THE 70-TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY OF THE IRKUTSK SCIENTIFIC CENTER OF THE SB RAS

Abstract

In 2019, the Central Scientific Library of the Irkutsk Scientific Center of SB RAS (CSL ISC) celebrated its 70th anniversary. The library history began with the creation of the East Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (ESB or Branch) in Irkutsk in February 1949. Immediately the aim of information support for×scientific research arouse. One room was allotted on the second floor of the building on the Red Star street, 18 (now – Sukhe-Bator St.). The first 600 books were purchased at the local library collector. Anna Sergeevna Chumicheva, having at that time rich work experience in various types of libraries: trade-union library, NKVD club, and university library, was appointed director of ESB scientific library.The library acquisition profile was determined in accordance with research directions of institutions that were part of the Branch at the very beginning of its activities: Institute of Geology, Institute of Energy and Chemistry, Biological Sector and Geographic and Economic Sector. Much attention was paid to bibliographic activities: in the 1960-1980s. the staff of ESB scientific library created a series of indexes on hydrogeology, seismicity and engineering geology of Siberia and the Far East, on Lake Baikal.Currently, the Central Library is a methodological center for scientific libraries of academic institutes in Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region. The library has more than 366 thousand documents (books, brochures, journals), including 1000 documents on electronic media, about 4 thousand readers (scientists, graduate students, students), including 1260 online. CSL creates resources of own generation – the electronic database “Lake Baikal”, the database “Abstracts and Dissertations”, etc. In terms of popularizing science, the library has published a series of booklets about scientists and a documentary essay, “Irkutsk Academic-city: milestones in history” (Irkutsk, 2019). Since July 2017, the director of the Central Scientific Library is a young scientist Ivan Leonidovich Trofimov. From 1968 to the present day, the library is located in the building of the Institute of the Earth’s Crust of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1992 – SB RAS).