The rich library tradition on the soil of the Republic of North Macedonia, whose roots stretch back to the deeds of pan-Slavonic educators St. Cyril (826–869) and St. Methodius (820–885) is the same foundations on which the library began to build and develop its activity. Its patron, Saint Clement of Ohrid (840–916) established the first monastic library in Ohrid, in the Monastery of St. Panteleimon, and he is considered to be the founder of the librarianship in these parts. Numerous medieval monastic libraries in Macedonia, part of whose collections are in the library today, continued the library tradition on the territory of Macedonia.
The initial collection of the National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski ” amounts 150,000 library units, mostly university textbooks and scientific publications in the field of humanities and social sciences: literature, ethnology, geography, history, etc., and also, significant titles from the reference literature (encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies) and approximately 300 titles periodicals. In 1945, with the Decision of ASNOM, the NUL began to receive a copy of all items published in Macedonia and also in the former Yugoslavia. In this way it became the deposit library of the former People’s Republic of Macedonia and one of the eight Yugoslav depository libraries. Since 1991, after the independence of the Republic of North Macedonia, the library has become a depository for the publishing production of North Macedonia.
