A guide of start points for searching for content in English and other languages

Internet has no walls. On the other hand, there are islands of web pages in various languages, which are not widely used in the world. In case we need any information from or about small countries, we have doubts whether the information available via popular search engines or directories is the best one?

A lot of search engines look for the Lithuanian content as well as for English, German, Italian, etc. Unfortunately, some information is available in Lithuanian only, so it's a pity when your search done in Google or Yahoo returns only pages in Lithuanian. Sometimes we would like to start searching with a particular Lithuanian search engine but not all directories present the best links. This search guide provides recommendations for Lithuanian search engines, directories or other start points that help searching for any specific information in Lithuanian web in foreign languages. The guide is designed for foreigners who do not speak Lithuanian.

Please use service “Ask a Librarian“, if this guide does not answer your questions.

Search engines and directories; About Lithuania (country information, tourism, hotels, etc.); Government institutions and legal information; Libraries and librarians’ organizations; Mass media; Genealogy;

Search engines and directories
Lithuania On Line is a links' directory of Lithuanian Internet resources. Here you may browse for business information, news, travel, music, etc. Index of Web Sites is very useful. This index is a good start point for looking for governmental institutions, organizations, companies, universities, institutes, etc. Please keep in mind that not all organizations in this directory are correctly defined. For example, if the word ‘Lithuania’ appears in the company or organization’s title it can be skipped. Everyone can get weekly reports on Lithuania On Line updates by e-mail or read them on the internet. Lithuania On Line directory is available in English and Lithuanian, daily updated and weekly revised.

Penki.lt:search is a search system and links' directory of Lithuanian Internet resources. Here you may search not only for companies', information, entertainment and other content web sites, but also for the news, articles, pictures, photos, video and audio records, etc. Penki.lt:search is available in English, Lithuanian and Russian. A user can choose a language he or she understands, specify additional search parameters and change parameters set by default as well as choose a suitable form to show the search results. Penki.lt:search links' directory is constantly updated and filled up with new resources. More >>>

About Lithuania (country information, tourism, hotels, etc.)

Detailed interactive map of Lithuania available at maps.lt. Here you can find streets and addresses of all Lithuanian cities and towns, roads, settlements, lakes, rivers and other geographical objects that are within the territory of Lithuania.

The Official Lithuanian Travel Guide is available in English, Russian, German, Polish, Italian and Lithuanian. Additional information about capital city Vinius is provided on the Vilnius City Minicipality Internet site or on the Vilnius in Your Pocket web site. Lithuanian tourism information is available in English, Russian, and German. There you can find information about tourism agencies, travel organizations, accommodation services, culture, leisure and other tourist institutions, transport, catering and other activities related to tourism. Please visit Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania (in Russian) web site for information on visas (in Russian)of the Republic of Lithuania, other information on invitation letters, personal documents, etc. Also check if the citizens of your country need visas.

Government institutions and legal information

The main start points for search on governmental institutions are: the President of the Republic of Lithuania (in French, Russian), Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (The Parliament; in English, Lithuanian, Russian, French, German, and Chinese), and Government of the Republic of Lithuania. More detailed information can be found via A Guide to the Lithuanian Legal System prepared by Elona Norvaišaitė. In this guide Lithuanian legal system, sources of law, courts and case law are described and links to web sites about legal education, journals and text books, publishers, centers and libraries and other information related to law and politics in our country are provided.

Libraries and librarians’ organization

There are more than 3,5 thousand libraries in Lithuania (1 national, 5 state, 5 county and 60 public, 18 academic, 20 colleges’, 2029 schools’, etc. libraries). The main obstacle to find library’s web page is the fact that sometimes information seekers do not know the exact name of the library in a foreign language. In this case directories of libraries are useful. Information about the main libraries of Lithuania is available on the National Library’s web page Libraries in Lithuania where libraries’ names, address, name of a director, contact information (phone, fax, e-mail) and links to internet sites are provided. There are more places on the Internet where libraries’ web sites are collected but this one is the most comprehensive and constantly revised. Information about the public libraries of Lithuania is available on the Lithuanian Public Libraries portal.

There is the Law on Libraries (in Russian) updated on 15 June 2004. Unfortunately, only old version (06-06-1995) is available in English.

Two big library automation projects are running in Lithuania: LIBIS (Lithuanian Integrated Library Information System) for the national and all public libraries and LABT (Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network) for all academic libraries. For searching information about publications available in Lithuanian libraries both LIBIS and LABT should be used. Separate library’s catalogues also available.

There are several librarians’ organizations in our country but only Lithuanian Librarians’ Association and Lithuanian Research Library Consortium have the web sites.

Mass media

Electronic serials published in our country can be found via search engines or directories. The catalogue of links of Electronic Serials in Lithuania provides the links to newspapers, magazines, bulletins, scholarly journals, etc.

Genealogy

Genealogical research can be started on the Lithuanian Global Genealogical Society (LGGS) web site. It is a non-profit society that provides this site for the use of LGGS members and fellow genealogists researching Lithuania. LGGS web site is updated regularly, such sections as “Members”, “Yahoo Groups”, “Newsletters”, “Database” and others are available. The database items contain surnames, cemeteries, churches, phone book listings and vital records, etc.

The primary Internet source connecting researchers of Lithuanian-Jewish genealogy worldwide is LitvakSIG (Lithuanian Special Interest Group) home page. Their purpose is to discover, present, and preserve information about our ancestors' lives in Lithuania.

There are no institutions in Lithuania which are specially engaged in finding relatives for our nationals, but you could try some ways to find relatives yourself. Pleae visit the Lithuanian State Historical Arcive. The list of institutions and links is available on Lithuanian Genealogical Research home page. This page provides links to the institutions in the USA and Lithuania.

Prepared by Ausra Vaskeviciene. Notes and suggestions are welcomed (e-info[eta]lnb.lt).