Научная библиотека ТГУ и мифологема освоения Сибири: основные вехи (1878–1934 гг.)

Abstract

The Research Library of Tomsk State University, which is now one of the largest university libraries in Russia, was established simultaneously with the university. Along with the first museums, the Botanical Garden and other university departments, it was almost immediately incorporated into the process of developing the transboundary Siberian space. To date, the history of the TSU Research Library is presented in generalizing and individual works dedicated to its employees, funds and collections, practices of interaction with readers and partners. At the same time, it seems relevant to identify the role of the Research Library as an actor involved in the process of constructing images of Siberia. This is due to the institutional involvement of the library in the complex of interactions within and around the university that has developed over decades. This involvement also makes the library a “memory space”, participating in the formation of images of the past, present and future at various levels – material, symbolic and functional. The aim of this work is to reveal the features of the formation of images of Siberia in the narrative about the Research Library, which is part of the substantiating myth about the first Siberian University. The lower chronological limit was chosen due to the fact that it is in the first years of the existence of the library that the core of its fund is formed and the main patterns of perception are laid; the upper limit because in 1936 the university library was given the status of a “research library”, which marked a key milestone in its development as the largest university library in Siberia. In the pre-revolutionary period, key ideas were laid down that were reflected in the construction of the image of Siberia as a region rich in various resources suitable for study – the library as part of the university that accumulates and preserves heritage, including the Siberian one. Conventionally, these ideas can be represented as binary structures: Siberia as an undeveloped, wild territory – the library as a tool for its development, cultivation; Siberia as a region with rich various resources suitable for exploration – the library as part of the university accumulating and preserving the heritage, including the Siberian one. In early Soviet times, there was a further development and discovery of ideas related to the perception of Siberia and the library as an instrument for exploring the region and familiarizing it with world culture and history. The library is a tool for collecting information, preserving and saving book collections of the past, and bibliographic ordering of the scattered Siberian information space.