An online exhibit showcasing the history of Latvian song festivals from 1864-1940 has been opened by the National Library of Latvia.

The exhibit, which includes a digitized and downloadable version of exile musicologist Valentīns Bērzkalns’s 559-page history Latviešu Dziesmu svētku vēsture. 1864 -1940, can be found at dziesmusvetki.lndb.lv.

The online exhibit is based on Bērzkalns’ book, according to library spokesperson Ilze Egle. His widow, Ženija Bērzkalne, gave the library permission to digitize the book. The book was published in 1965 by the New York-based Grāmatu Draugs.

Bērzkalns, born in Latvia in 1914, died in 1975 in Pennsylvania in the United States. A musicologist, composer and conductor, Bērzkalns also served as editor-in-chief of the journal Latvju Mūzika.

The online collection also includes downloadable song festival guides, biographies of musicians, programs and other material related to the festivals, which have been an important part of Latvian culture and society since they began in the late 19th century.

The library now is working on digitizing the second volume of Bērzkalns’ history, Latviešu Dziesmu svētki trimdā, focusing on song festivals outside of Latvia.

A reception to mark the opening of the exhibit is scheduled at 15:00 hours June 20 in the music section of the main National Library of Latvia building, Krišjāņa Barona iela 3, Rīga.

Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis has been injured in a traffic accident in Rīga and will spend about a week in a hospital recovering from a concussion and temporal bone fracture, Latvian media report.

The accident occurred at about 3 p.m. local time June 18 when a minibus and the prime minister’s car collided at the junction of Brīvības and Kalpaka boulevards, not far from the Cabinet of Ministers building in downtown Rīga.

Godmanis was taken to the First Rīga Hospital (Rīgas 1.slimnīca), where officials said the prime minister’s injuries are not life threatening.

The prime minister was on his way to meet with Latvian President Valdis Zatlers. The meeting was scheduled at 2:45 p.m., according to the president’s Web site.

Also in the prime minister’s car, according to the daily newspaper Diena, were his driver, a bodyguard and Chief of Staff Juris Radzevičs. None of them were injured. A woman passenger in the minibus was hurt.

Photographs and video of the accident’s aftermath posted on various media Web sites show the minibus with frontal damage, while the prime minister’s car has damage to its right side.

Godmanis was scheduled to travel in the evening to Brussels to attend a European Council meeting June 19-20. Instead, a spokesperson for the prime minister said, Latvia will be represented by Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš.

The amount of housing stock in Latvia continued to increase last year, according to the Central Statistical Bureau in Rīga, while the average amount of floor space per resident also expanded.

Housing stock by the end of 2007 had reached 60.1 million square meters (more than 646.9 million square feet), the statistical bureau said in a June 16 press release. Of that, 87 percent was owned privately, an indication of how privatization of government-owned residential buildings has continued. In 2000, 76 percent of the housing stock was in private hands.

Two thirds of the housing stock is in urban areas, the rest in rural areas, the bureau said.

The amount of average floor space per resident continued to grow, too. In 2000, the average stood at 22.6 square meters (about 243 square feet) per inhabitant. Last year, the average was 26.4 square meters (about 284 square feet), a nearly 17 percent increase.

Construction of new residential property continued actively during 2007, the statistical bureau said, with more than 1.18 million square meters (nearly 12.8 million square feet) commissioned. Of that total, 1,998 were single family homes—and 79 percent of those were two-story buildings.

Despite the upbeat numbers, concern about the Latvian real estate market remains. Property values, which had been rising steeply in recent years, have started to fall. In a survey of the housing market in 2007, Rīga-based Arco Real Estate noted that after an initial bump in the first four months of the year, housing prices began to slide. Banks, meanwhile, are cutting back on credit.

According to statistical bureau data, orders for new residential construction totaled LVL 11.02 million in the first quarter of this year, a marked contrast to the LVL 53.6 million in new orders during the first quarter of 2007.