Domestic Publications of the 19-20<sup>th</sup> Centuries: Book Monuments or Rare Editions

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to investigate the basic questions of revealing, studying, stocktaking and preserving rare books and book monuments in libraries. The chronological criterion of recognizing a document as a single book monument leaves no place for doubts, but the criterion of social significance (see point 5 of the Order № 1780 ‘On Approval of Regulations on Register of Book Monuments') raises many questions as there are no works analyzing the criterion of social significance.Only an individual approach to each document will make it possible to explore all the peculiarities of a book creation and existence. The decision for recognizing or not a document as a book monument can be made by a regional council of experts. Libraries use different approaches to technical processing and organizing storing of documents from the category under study (e.g. only the monuments being singled out from the general collection, monuments and rare books being stored together; rare books being a part of the general collection etc.).The professional community should work out recommendations, which could help to organize properly library collections that include book monuments and rare books.