State Library Research Articles

“Materials of the School of ‘Mathematical and Navigational Sciences’ under the jurisdiction of the armory chamber” from N. P. Durov’s collection as a historical source

The School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, the first specialized technical educational institution in Russia, was founded on the initiative of Peter the Great in Moscow in 1701. Subsequently, the Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg (1715) was set up, based on the School’s Navigators’ Classes. Most of the School’s documents were lost during the fire in the Naval Cadet Corps in 1771. A set of manuscript documents bound together, comprising the Navigation School’s bookkeeping documentation, has been preserved in the personal fonds of N. P. Durov (1831–1879), professor at the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers (St. Petersburg) and historian of science and technology, deposited at the Russian State Library’s Manuscript Department. This manuscript has so far remained unpublished and little-known to researchers. Durov was a renowned bibliophile and collector of manuscripts and books. Many unique handwritten materials ended up in his library after the acquisition of a part of the book collection that belonged to a collector and amateur archeographer A. I. Sulakadzev. However, as our research proved, Durov obtained these Navigation School’s manuscript documents from the home library of the writer B. M. Fedorov. After Durovʼs death, these documents were purchased by the Moscow book dealer V. V. Gautier and subsequently acquired from him by the Library of the Moscow Public Museum. This manuscript is an important source on the history of the creation and early years of the Navigation School. It includes petitions to the Tsar from its future students and the documents of both the School and the Armory that contain information about the educational process organization and the first naval cadets’ everyday life.

Preserving contemporary newspapers: A new survey of state libraries in the USA

Newspaper collections require the use of archival science techniques and public librarianship. Indexing and public access are necessary for the provision of newspapers, while preservation underpins these efforts. In the United States, newspaper publishing tactics are changing quickly, causing upheaval in reading rooms and archival stacks. At the same time, the users’ focus upon digital access to newspapers has been wrongly conflated with the preservation formatting required to save them. A new U.S. survey of state library directors and newspaper collection managers addresses ways in which archivists and librarians evolve so that current titles with intrinsic value can be dovetailed into existing newspaper collections. Traditional practices of filming, digital image collecting, and print rotation still prevail. The survey was completed in 2023, and it is hoped that the findings will stimulate new discussions about newspaper preservation in the 21st century.

Web archives after platformization: reading social media collections along the archival grain

ABSTRACT This article draws on ethnographic and historical research at two Australian libraries to explore how the platformization of the web has altered the content, character, and potential future utility of web archives. I argue that, in attempting to collect social media, these libraries face a double bind: while web crawling undertaken at the National Library of Australia allows for immediate but often incomplete or inconsistent access, the API-based approach taken by the State Library of New South Wales constrains both the data collected and how it can be made accessible due to a shifting set of rules that are established and enforced by platforms. By examining the constraints of current strategies to collect, preserve, and make available social media content, I illustrate how changes to platform design and policies significantly influence what is included in web archives and how they are made available. As the ruptures and inconsistencies of collections of social media in web archives are often opaque to both creators of web archives and those using them, I argue that web archives can be read ‘along the archival grain’ for evidence of the platformization of the web. This approach, which draws on anthropologist Ann Stoler’s critical readings on the form and placement of colonial archives (rather than just their contents), allows an assessment of how the gaps, silences, densities, and distributions of web archives are shaped by the shifting power dynamics between different actors involved in the production, circulation, distribution, and use of information on the web.

ABLS Library of the State Library of North Carolina

The Accessible Books and Library Services (ABLS) Library of the State Library of North Carolina (SLNC) is a unique resource that caters to the needs of persons with a visual or print disability. Strategically located in Raleigh, North Carolina, it is a convenient hub for library professionals, including those from academic, public, school, and private libraries. The ABLS stands out for its diverse range of services, a wealth of information, and robust network, all used to assist and engage persons with visual and print disabilities.

Rennie Ellis: Melbourne Out Loud, State Library Victoria, 1 March 2024–28 January 2025

Rennie Ellis: Melbourne Out Loud, State Library Victoria, 1 March 2024–28 January 2025

The Writer and Time in the Russian Book: the Legacy of A.S. Pushkin at the Conference of the Russian State Library

The Writer and Time in the Russian Book: the Legacy of A.S. Pushkin at the Conference of the Russian State Library

'Working Country: Aboriginal Stockmen and Stockwomen', State Library of Queensland

'Working Country: Aboriginal Stockmen and Stockwomen', State Library of Queensland

Методы корпусного анализа частотности и динамики языковых единиц в 2024 году

The article “Methods of corpus analysis of the frequency and dynamics of language units in 2024” presents possible methods and sources of searching, frequency analysis and diachrony (microdiachrony, nanodiachrony) of Russian language units using not only well-known linguistic corpora such as RNC and GICR, but also “natural corpora” of Yandex (including Yandex. News) and Google, as well as other search sources, such as LiveJournal, VKontakte and Telegram. The author indicates the possibility of using the official English-language corpora in the study of loanwords-neologisms in the modern Russian language. There is a discussion of the pros and cons of each service with special attention to the search tools that allow a linguist to specify the data. In the article there also are considered search services in the databases of digitized books: in Google Books (including the Google Books Ngram Viewer) and the electronic catalog of the Russian State Library. There is a presentation of the services (Yandex. Wordstat and Google Trends) that show user interest in a language unit – a word or phrase. All or almost all of the services, the possibility of using which is analyzed in the article, have already been used in one way or another in linguistic analysis in scientific papers. However, it should be considered that, firstly, it is often necessary to use several sources at once for an adequate analysis, and, secondly, the choice of priority sources depends on the type of the information a linguist is looking for. Conclusions are drawn about the possible order of use of the services discussed for different categories of words (long-known; words of the Runet era; very new and rare words; words for which it is necessary to find out the frequency by half-year or by month) and the need to be able to use each of these tools is justified.

Словарь речений из богослужебных книг прот. А. И. Невоструева (понасилую — посредѣ)

The “Dictionary of Locutions from Liturgical Books” by Protopriest A. Nevostruev, completed in the middle of the 19th century and never published, can be regarded both as a significant achievement of Church Slavonic studies and as a valuable lexicographic source. The manuscript is kept in the Russian State Library. The decrepit state of the manuscript has determined the necessity of its urgent study and edition. The significance of this project is primarily due to the fact that the text of the dictionary is being made accessible to linguists for the first time. The orthography and grammar of the dictionary reflect the linguistic views of the time of its creation and can be of interest for those who study the history of Russian linguistics. This paper contains the 6th part of dictionary entries beginning in letter P. The characteristic features of the publication of this Dictionary, the lists of sources, abbreviations and symbols were described in detail in the previous issues of St. Tikhon’s University Review. All previously published parts of the Dictionary together with the critical apparatus can be found at the website of St. Tikhon’s University for the Humanities.

Rancang Bangun E-Library Berbasis Web pada SMP Negeri 2 Wewewa Tengah

At every educational institution there is a library for students to use at that institution. Likewise with SMP Negeri 2 Wewewa Tengah. At the school there is a library but it still uses a bookkeeping management system or is still written manually, while the number of active borrowers is almost all students carrying out the borrowing process at the school. The process of borrowing books in the library begins when students come to the library and tell the library staff that they want to borrow books. Then students select the books they want to borrow on the shelves provided. Next, the library staff records the borrower's data, such as full name, student identification number, and class, as well as data on books borrowed, such as book title, author, and inventory number in the ledger used as a borrowing register.). The school library has a strategic role and function in developing the potential of students from the entire academic community in the school environment. The library is part of the learning resources that every school has, a library that is still manual is something that needs to be created a system that can help with administrative activities. With the e-library, users can access it together with other users without having to wait in line. The search process is easier and faster because it is assisted by an information search engine that uses a database. This system presents a variant of the digital library, including a user page section that presents books available at the Central Wewewa State library

Wyoming – Economic Diversification, the Creative Economy, and Wyoming Library Builds Business (LBB) Initiatives: Public, Academic & State Librarians in Collaboration with Innovators & Entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT In 2020, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the Libraries Build Business (LBB) grant initiative. Thirteen public library systems were selected to receive a total of $1.3 million to bolster their library’s entrepreneurial outreach. ALA and Google.org supported efforts to build capacity in libraries and library districts. Libraries in turn offered innovative programming, access to e-resources and developed services for local entrepreneurs and the business community. Libraries Build Business (LBB) objective was to identify library-led entrepreneurship models that would help lower-income and/or under-represented entrepreneurs, i.e. women and minorities to start and grow new businesses.

Сказкотерапия как поле междисциплинарного взаимодействия исследователей (по итогам состоявшейся в Российской государственной библиотеке дискуссии)

<p>On June 26, 2024, as part of the program of the XIII International Summer School “Evolution of Institutions for Self-Organization and Charity”, the Russian State Library for Young Adults held a discussion on "How to Form Positive Attitudes towards Philanthropy and Mutual Assistance?", which was attended by civil society researchers from Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Romania and the United Arab Emirates. The lively discussion focused on the methodology for using fairy tale therapy as a specific area of practical psychology to solve many social and cultural problems. In particular, the following question was highlighted: How fairy tales help develop social empathy, promote philanthropy in society and promote unity among people, and form attitudes towards charity and mutual assistance.</p>

“Rumyantsev Readings — 2024”: N.P. Rumyantsev’s Heritage and Topical Issues of Development of Modern Librarianship

On 23—25 April 2024, the Russian State Library (RSL) hosted the annual International Research and Practical Conference “Rumyantsev Readings” (organizers: Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, RSL, the Library Assembly of Eurasia). The topics raised at the conference invariably attract a large number of specialists from different regions of Russia and other countries with their versatility and relevance. In 2024, representatives of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan took part in it. Our country was represented by specialists from many cities and regions. 294 people took part in the event in person, 1,697 connections were recorded during the broadcasting of the sessions.The conference topics covered a wide range of issues on the theory and practice of library science, bibliography and book studies. Among its main directions: history of libraries and other scientific and cultural institutions, as well as pages of life and activity of people connected with them; disclosure of book depositories’ funds; research of collections and individual copies of manuscript and printed monuments; multifaceted activities of modern libraries. One of the main goals of the conference is to expand intercultural interaction and co-operation between cultural, educational and scientific institutions. Within the framework of the “Rumyantsev Readings” the work of sections, both traditional for many years, and timed to the dates and events of 2024, was organized. Special attention was paid to the personality and heritage of the creator of the Rumyantsev Museum N.P. Rumyantsev (1754—1826), whose 270th anniversary is being celebrated in 2024. Other key topics of the conference were: “Scientific and methodological activities of libraries”, “Collectors, curators, researchers: the history of cultural institutions in the faces”, “The selfless people of the past and modern volunteer movement in the life of libraries”, “Book monuments in the library collections: creation, existence, storage and use”, “Library collections in the digital environment”, “Staffing makes the difference: young researchers in the modern library”.The programme of the event included, in addition to the plenary session, ten sections and two round tables. By the beginning of the conference a collection of materials in three parts was prepared and published by the publishing house of the RSL “Pashkov Dom”, it included 168 articles by 180 authors.“Rumyantsev Readings” have been held for more than four decades and continue to be a popular research and practical event among library professionals and representatives of other educational, scientific and cultural institutions, contributing to the development of scientific research and the introduction of new practices.

Scientific libraries in the classification of the state libraries

Typology and classification of libraries is the most actual problem in library science. A great number of specialists have made attempts to solve it; however, the problem remains unresolved. The article discusses the issues of special terminology related to library differentiation. The author focuses on new tendencies in the development of the state library system and the fact that modern library science requires a revision of existing classifications of libraries. The classification proposed by the author is based on the social functions of libraries. The proposed classification allows for outlining the role of scientific libraries within the library system of the USSR.

Library and Bibliographic Classifications of Art Literature in the Documents of the M.I. Fabrikant Archive

The professional art history interests of professor M.I. Fabrikant (1887—1966) in the field of book studies, bibliography, library and museum studies are reflected in the documents of his personal archive in the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the Scientific Library of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Based on his extensive experience, the scientist drafted in the 1920s a scientific classification of art literature. In addition, working in the 1930s in the scientific libraries of major Moscow museums (the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery), he drafted the structures of branch catalogues. M.I. Fabrikant also participated as a consultant in the development of projects for the organisation of departments and catalogues in the new building of the Lenin State Library of the USSR in 1936.

The first English textbook of plastic surgery—William (Jerry) Moore

The nineteenth century bore witness to a remarkable proliferation of reconstructive literature in Europe, based on procedures originally described in India and Italy. Despite the publication of a successful forehead flap in England in 1816, texts exclusively dedicated to the field of plastic surgery were relatively scarce in the English-speaking world. The authors sought to identify the first English textbook entirely devoted to plastic surgery. A comprehensive examination was undertaken, spanning various databases encompassing medical, medical humanities and historical domains (PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Anthropology, JSTOR, Encyclopedia of Ancient History), as well as an extensive perusal of materials housed in the State Library of Victoria, the University of Melbourne and the HathiTrust Digital Library. The scope of this search was confined to publications predating Harold Gillies' influential 1920 textbook. Within this vast literary landscape, an Australian surgeon named William Moore emerged as a figure of notable significance, authoring the first textbook of plastic surgery in English in 1899. Moore's legacy as a pioneering surgeon ahead of his era is undeniable. Yet, various factors conspired to obscure his rightful place in the annals of surgical history.

Reestablishment of public stale libraries in the postwar Lithuania

Before the Hitler occupation in Soviet Lithuania, there were no less than 263 working public state libraries, and preparations for the establishment of 92 additional libraries were underway. After the liberation of Soviet Lithuania, 60 libraries remained, nearly destroyed. Reconstruction and establishment work were carried out in three directions: reconstructing libraries that had been destroyed by the Hitler occupation forces, establishing libraries that had been planned before the war, and building new ones that had not been planned earlier. By the end of 1949, all the prewar libraries and those planned to be built had been reestablished and founded, except for 19, the construction of which was postponed for a later time. Additionally, more than 70 new state public libraries were founded.

The Russian State Library as a National Bibliographic Agency

The history of the Russian Book Chamber — the world’s first specialized state institution established to carry out registration, current bibliographic accounting of domestic publications and their archival storage — is briefly described. Since 2013 it has been a branch of the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS). In 2021—2022 the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation to transfer the functions of this branch to the Russian State Library (RSL) was implemented. The organizational aspects of this process are covered. As a result, RSL acquired new functions (accounting, notification, perpetual storage of the required copy) and a new status — the National Bibliographic Agency of the Russian Federation (NBA), which now need to be fixed in legal documents. The importance of coordination and methodological functions of the NBA for the full functioning of the entire system of national bibliography of the country is especially noted.

Pavel Petrovich Shibanov as a Supplier of Books for the Libraries of the Imperial Family (Late 19th — Early 20th Century)

On the basis of letters from the collection No. 342 of the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library (RSL) the co-operation of the famous Russian antiquarian book dealer of the late 19th — early 20th century P.P. Shibanov with the members of the House of Romanov in the field of formation of their personal libraries is studied. The study was carried out with the aim of obtaining reliable information about the editions offered to complete the personal libraries of the Imperial House. On the basis of previously unexplored sources the assortment of P.P. Shibanov’s booksellers, presented for purchase to the members of the Imperial Family, is revealed. The letters from the Shibanov collection of the RSL were received by the bookseller from high-ranking officials of the courts of the grand dukes and grand duchesses, and in some cases directly from members of the dynasty. The material gives an idea of the spheres of intellectual predilections of the Romanovs, of their interest in rare and ancient editions, among which were books of the 17th—18th centuries. The prices for books indicated in the letters are of no small importance. Among the information about the booksellers’ assortment offered to the Romanovs we should mention the books that for one reason or another did not interest the members of the dynasty during the preliminary acquaintance and were returned to the bookseller.In the course of the research, the drafts of P.P. Shibanov’s letters to the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, were revealed, and the exchange of telegrams with the Pushkin enthusiast, Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Imperial Blood, was analyzed.Most of the letters were received from the court offices of the Grand Dukes Nikolai Mikhailovich (a famous historian), Konstantin Konstantinovich and Pyotr Nikolayevich (through the court office of the latter the sending of books to his wife, Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaevna, for familiarization was discussed).The letters we have identified cover mainly the late 1890s — early 1900s; the latest are a telegram from Prince Oleg Konstantinovich of Imperial Blood, received by P.P. Shibanov in 1913, and a letter from the court office of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich in 1915.The studied letters reveal the book assortment offered by P.P. Shibanov to the members of the Imperial Family and the book preferences of the Romanovs, but do not indicate whether these books were purchased by them.

The types of UNESCO library activities

The aim of the article is to classify the activities of UNESCO in the field of library work. The main types of these activities are singled out based on the criteria of main functions of international organizations: Governing Activities: These are carried out by determining the main principles of library activities and announcing them in declarations, programs, projects, and other documents. This includes stating the rules in various fields of library work and implementing them through international conventions, as well as creating concepts for the development of libraries at both national and international levels. Controlling Activities: These are carried out by: Stating the existing status. Comparing it with the rules and ideal models. Declaring responsibility for deviations from them. The task is performed by collecting library statistics and other information. This is a major aspect of the work of international organizations. The evaluation of activities in librarianship is formulated as recommendations by UNESCO. Performing Activities: These involve UNESCO directly engaging in library work by sending experts to organize libraries in member states, granting stipends to librarians, purchasing books and equipment for member libraries, and investigating issues in modern librarianship.