The Library of the Headquarters of the Border Guard Special Corps. To the 125th Anniversary of the Corps Foundation

Abstract

Due to the lack of studies on the history of librarianship in the Border Guard Special Corps (BGSC), this article considers for the first time the history of creation and development of the library at its headquarters. The purpose of the article is the reconstruction of the library stocks, first of all its quantitative indices and thematic content, basing on “The Library Catalogue of the Headquarters of the Border Guard Special Corps” of 1906. The author widely used the method of comparative analysis, which allowed to reveal the catalogue shortcomings, common to pre-revolutionary libraries, and specific features of catalogue compilation, to identify similarities and differences in the subject matter of the available publications and their distribution between Military Department divisions with similar book collections (using the example of “Systematic Catalogue of books of the Library of Headquarters of the Moscow Military District, published in the same 1906, and three additions to it). The core of the source base of the study were the library catalogues and orders of the chiefs of the Border Guard. This study allowed the author to establish the date of creation of the library, which should be considered January 30, 1895, as on that day the Corps Headquarters Order No. 12 recorded the first receipt of books and quantitative indices of the stock, which included 33 authors (names) in 110 volumes. According to the catalogue, by 1906 the library included 454 authors (names) of publications in 1396 volumes. The article revealed the existence of one more library at the headquarters of the BGSC, arranged and operated at Corps Museum. The results show that organising and development of libraries at the headquarters of BGSC and its structural units went in one course with the establishment and further existence of libraries of the Military Department. They had similar departments, same sources of accession, including from the General Staff, depended on the attitude of higher administration and the initiative of the officers themselves.