Currently the activities of the National and University Library are carried out in Plečnik’s building, which was initially intended to host a maximum of 240,000 volumes and 236 reader seats. The inadequate premises are not only hindering library activities but are increasingly preventing implementation of an up-to-date library and information infrastructure. Since 1987, NUK has been striving for more space, namely a new Ljubljana University Library building.

The new building has been designed by the architect Marko Mušič, who won the open competition in 1989. The project has been updated in the past seventeen years, and the requirements for granting the construction licence were fulfilled in 2002.

The new building is sited at Zois Street, and thus it will be connected with the central part of the capital, where all the main cultural institutions and the university premises are located.

In 1994, the law on the financing of the new library building was passed in the Parliament. The Ljubljana University Library project, embracing both the National and University Library and the Central Technical Library, also takes into account incorporation of the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies based at the Faculty of Arts and some other University of Ljubljana programmes. Together with the activities taking place in Plečnik’s building the project represents a means of establishing the main and central Slovenian research library. According to the last updates of the project from 2005, the new building should also accommodate the Central Humanistic Library of the Faculty of Arts.

The new building will provide a spacious congress hall with smaller lecture theatres and a considerable number of reader seats and study areas, all indispensable to any modern university. Thus, Ljubljana University Library will become one of the central institutions on which the development of the information society will be based.

In 2006, the building activities have come to a standstill. The Municipality of Ljubljana, which is responsible for the acquisition of the land, has not managed to acquire the complete land yet. And in spite of the passed law, the financing of the project from the Republic of Slovenia budget is not guaranteed either. Due to this delay, NUK had to hire additional facilities – a business-storage building at Leskoškova Street, which is going to serve its purpose until 2010.

The new Ljubljana University Library is considered a monument of national importance and a means of developing potentials in different fields – culture, education, economy, science and research – and thus, the foundation of the knowledge society. At the same time, as one of the main cultural institutions, it will also be a guardian of the national culture.