Who is the founder of the first library. Library history (1) Subscribe to this RSS feed

The book is an amazing creation of people, and libraries are an integral part of the culture of every country. Sergeevich once correctly said that if the book depositories are properly organized, then culture can really be revived, even if educational institutions disappear. But not all people understand what libraries are for.

The Need for Libraries

In ancient times, libraries were repositories of manuscripts, and after ancient times they were transformed into public centers that were supposed to popularize knowledge. Russia saw them for the first time somewhere in the XI-XII centuries.

Today it is in this place that you can find completely different books from the desired field for work, study and just pleasure. So why do we need libraries?

The main purpose of book depositories is to organize the collection, preservation, and social use of books and other printed publications. Initially, libraries were needed for self-study and knowledge acquisition. Absolutely everyone needs them: preschoolers, schoolchildren, students, pensioners and scientists.

Scientists have proven that the human brain can contain more information than in America. However, mankind has not yet learned to use all the possibilities of the brain, and therefore book storage will not disappear and will be needed. Now everyone knows what libraries are for.

First Libraries

Even in ancient times, so-called libraries were formed in Asia. In Nippur, a unique collection of clay tablets (2500 BC) was found, which is called the primitive book depository. A little later, papyri were found in the pyramid of the pharaoh.

In the fourth century BC. in Hercules opened the first so-called open library of Greece. In the third century BC. founded Alexandria which is deservedly considered the colossal center of ancient books. The library included astro-observatories, gardens of botany and zoology, rooms for living and reading books. And a little later it was turned into a museum, which was filled with stuffed animals, statues, supplies for medicine, as well as astronomy. It should be noted that such institutions were built at the sanctuaries. Are libraries needed? In those days, such a question was not asked. People skillfully recorded their knowledge in order to pass it on to future generations.

Valuable manuscripts

In the Middle Ages, workshops for copying manuscripts functioned in Russian monastic libraries. Church publications were often copied. The production of manuscripts was a very difficult and time-consuming process, and therefore the books were of the highest value. That is why they were chained in special vaults.

When publishing houses appeared, the life of libraries changed dramatically, because they ceased to act as archives. Funds of book depositories began to grow very quickly. They became most relevant when the period of mass addition to literacy began. Whether we need libraries in the 21st century is difficult to answer. Many prefer digital media, but without real books, they would not exist either.

Types of libraries

Libraries can be:

national;
regional;
public;
special;
for the blind;
university;
school;
family.

It is worth considering in more detail what libraries of each type are needed for.

The National Reading Rooms are designed to preserve and guarantee unhindered access to government printed publications. To replenish resources, some countries adhere to mandatory rules.

The regional library is a division of the above-mentioned institutions, which is necessary for residents living far from cities. It is worth noting that such book depositories also have every right to receive a mandatory sample.

In public libraries, users have the right to get acquainted with the most relevant and popular literature. Are Libraries Necessary in the Digital Age? This question has been asked repeatedly. But only thanks to libraries can the scientific and literary heritage of the whole world be preserved.

Special book depositories

Special libraries store special-purpose publications such as patents, government standards, or musical publications. Often such reading rooms are created in connection with the need to save books in certain conditions.

The Library for the Blind allows the blind and visually impaired readers to access information. In such institutions, audiobooks and books that are written in a special font are stored. The State Library for the Blind is considered the largest in Russia, because in addition to books it has three-dimensional models, thanks to which the blind can get acquainted with the appearance of various objects.

Books are knowledge!

School and university libraries provide schoolchildren and students with literature. Their peculiarity is that they serve users of a narrow circle. However, you can find university reading rooms with free access. Do libraries have a future? This question was asked to modern students. The majority answered no - they prefer digital textbooks and audiobooks.

Not so long ago, a new round appeared in librarianship - a virtual library. Any user, having access to the Internet, has the ability to download any book from specialized sites. The younger generation leaves reviews in favor of electronic book depositories. But older people prefer "live" books.

Structured libraries

In book depositories, users have the opportunity to be served in two forms. In the first case, the reader purchases a subscription. Thanks to such a pass, you can get any edition for use for a specified period. Another form of service is the reading room: here the user will be able to read the desired publications exclusively in the library.

An important characteristic of the reading room is the structure of the fund. Part of the publications, which are the most relevant among readers, is often freely available, where the visitor has the opportunity to immediately familiarize themselves with them. All other editions are stored in the repository, and the reader can get them by choosing from the catalog.

Dilapidated rare editions, as well as those books in which importance may be stored, are issued only with a special permit.

You can also find mobile library units that facilitate the access of people from remote areas to books, as well as the Internet. This form of service is used by the disabled, as well as residents of nursing homes.

Today, libraries have been modernized, and their funds contain not only printed books, but also microfilms, transparencies, documents on electronic media. Not a single library can do without a computer, and therefore it will be in demand not only by the older generation, but also by modern schoolchildren and students.

Now you know what libraries are for and what you cannot do without them.

History of libraries. The Emergence of Libraries

The history of library culture is part of the history and culture of a society. The oldest libraries in the world were the first clay catalogs of Sumerian literature, the library of Ashurbanipal, the library of the temple of Edfu in Egypt. In Athens, large private libraries were owned by Euripides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Euclid, Euthydemus. The first public Greek library was founded in Athens by Pasistratus. The eighth wonder of the world - the Library of Alexandria - included more than 700 thousand scrolls of handwritten books. The government officials of Alexandria confiscated all books imported into the country and sent them to the library marked "from the ships." The rulers of the city imposed a ban on the export of papyrus to stop the rapid growth of the library of Rhodes. According to legend, books from Alexandria were kept in the disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible.

A characteristic feature of Roman libraries is their location in country villas. Private libraries in II-I centuries. BC. Emilius Paul (based on the library of the Macedonian king Perseus), Sulla (based on the library of Aristotle), Lucullus (based on the library of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator), Varro, Cicero, Atticus, Virgil. The first public library in Rome was founded by Gaius Asinius Pollio in the 1st century BC. BC.

History of libraries in Russia. History of librarianship

The process of state centralization in the 17th century created the necessary conditions for the development of science, trade and industrial production, as well as the formation of the state administration apparatus led to the formation of new types and types of libraries.

Development of libraries in Russia in the 17th century

By the middle of the 17th century, central government institutions were created in Russia - orders, under which, by state decree or order in the field of librarianship, special departmental libraries were organized. One of the most significant libraries was the library of the Order of the Printing House (Printing Library), created in the early 17th century. It is known from the book inventories of the library that in 1649 it contained 148 books and manuscripts, and in 1679 - 637 books and manuscripts in Russian and foreign languages. By the end of the 17th century, it had become the largest book depository in Russia. The collection of this library could be used not only by employees, but also by teachers of the academy, established by decree of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich in 1687.

A large library was created under the Ambassadorial order by decree of Peter I in 1696. In it, in addition to books collected from different places, books, maps, and manuscripts sent from abroad were kept. In 1696, the fund consisted of 333 books, mostly in foreign languages. The fund of books was universal, and books were issued to ambassadors and clerks in other cities. Special libraries in the 17th century had Pushkar and Aptekarsky orders. The first collected Russian and foreign publications on technology, military affairs, fortification, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, geometry, geography and other sciences. Books were issued to craftsmen, foundry workers and others. The foundation of the first special libraries contributed to the transition to the 16th - 17th centuries. from religious to secular book collections, as well as the subsequent development of library thought in the 18th century.

Russian libraries in the 18th century

State reforms in the sphere of politics, economy, culture and education, carried out in Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century by Emperor Peter I, were of great importance for the development of libraries. The most important event in the field of librarianship during the reign of Peter I was the establishment in 1714 in St. Petersburg of the first state scientific library in Russia, which was founded simultaneously with the Kunstkamera. Both of these institutions were transferred to the Academy of Sciences, founded in 1724. The creation of a fundamental library met the urgent needs of the socio-political and cultural life of Russia and had a great influence on the subsequent development of librarianship. The library was replenished mainly due to private collections, the transfer of funds from some Orders, purchases and exchanges with foreign scientific institutions. And also due to the obligatory copy of the literature printed in the printing house. The library fund could be used not only by academicians, but also by other scientists, statesmen and representatives of the nobility.

Handwritten books continued to be produced in the medieval scriptoriums. During the Renaissance, the largest library of Lorenzo Medici was created; The Vatican Library owned an extensive collection of ancient manuscripts and early printed books with works by ancient authors. At present, the largest libraries in Western Europe and America are the British Museum Library, opened in 1759, and the US Library of Congress, opened a year later - in 1800.

The main repositories of the monuments of ancient Russian literature were monastic libraries. The first library in Russia was created in 1037 by order of Yaroslav the Wise in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The collection of books was called "book treasury", "archive". For the first time the word "library" is found in the famous "Gennadievsky Bible", which was translated and rewritten in Novgorod in 1499. The second time the term is found in 1602 in the Solovetsky Chronicle.

By the 18th century, the first translations into Russian of Greek and Latin authors appeared in Russia - the fables of Aesop, the works of Xenophon, Curtius Rufus, Cicero, Ovid, Horace. Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, Empress Catherine II, Prince D. Golitsyn, Count V. Tatishchev had private libraries. After the founding of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, large state libraries began to be established. Based on the manuscripts and books of the royal library in the Kremlin and the book collection of Peter I, in 1714 the Academic Library began to form, replenished by the private collections of E. Dashkova, A. Vinius, A. Pitkarn, R. Areskin.

Library development in the 18th century

All-Russian Library Day celebrated since 1995. On May 27, 1795, Empress Catherine II founded the Imperial Public Library - now the Russian National Library.

In the second half of the 18th century, scientific libraries that were fundamentally new for Russia in their profile were opened. In 1757, the Library of the Academy of Arts was opened in St. Petersburg; innovations in the work of this library were significant. In 1764, in its charter, Catherine II approved that unauthorized persons could visit the library on appointed days. In 1756, the repertoire library of the Russian Drama Theater appeared. The library of the Free Economic Society was established in 1765, specializing mainly in the collection of literature on economics and agriculture. It was not a state, but a public library. In the 18th century, for the first time in Russia, university libraries began their activities.

By the end of the reign of Catherine II in Russia, favorable conditions had developed for the organization of a public library. It was based on the library of the brothers A. S. and Yu. A. Zaluski received in Warsaw as a trophy. On November 21, 1794, Catherine II signed a decree to Suvorov: to ensure the receipt of the Załuski library and its transfer to St. Petersburg. And on May 16, 1795, the empress, by her royal command, approved the project for the construction of the first building specially designed for the library by the architect E. T. Sokolov. The Załuski library was delivered to St. Petersburg in the summer and autumn of 1795, first by carts, and then by sea from Riga. There were practically no books in the Church Slavonic and Russian languages in the collection - there were only 8 of them out of 250 thousand volumes. Therefore, the Library was faced with the task of not only putting Polish books in order, but, above all, acquiring books published in Russia and other regions in Russian and Church Slavonic. The first director of the library was a French emigrant, diplomat and historian M.-G. Choiseul-Gouffier.

History of libraries in the 19th century

At the beginning of the 19th century, scientific and special libraries developed under more favorable conditions than public libraries. The government allocated, although insufficient, monetary appropriations for their maintenance. During this period, typographic activity is booming, which contributes to the growth in the number of books that come to academic libraries as legal copies.

In connection with the reform of public education in the first half of the 19th century, five new university libraries were opened. Scientific libraries are also based at the Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, the Institute of Technology, the Institute of Civil Engineers (1842) in St. Petersburg, the vocational school (1832) in Moscow, which was transformed into the Higher Technical School.

The creation of universities and other educational institutions contributed to the organization of new scientific societies, in which libraries were opened. These are the Societies of Russian History and Antiquities, the Societies of Naturalists, the Mineralogical Societies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Physical-technical, mathematical, geographical, agricultural scientific societies are opening in other cities.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the largest university library was the library of Moscow University, in which there were over 20 thousand books. Among the universities opened at the beginning of this century, Kazan University stood out, the rector of which was the outstanding mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky, who simultaneously served as director of the university library. As the head of the library and the university itself, he achieved the reorganization of the library acquisition system (which has since been built on a scientific basis), paying special attention to the preservation of the fund and the construction of a new building that would meet the requirements of library services. At the same time, Lobachevsky achieved the transformation of the library into a public one, in terms of serving a wide range of "foreign" readers.

In the first half of the 19th century, the most valuable collection of books on national history in Russia was the private library of the famous Moscow public figure and collector Alexander Dmitrievich Chertkov, opened in 1862 for public use. It formed the basis of the funds of the Russian Public Historical Library. The books from the Chertkov collection were used by Russian writers and scientists: V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, M.N. Pogodin, L.N. Tolstoy and others. The library was founded and published from 1863 to 1873. one of the best historical journals of the 19th century - "Russian archive".

Libraries in the 20th century. Development of libraries in Russia

At the beginning of the 20th century, a system of libraries really took shape in Russia. Scientific and special libraries were in a more satisfactory condition compared to public and folk libraries. However, they were also distinguished by the diversity of types and species, the lack of regularity in development, and the lack of interaction with each other. The reason for this was that various departments and institutions, educational institutions and scientific societies were engaged in the arrangement of libraries. Only for some of the libraries the government approved general rules and charters.

The vast majority of scientific and special libraries were located in the central part of the country, in the capitals and large provincial cities. A large group of scientific libraries consisted of state public, university and other university libraries, as well as libraries of the Academy of Sciences and other scientific institutions and societies. The largest of them was the national one - the Imperial Public Library, in 1917 its fund was more than 2 million items. The second largest was the Library of the Academy of Sciences, whose fund in 1911 was about 800 thousand volumes. The third place in the system of scientific libraries was occupied by the library of the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow, the fund of which in 1917 was about 1 million volumes.

Among the major libraries was the library of the Historical Museum. The libraries of legislative institutions - the State Council and the State Duma, the libraries of the military departments were also among the large and valuable libraries.

The development of libraries during the years of Soviet power

Already in the first years of Soviet power, the foundations were laid for a fundamentally different approach to the organization of librarianship. From the very beginning, the Soviet government paid great attention to libraries, considering them as the most important social institution. Since 1917, the state has taken full charge of the libraries. On July 17, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the protection of libraries and book depositories of the RSFSR" was issued. In fact, he marked the beginning of the nationalization of the libraries of all institutions. Not only departmental, but also private collections of more than 500 books were subject to nationalization, even a scientist's safe-conduct did not allow having more than 2000 volumes.

New libraries were created on the basis of nationalized funds. In 1918, the most significant libraries of the country were formed, this is the library of the socialist Academy of Social Sciences (its fund included the libraries of the Practical Academy, the Stock Exchange Committee, the Literary and Artistic Circle, and other funds). At the Scientific and Technical Department, the State Scientific, Technical and Economic Library was founded, the fund of which included the funds of the Moscow Technical Library and a number of rich book collections of professors and engineers. The funds of scientific libraries of various departments, closed and disbanded, were redistributed to various libraries.

In those scientific libraries that continued their activities under the new conditions, the main change in the nature of their work was associated with changes in the service to readers. Research libraries were open to the general public, which meant that they could expand their services through interlibrary lending. This led to the death of part of the collections of large scientific libraries. Further development of interlibrary lending was mainly regional in nature.

The National Library of the New Socialist State in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated February 6, 1925. The State Library named after V.I. Lenin, the former scientific State Rumyantsev Library. The main task of the national library of the country was the collection and storage of all printed materials published in the country.

The Soviet government began to pay much attention to the development of librarianship in the regions of the country. The emergence of a number of new scientific libraries in the regions of the country was also due to the nationalization of the funds of the liquidated libraries. Provincial (regional) libraries at that time were considered as scientific libraries. The structure of these libraries became more complex, and the role of reference, bibliographic and local history departments increased.

In the 20s. Scientific libraries at the regional level actively sought to interact, to achieve coordination. The emerging library associations solved managerial tasks, solved the problems of acquisition of foreign literature, developed instructions for cataloging, compiled regional consolidated catalogs, and exchanged duplicate copies. In the 1920s there was an attempt to centralize some library operations.

In the 30s. there have been deeper changes in scientific libraries. This was due to the changes taking place in science. There were changes in the classification of sciences, so the socio-economic classification appeared. In this regard, it was necessary to rebuild the work of libraries. A new structure for serving readers has been introduced, the creation of reading rooms in accordance with the new classification of sciences. For example, historians were separated from the network of the humanities.

In the historical period between the two world wars, the scope of library services at the regional and state levels is changing. "The previously independent, developing "on its own" library is involved in complex processes of library interaction." First of all, this was due to the need for corporate use of library resources, including coordination and cooperation in the field of acquisitions. In the postwar period, a network of scientific and special libraries was finally formed. With the rapid development of science, technology, industrial and agricultural production, the importance of scientific and special libraries in serving scientists, engineering and technical workers and other specialists has increased.

To improve coordination and methodological guidance, informatization of scientific libraries at the State Library of the USSR. IN AND. Lenin was entrusted with the duty of an all-Union methodological center for all scientific and mass libraries, and the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the USSR for technical libraries.

In subsequent years, there is an increase in scientific and special libraries. A number of scientific libraries of all-Union and republican significance were opened, including the Library for Natural Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1973), the Fundamental Library of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1969 was transformed into the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences. The universal scientific libraries underwent reorganization, in which branch departments began to open.

Based on the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On the nationwide system of scientific and technical information" (1966), the main measures were developed for the development of universal libraries as part of the nationwide system of scientific and technical information. The structure of scientific and technical libraries is also being improved. Sectoral central scientific and technical libraries are being created under the union ministries, which are entrusted with library and bibliographic services and methodological guidance for the libraries of the respective industries. The automation and mechanization of libraries is also being improved in accordance with the requirements of the time, for the fastest delivery of information to the consumer.

The former V. I. Lenin Library, the Russian State Library is today one of the largest in the world. Within its walls are domestic and foreign documents in 247 languages of the world; The volume of the library fund today exceeds 42 million items. One of the largest university libraries is the Library of St. Petersburg University, opened in 1819. The collections of the bibliophile P.F. Zhukov and academician P.B. Inokhodtsev laid the foundation for the library.

Libraries are the repositories of human memory, the main source of information - from ancient manuscripts to electronic resources. As academician D. Likhachev said, "libraries are the most important thing in culture ... while the library is alive, the people are alive, if it dies, the past and the future will die."

Source - www.inmoment.ru

History of libraries. The Emergence of Libraries

History of libraries in Russia. History of librarianship

Development of libraries in Russia in the 17th century

Russian libraries in the 18th century

Library development in the 18th century

All-Russian Library Day celebrated since 1995. On May 27, 1795, Empress Catherine II founded the Imperial Public Library - now the Russian National Library.

History of libraries in the 19th century

Libraries in the 20th century. Development of libraries in Russia

The development of libraries during the years of Soviet power

Source - www.inmoment.ru

Not many people know when the first library was opened.

It turns out that this happened a very long time ago, back in the 25th century BC, and it was located in a Babylonian temple.

There may have been older repositories, but archaeologists have not yet found them.

The library of that time was a repository of clay tablets.

Where were the first libraries created?

There is a lot of evidence that people have always sought to preserve their experience and pass it on to future generations.

Depending on the era, mankind collected information on clay tablets, and on papyrus, and on paper. It is believed that the first public library appeared in the 6th century BC in ancient Greece.

In antiquity, it was customary to create libraries at temples, and in the Middle Ages, at monasteries. Then all the texts were written by hand, many of them were decorated with illustrations.

In libraries, expensive copies were chained to shelves to prevent theft. Back then, libraries were also archives.

There were few literate people in those days, but the situation began to change with the advent of printing. Libraries appeared then, in which the collected works of both writing and printing were stored.

Libraries in Russia

The very first Russian library appeared thanks to Yaroslav the Wise in 1037. Then it was founded in Kyiv at the St. Sophia Cathedral.

Later, after the 16th century, libraries began to be created under departments. At the beginning of the 18th century, the first state scientific library was opened in Russia. Some time later, it was transferred to the department of the Academy of Sciences.

Today, more than 50,000 libraries have been opened in the Russian Federation. This list includes municipal libraries, both federal and regional ones. In addition, there are more than 60 thousand libraries located in schools in the country.

Libraries are also open on the territory of many factories, hospitals, museums, etc. No one knows exactly how many libraries there are and how many publications they hold.

Each library employs people who help visitors quickly find the book they need. The work of librarians is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

This profession can be called universal and multifaceted. Employees of the "book houses" every year celebrate their professional holiday - the All-Russian Day of Libraries on May 27th.

The book is an object that has accompanied mankind since ancient times. Therefore, the fact that people came up with storage for books is no coincidence. Our distant ancestors sought to preserve the wisdom accumulated over the centuries and pass it on to us - the descendants. Modern man continues this tradition. Today we will talk about what a library is. What functions is it intended to perform? What is her story?

The word and its meaning

The very concept of “library” is a compound noun, and it was formed from two Greek words - “biblio”, which means “book”, and “teka”, that is, “repository”. Accordingly, the literal translation of the word "library" from the language of the Hellenes is "book depository".

Indeed, today even a child will not find it difficult to determine the meaning of the word "library". What is a library and what is it for? This is an institution where printed and written collections of works intended for public use are kept. There are similar book depositories in every city. They can be universal or include works of a certain orientation. The classification of such institutions is presented below.

Libraries carry out work of a reference and bibliographic nature, namely: counting available book units, systematizing publications, helping the population in choosing the right materials, and consulting readers. Such organizations are an integral element of a developed state. After all, they reflect the need of the people to preserve and increase, accumulate knowledge, intellectual and cultural development. This primarily concerns national literature, because it is predominantly represented in the libraries of each specific country.

The emergence of the very first libraries

Who and when had the idea to create such a treasury of human knowledge? Research scientists indicate that this happened for the first time in the Ancient East. Today the world knows who owned the most famous and extensive library - Ashurbanipal from Nineveh became its creator. It contains a collection of cuneiform tablets from the palace of the last king of Assyria.

The most famous library of the period of Antiquity is Alexandria. It was founded at the beginning of the 3rd century. BC, and in the world of the Hellenes was the center of culture, science and education. The funds of the Alexandria Book Depository numbered about 750,000 scrolls!

Unfortunately, more than 1500 years ago it was destroyed. According to one version, this happened during the capture of Alexandria by the Ottoman Turks. At the beginning of the 21st century, it was restored. Today, the Library of Alexandria is one of the key institutions of its kind in Egypt, located on the shores of the Mediterranean clan, all in the same Alexandria.

medieval library

What is a library, clearly. The answer to the question about its creator is also presented above. But it is necessary to say a few words about the period of the Middle Ages. At this time, establishments began to enjoy popularity, in which scriptoria or workshops operated, where manuscripts were copied. Thus, the number of copies of books was increased. After Johannes Gutenberg created the technology of printing in the 15th century, the need for scriptoria disappeared, and the number of libraries began to increase rapidly. Another turn in the history of the development of libraries was given by the New Age: the widespread spread of literacy led to an increase in book lovers.

Library types

So, if everything is defined with questions about what a library is, what a book depository is, then the topic concerning the types of institutions of this kind remains undisclosed. Currently, they are presented in a great variety: there are regional, national, special, public and educational (at schools, institutes and universities). Of course, in each of them the set of materials will be different.

Libraries for children

The children's library, which began to take shape in Russia since the 19th century, thanks to the activities of the bibliologist A.D. Toropov, who opened the first Moscow public institution with a collection of works for children at the end of the 19th century, currently includes three main components. Namely:

Adapted editions.
Works specially created for young readers.
Books that were originally intended for adults, but over time have firmly established themselves in the list of children's literature.

In the 20th century, there was a separation of children's libraries from public ones, which was associated with increased attention to the need to study the child's soul, thoughts, feelings and emotions. The productive work of psychologists, writers and teachers of that period gave rise to a large number of articles, notes, essays and various publications on the subject of child development and, as a result, led to an awareness of the need for library services for the younger generation. At the same time, children's book depositories were a qualitatively new phenomenon. By the beginning of the twenties, there was a school library in almost every educational institution.

Today, children's libraries have managed to get rid of such elements as the predominance of ideology over free choice, authoritarianism, manifested in the imposition of certain lists of literature by employees on the population. And yet, in place of old problems, new ones arose. Since 72% of families have an income below the subsistence level, and 40% of families spend money only on food and household needs. In such a situation, the children do not have the opportunity for minimal cultural development. And a family library (books passed down from generation to generation can be seen today far from every home) and a collection of new, just bought editions, they can only dream of.

Today, children's libraries are trying to fight illiteracy and "restlessness", providing a compensatory function and playing the role of children's circles, interest clubs, and cinemas at the same time. However, it becomes more and more difficult for such institutions to act in the conditions of a regular decrease in funding from year to year.

Electronic library: what is it?

A relatively new phenomenon for the book world is the concept of an electronic (or digital) library. This term does not have a universal, generally accepted scientific interpretation, but can be defined as a set of ordered collections of electronic heterogeneous documents, which, for user convenience, is equipped with auxiliary search and navigation tools.

The advantage of using such libraries is that in order to use the materials stored in them, you do not need to leave the walls of the house: the required file can be downloaded to a computer or any other electronic medium, opened and read. Currently, electronic libraries are divided into 2 groups:

Free. For example, Maxim Moshkov's Library, Military Literature, ImWerden and many others.
Commercial full-text databases. Namely: "Scientific Electronic Library", "Integrum-Techno", "Public Library" and so on.

The largest electronic scientific library

This honorary title belongs to the World Digital Library, which was inaugurated in April 2009. The founder of this truly global project is the US Library of Congress. The project includes numerous treasures of culture, science and education from various countries of the world, including Russia. It contains archives and materials in seven languages. Millions of people from all over the planet have access to this library today.

The largest library in Russia

The Russian State Library, which in the past bore the name of Lenin, is not only the largest book depository in the country, but also the second largest in the world after the aforementioned Library of Congress. Created on the basis of the Rumyantsev Museum, the Russian State Library is located in Moscow, has 42 million items in its funds, and the total length of its bookshelves is 275 kilometers.