific language is just one of many strategies that maximize search efficiency. See more tips and tricks for smarter inquiries can be found here.
In addition, we very much welcome the fact that the participating libraries have found ways to support Ukraine with displays dedicated or related to Ukraine. Recommend reading materials can be easily found on the Facebooks sites and homepages of all the libraries.
Libraries are calm, quiet, and safe spaces providing sources of accurate information. Like ports in a storm, our participating libraries have made efforts to offer specific services targeted to Ukrainian refugees. For instance, Tallinn Central Library caters to a diverse range of services free of charge for Ukrainian people who have been forced to flee their homeland.
7 March 2022
Major Estonian libraries have started a joint Opendata Portal
On March 5, the Opendata Day ELNET Consortium, a joint undertaking of major Estonian libraries for running the common library system ESTER, have launched its opendata portal, https://data.elnet.ee. 'Creation of an independent opendata portal has been our Consortium's strategic aim since 2016', confirmed its coordinator, Urmas Sinisalu.
'Uniting the data of the online catalogue ESTER, of the reference database ISE as well as of of the Estonian Subject Thesaurus has been possible thanks to united contribution of our libraries', he added. 'It facilitates the development of new library services and application of digital solutions. It is our input for the digitally empowered Estonia'. 2022 is the Year of Libraries in Estonia, a theme year of various activities, aimed at the betterment of all aspects of libraries in citizens' everyday life.
ELNET contact for Opendata Portal - Urmas Sinisalu, 00 372 6307222
13 February 2021
Automatically redirect the unique name form to the name form used.
When searching by the Author, please note that in the case of personal names, the online catalogue ESTER will be converted to one Estonian name form.
More information: Online Catalogue: Author
21 August 2020
TalTech Estonian Maritime Academy and TalTech EMERA Centre for Blue Economy have joined e-catalogue ESTER
The library’s EMERA branch is a special library that includes a variety of books and journals for study and research purposes (navigation, ship engineering, port- and shipping management, waterways safety management, business and experience management, marine engineering and small craft building). Books can be borrowed by members of TalTech, its students, lecturers and researchers.
Maritime Academy library in Kopli and Library of the Centre for Blue Economy in Kuressaare Kuressaare serves the lecturers, students and employees of Tallinn University of Technology and the teachers and students of the Estonian Nautical School. People outside the university can only use books in the library.
More information: Tallinn University of Technology library’s EMERA branch
21 January 2020
In 2019 the readers of the libraries of ESTER borrowed 3 497 731 units
There are 397 284 readers in the libraries of ESTER and last year they borrowed 3 497 731 units. 1 901 551 units were returned to the libraries.
There are 3 334 037 bibliographic records in ESTER, which comprise 10 037 692 units.
17 September 2019
Online catalogue ESTER exceeded 10 million records
The number of records in the online catalogue ESTER exceeded 10 million. This magic margin was surpassed with an Estonian-language book which teaches how to make folk costume („Rahvarõivaste valmistamise juhend. Kaapotkleit ja kostüüm“).
As of 16 September the online catalogue ESTER contains data about 10 million books, journals, audio discs, etc. as well as a wide range of e-publications. The number of publication titles amounts to 3,3 million.
The online catalogue ESTER was established in 1997 as a shared catalogue of 7 major libraries, by the present day the membership has grown to nearly two dozen. The milestone of one million described items was reached at the beginning of the year 2000, the amount of 5 million records was exceeded in 2005.
The online catalogue is enjoying active usage, simultaneously serving an average of 50 users. One third of all users operate the catalogue in a smart device.
28 August 2019
Tallinn Health Care College Library has joined the e-catalogue ESTER
Tallinn Health Care College Library is a professional library which collects, maintains and makes health care publications and e-resources available for its users.
The Library develops its collections according to the specialities taught at the Tallinn Health Care College: nurse, midwife, assistant pharmacist, optometrist, dental technician, occupational therapist, health promotion, technician of emergency medicine, caregiver, and babysitter.
Search the online catalogue of the Tallinn Health Care College Library
17 March 2019
The Library of the Tartu Art Museum is open again after moving
Tartu Art Museum library is one of the best collections of art related literature in Southern Estonia. The Library has a wide variety of books that cover different periods in art history as well as art theory and museology, a collection of catalogues of art exhibitions held in Estonia and subscribe to various art related journals.
Thanks to donations made by Estonian exiles, the library gives a good overview of art books published in the West during the Soviet times.
10 Januar 2019
In 2018 the readers of the libraries of ESTER borrowed 3 549 851 units.
There are 425 560 readers in the libraries of ESTER and last year they borrowed 3 549 851 units. 1 934 112 units were returned to the libraries.
There are 3 320 548 bibliographic records in ESTER, which comprise 9 885 372 units.
13 October 2018
Most of the books accumulated over the years in the family of composer Arvo Pärt have been by now donated to the Arvo Pärt Centre, making it possible to have a glance at the interests and sources of inspiration of the composer and his wife. From 17 October, 2018 the library is open to everyone as part of the Arvo Pärt Centre.
The Arvo Pärt Centre Library is a specialised library, containing in addition to the composer’s personal book collection a comprehensive collection of scholarly and non-scholarly materials on Arvo Pärt’s work, refined and published scores of Arvo Pärt’s compositions, and a large number of records, CDs and DVDs. In addition to musicologists and friends of music the library is also important to theologians – it has one of the best collections of Eastern Orthodox theology in Estonia, with books in Estonian, Russian, German and English. The cataloguing of collections continues, currently about 60% of the collections have been described in the online catalogue.
Access to literature is provided in the reading room, loans are made by special request only. The library is open from Wednesday to Sunday 12 pm to 6 pm, the librarian is available for reference service from Wednesday to Friday during the opening hours or can be contacted by e-mail toomas@arvopart.ee.
Search the online catalogue of the Arvo Pärt Centre Library
5 October 2018
20 October 2017
Library of the National Archives of Estonia consists of the libraries situating in Tartu and Tallinn. It is a special library serving all the interested ones in the field of history as well as the employees of the National Archives. Books can be read in the research rooms and ordered via remote loan between two towns. Also, the digital copies may easily be ordered.
Library in Tartu includes the period before the birth of the Republic of Estonia (i.e before the year 1918). By today, the collections have grown to over 200,000 units, including books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, prints, engravings, etc. In 2017, a remaining part of the KGB library and partially also the former party archive library were transferred from Tallinn to Tartu. Approximately 40% of the collections of Tartu library have been described in the Online Catalogue.
Library in Tallinn includes mostly the period starting from the birth of the Republic of Estonia (i.e since the year 1918). The collections cover ca 70,000 units, most of these are available in the Online Catalogue.
There are many historical publications (chronicles, church, educational, cultural, art and architectural history, the history of Baltic provinces), genealogical and heraldry-related prints as well as reference books within the library. In addition, fields of history, archives' management, law, military science, statistics, economy have been covered, as well as a selection of departmental editions with minor distribution can be found in the library of the National Archives.
Further information about the library can be found here.
Search the Online Catalogue of the National Archives
27 August 2017
You can now log in to My ESTER with a username and password, ID-card/digi-ID, Mobile-ID, and in some libraries also via the TAAT service. For logging in with the ID-card/digi-ID or Mobile-ID, you must know the PIN 1 of the ID-card/Mobile-ID.
TAAT stands for Estonian Academic Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure. It enables electronic identities (user accounts) issued by education or research institutions to be used to access several web based services.
Along with the above options for registering as reader, some libraries enable self-registration.
17 February 2017
Various literature has made its way into the collection of the Tallinn Zoo library, mainly publications that are of interest to zoo workers. Now that the library has moved into the new environmental education center (Ehitajate tee 150, west gate of the Zoo), its documents are accessible to the wider public. The library, located on the second floor of the building outside the ticket zone, mainly contains literature relevant to the work at a zoological garden: zoo management, zoology (invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), and animal encyclopedias. Additional subjects include genetics, biological diversity, evolution, conservation, environmental protection, biogeography, ecology, veterinary medicine, hunting, stories about nature, etc.
The literature can be accessed in the reading room, loans are by special request only. The library is open Tuesday to Thursday 1 PM to 5 PM. Visits can be arranged at other times by calling (+372) 694 3316 or by e-mailing uve.ramst@tallinnzoo.ee
Online catalogue of the Tallinn Zoo library
13 February 2017
E-catalogue ESTER is now also available in the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue, which assembles major catalogues and databases of libraries and book trade worldwide.
21 August 2016
The Library of Estonian Academy of Security Sciences is a specialized library, which serves the membership of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences (EASS) and the staff of cooperation partners, provides publications which are necessary for study and research work and access to information resources. The Library has 4 service points: the Library of EASS (Tallinn), The Library of the Police and Border Guard College of the EASS (Muraste), The Library of the Paikuse Police School of the Police and Border Guard College of the EASS (Paikuse) and The Library of the Rescue School of the Rescue College of the EASS (Väike-Maarja).
Alltogether there are about 70 000 items in the collection (incl. over 3000 final thesis of the alumni of EASS).
For further information: www.sisekaitse.ee/eass/the-academy/library/ or raamatukogu@sisekaitse.ee
Online catalogue of the library of Estonian Academy of Security Sciences
5 July 2016
Readers of Tallinn Central Library can also borrow or use onsite e-book readers, sports equipment, board games, power banks and video games in addition to books.
It is also possible to use a sewing room at Sõle library, where you can use electrical sewing machine and steam iron. Library gathered all these things to a scope called „Tallinn Central Library’s Things“ which will help readers to find necessary things from online catalogue.
Additional information from library's webpage www.keskraamatukogu.ee/en/
12 April 2016
As of April, the foreign-language records copied from the catalogues of foreign libraries retain the original keywords as well as the table of contents and summary if these have been provided.
Foreign-language keywords are available in the field More terms and they can be searched by KEYWORD (not Subject). The keywords of the Estonian Subject Thesaurus (EMS) and the additional information from the copied record can be viewed by opening the Full Record tab.
At the moment the number of such records is small in the online catalogue but the amount is increasing daily.
Keeping the foreign-language additional details in the records facilitates better, more accurate and faster search results.
8 November 2015
If your personal information has changed, you can renew it yourself. Log into My ESTER, choose Personal Information and click on Modify Personal Information. To view the changes, please refresh the page (F5).
The range of information that can be modified varies by libraries.
The latest additions to libraries' collections can now be found under New Arrivals (was previously Featured Lists). New Arrivals open on the menu bar of the online catalogue ESTER.
If you search by a multi-word expression (phrase) the system automatically adds the operator AND. If this search fails to give results, the system repeats the search with the operator OR and displays also a note about the change. To make this message more noticeable it is shown in red.
9 August 2015
Eesti Pank. Library contains more than 7,000 documents on economics and finance, mostly in English. Promotion of economics and economic education is an important part of the bank’s research activities. Master’s and doctoral level students can use the Eesti Pank library, when the needed documents are not readily available in Estonian research libraries. Books are obtained via inter-library loan or made available at the bank.
Further information: raamatukogu@eestipank.ee.
Online catalogue of the Eesti Pank. Library
Export has now new functions. When exporting records with item information you can choose to limit the export only to specific libraries or specific items, or to export all items. Read more ...
22 June 2015
The City Archives as an institution opened on October 13, 1883 (October 1, 1883 according to the Old Style).
The library contains over 17,651 prints (as of 1 January 2012) primarily from the 19th and the 20th century. Most of the monographs, reference books, source editions, scientific periodicals, etc concentrate on the history of Tallinn, Estonia and the Baltic States. The archival and library materials can only be used in the in the Archives’ reading room (research room).
The City Archives are located on Tolli Street 6, on the northern edge of the Old Town near St. Olaf’s Church (Oleviste kirik). The reading room is open: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9 am – 3 pm and Wed 11 am – 7 pm.
Online catalogue of the Tallinn City Archives
7 June 2015
See more on library website.
Online catalogue of the Tartu Art College and Tartu Art School Library
9 April 2015
The history of the building that houses the Tallinn City Museum reaches back to the 14th century. The house was adapted for museum purposes after a reconstruction period which took place from 1963 to 1965. The present look of the building dates from the last overhaul that was completed in 2000.
The researchers of the museum can use the library of over 6000 items, containing reference books, dictionaries, special museological literature but, above all, studies on the local history of Tallinn and other towns, history and cultural history books concerning Estonia and Western Europe. Most of the literature is in the Estonian, German, English and Russian languages.
Museum (Vene street 17, Tallinn) is open from 1st January – 28th February from Tuesday to Sunday 10.00-17.30 and is closed on Monday. From 1st March – 31st October from Tuesday to Sunday 10.30-18.00 and is closed on Monday.
Online catalogue of the Tallinn City Museum
2 February 2013
By clicking on the record display you can now choose if you wish to print the particular record in the form of full record, brief record or brief record with item information. Read more ...
For e-resources, a www-icon www-ikoonile is displayed on the search result page. By clicking on this icon you can open the list of fulltext and other links from the record.
On the search result pages there is also a link "Contact" displayed next to the library’s name. By clicking on this link you are directed to the library’s website providing the opening hours, location, and other details of the library.
29 December 2014
By clicking on the link Report a Problem in the record display you can quickly and conveniently report problems in the record's details (factual error, misspelling, etc.). Enter the details of the item (author, title) and the description of the problem as accurately as possible.
Please add your own contact information for feedback.
5 September 2014
Due to migration to the new library system software Sierra, the online catalogue ESTER cannot be used
on 6 October starting from 16.00. System
malfunction may occur also on 7 October.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
9 July 2014
There are certain modifications in the online catalogue ESTER: logging in, requesting, saving your reading history, etc. have changed.
Logging in has changed: first please choose the library, then enter the username and password. NB! It is no longer necessary to use the prefix in front of the username.
When requesting, first choose the library, then enter the username and password. In some libraries you can, via requesting, place hold on items that are currently checked out.
To save your reading history, you first have to activate the service , that enables you to follow your reading history. Those who have been using the online catalogue ESTER Tartu can again save their searches, create new lists, rate items and add reviews to them.
NB! The merger of the online catalogues ESTER Tallinn and ESTER Tartu has created duplicate records in the catalogue, all participating libraries are already addressing this problem. Until this work is finished, you can avoid duplicate records by first choosing the library or part of the catalogue (online resources, periodicals or theses/dissertations). The selection opens in the dropdown menu, the default selection is ENTIRE CATALOGUE.
With problems and questions please contact
ester@elnet.ee