Foklore activities of Krišjānis Barons (1835 – 1923) have been his largest contribution to the Latvian culture and national history. He collected and arranged folksongs (Dainas), classified the first Latvian folksong compilation Latvian Dainas (1894 – 1915) in 6 editions that amassed 217 996 folksongs. Krišjānis Barons, also called Dainas Father, dedicated his life to the effort.

Barons needed a special tool to systemize 3 x 11 cm paper slips. Therefore a special Dainas depository (a cabinet) with 70 small drawers, 20 chapters altogether, and three larger compartments was built according to Barons sketches in 1880 in Moscow where he was living at the time. The height of the depository is 160 cm, width 66 cm, depth 42 cm. Depository was transported to Latvia in 1893 and was moved around for several times more, becoming later a cultural symbol rather than a practical utensil. The original Dainas depository is stored in Latvian Folklore Repository since 1940, and there are two more copies made. One of them is located in the Museum of Krišjānis Barons and the other on in Stankevichi Estate in Russia where Barons commenced work of arranging the folksongs. The content of the Dainas depository is its greatest value being also replicated in two copies. Microfilms of bits of paper with Dainas on them were made in 1940-ies and 516 of these films are stored in safe-box of the National Library on Jēkaba Street. The scanner was used to digitalize collected Dainas and file them in computer in 1997. A web-page dedicated to the matter was launched in 2002.

Dainas depository is a part of the global culture treasures since September 2001 for it has been included in Memory of the World International Register of UNESCO. It is an honor as well as tremendous responsibility and duty to present the cultural heritage to the international society.