Juris Cibuļs was born on December 6, 1951 in the Rekava village of the Abrenes districtin the Latvian SSR. Both parents were collective farmers.

He attended the Ērgļu Elementary School (1959–1963) and the Rekava Secondary School (1963–1970).He graduated from the State University of Latvia, the Faculty of Foreign Languages (1975) receiving a qualification of a philologistanda teacher of the English language and literature. In 1984–1987 he attended the post-graduate courses of the State University of Latvia(history and theory of pedagogy).

Juris Cibuļs worked in the Tilžas Secondary School and the Tilžas Boarding School as a teacher of English (1975–1989). He was the regularcorrespondent of the newspaper “Teachers’Newspaper”(1985–1990).

During the period of Awakening,he became achairmanof the Balvu District Branch of the Popular Front of Latvia (1989–1990).In 1990 he was elected member of the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. He worked in the Commissions of Foreign Affairs and National Education, Science and Cultureas well as in theworking partyof Latgale. Forvotingfor the Declaration of Independence on May 4, 1990 was awarded the Order of the Three Stars of the Third Class (2000).

From 1994 till April2005,heworked in the Department for Foreign Relationsof the Naturalisation Board. In April 2005 he started to workin the Centre of Translation and Terminology:as a reviser intheDivision of the Translation of Documents of the European Union and Other International Legislative Actsand from January 2009 as a reviser in the Division of the NATO Documentation Translation. In January 2011 he started to work as a project coordinator of the International Cooperation and Coordination Division of the Foreign Affairs Office in the Riga City Council where he worked till November2012.

He is an author or aco-author of manybooks.In various newspapers, journalsand collections ofarticleshe has published about500 articles in Latvian, Latgalian, Russian, English and French. 90 of his translations have been published in various newspapers and several books, including five separate brochures.

He is a member of the U.S. National Geographic Society(1978), the World Association of Verbal Aggression “Maledicta” (1995)as well as the association “Amici Linguarum” (“Friends of Languages”, 1995).

His hobby iscollecting ABC-books and primers. There are about 10,290 ABC-books and primers in hiscollection. They are from 222countries and in 1,180languages.

Together with the employees of the Museum of Local Lore ofBalviduring the inauguration of my exhibition of ABC-books and primers(1998)

In the museum of the Tilžas Secondary School (the Balvu Region)during the presentation of mybook „Valodu brīnumainā pasaule“[The Wondrous Worldof Languages] (Rīga, Raudava, 2004)in 2004

In 2006in Thessaloniki. (Greece) my exhibition of ABC-books and primerswas held. On the invitation card and the poster the picture from the cover of mybook„Valodu brīnumainā pasaule“[The Wondrous Worldof Languages]was shown.

At the library in Thessaloniki (Greece) in whichthe exhibition was held(2006).

Together with theorganisers of the exhibition of ABC-books and primers duringthe inauguration of the exhibition in Thessaloniki (Greece)

In 2011 my exhibition of ABC-books and primerstook placein the Universal Scientific Library of the Pskov Region in Pskov.

At the library in Grodno (Belarus) together with Svyatlana Rapeckaya, the organiser of the exhibition of ABC-books and primers(2012)

In the Riga City Council together with a delegation from the Republic of South Africa(2012)

The exhibition of rare collections “COLLECT,CARE,SHARE!”inthe Museum of the New Art in Pärnu in Estonia (2013–2014)

My exhibition of ABC-books and primers„Sākums“[Beginning] in the National Library of Latvia(2014

Meeting with Meng Wu[吴萌]in Beijing on April 11, 2015. The Chineseand English translator Meng Wu has supplemented my collection with many ABC-books and primers in the languages of the peoples of China.

In 2015, in Rēzekne, at the Latgale Embassy GORS, wherethe annual award “Boņuks 2014” of the Latgalian Culture was awarded in the nomination “Best Edition/Book” for „Purlovas grāmata“[The Book of Purlova] (Riga, Raudava, 2014).

Myexhibition of ABC-books and primers inthe Book Museum of the National Library of Belarus in Minsk (2018)

Together with Olga Tirinova, an author of the Russian primer published in Belarusduring the opening day of my exhibition