The National Library was founded on 29 August 1919, one year after independence, as the State Library ("Valsts Bibliotēka"). Its first chief librarian and bibliographer was Jānis Misiņš (1862–1944), who made his immense private collection the basis of the new library. Within a year, until 1920, the stocks had grown to 250,000 volumes. Starting in the same year, all publishers were obliged to hand in a deposit copy of their works. Since 1927, the Library has published the "National Bibliography of Latvia".