the library acquired its own building in 1830, and jens davidsen served as librarian until his death in 1878. by 1850 there were approximately 5,000 books, but the project stagnated between 1878 and 1905, when the faroese parliament, the løgting, assigned funding. the library flourished beginning in 1921, under the linguist mads andreas jacobsen (1891–1944), who had trained as a librarian in 1920. during the period of the faroese language conflict, it became a rallying point for national writers and politicians. it moved into a new building in 1931.