Kazan State University
35, Kremlyovskaya Str., Kazan, 420008, Russia
lsl@ksu.ru
In 2004 the Kazan State
University celebrated its 200th Anniversary. For all these years it
has been inseparable with the Academic Library. Among readers there were such
world famous scientists as N. I. Lobachevsky and Ye. K. Zavoisky, N. N. Zinin
and A. M. Butlerov, A. Ye. Arbuzov and V.M.Bekhterev, A. F. Samoilov and
Baudain de Courtney, N. F. Katanov and others. Thousands of students got
fundamental knowledge of future profession at the university library before
their start in life.
According
to the first Order of Kazan University signed on November 5, 1804 by Alexander
I, it was necessary to have a library alongside other "educational aids and
institutions". At first a library of the Gymnasia performed its functions,
which had been a basis for university establishing. Books, acquired by the
university during the first months after its foundation, were sent to the
Gymnasia Library. As an independent university department the library exists
from November 1806, when the first librarian of Kazan University professor M.
L. Storl was appointed. At present his post corresponds to that of Library
Director.
Among
contemporary libraries of our country, the Academic Library of Kazan State
University named after N. I. Lobachevsky, is one of the oldest. The first
public libraries in Russian provincial cities were founded in the 1830s. The
municipal public library was opened in Kazan only in 1865.
As for amount of printed works the library of Kazan University is one of
the biggest in Russia. For January 1, 2005 there were about 4,9 million units.
So it yields only to the largest stores of Moscow and St. Petersburg, being the
third biggest library after university libraries of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The
library has a magnificent collection of socio-political literature and fiction
in many languages dated the XV-XXI centuries, which is of great value. As for
Russian editions, those dated the XIX-XX centuries are represented most
completely. There are old books (i. e. published in Russia before the XVIII
century), beginning with the first Russian printed book Apostol ("Books of the Apostles"). It was issued by Ivan Fyodorov
and Pyotr Mstislavets in 1564. There is also a rich collection of books and
magazines of the XVIII century, life editions of works by outstanding
scientists, writers and state men as well as best samples of polygraphic art
and so on. There is a nice collection of Tatar Arabic graphic books, magazines
and newspapers and the majority of editions published in Kazan in the XIX-XX
century. Among numerous West-European issues there are incunabulas (i. e.
books, published before 1501), paleotypes (books of the first half of the XVI
century) and issues of famous scientific centers. There are a lot of books,
which can't be found in any other library of Russia.
The
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books includes documents in Russian, Tatar,
Arabic, Persian, and other languages, more than 30 thousand units in general.
These manuscripts go back to different epochs, beginning with the Early Middle
Ages. Archives of N. I. Lobachevsky and A. M. Butlerov, materials on the
history of Kazan University and manuscripts by Tatar scientists and writers are
kept there.
The library building up began in the second half of the XVIII century
after the death of Prince G. A. Potyomkin (1791), famous state men and the
closest associate of the Empress Catherine II. He left a rich library, which he
had been gathering since 1784 for the Yekaterinoslavl university in the South
of Russia (at present Dnepropetrovsk in the Ukraine). But the university was
not opened. The books belonged to Potyomkin were out of use in Yekaterinoslavl.
At the time of the Emperor Pavel I the city was called Novorossiysk. In 1798,
when Pavel I was visiting Kazan, the city governor de Lassie asked to give it
to Kazan Gymnasia. He had served together with Potyomkin and was aware of his
library destiny. On May 29 Pavel I signed the order. In March 1799 Potymkin's
library was delivered to Kazan and became the gymnasia property. In 1806 Storl
was appointed the Librarian of Kazan University. He got an order to examine the
collection and select books for university library. The work, being done together
with assistant librarian Pyotr Kondyrev, was finished in September 1807. Later
on he headed the library. They selected 1737 works in 4022 volumes. The major
part of initial library stores included books and manuscripts, belonged to
Potyomkin before. The other smaller part of the collection consisted of books,
presented to the gymnasia by Kazan noble man Vasily Polyansky in 1798.
The
initial collection itself was of a great interest. There were books in
different spheres of knowledge; many of them were rare and valuable even in the
beginning of the XIX century. But only few of them can be used in the process
of education: mainly there were old books in foreign languages with content,
unsuitable for university requirements. The library started to complete its
stores from the very beginning in order to answer the library requirements.
The
majority of editions got by the library in the beginning of the XIX - the end
of the XX century were acquired owing to every-day effort of people devoted to
it in order to answer interests of professors and lecturers. Beginning with the
end of the 1890s the library budget for books' acquisition had been increased
several times. Despite the lack of money the library was able to enrich its
stores with necessary books and both Russian and foreign periodicals.
The
basic mechanism of library acquisition was developed at the time of Nikolay I.
Lobachevsky, who was not only a prominent mathematician but also a perfect
administrator. Being the Librarian of Kazan University (1825-1835) he also
became the university rector in 1827. As the Librarian Lobachevsky set rules of
stores' acquiring. These regulations implied selection of newest and
generalizing books, recognized by the world scientific community and useful for
"teaching different sciences".
Professors of the university took part in the library acquisition.
According to the Order of 1804 subdivisions of the university (as there were no
faculties at that time) must give the lists of books to be acquired.
Lobachevsky developed these instructions and they were followed in full measure
in his time.
Lobachevsky
didn't confine himself to buy books only. He was aware of all interesting
publications and bought them as far as possible. It was Lobachevsky who bought Apostol ("Books of Apostles") from the
Vyatka Region peasant Ivan Nikonov in 1830, published by Ivan Fyodorov and
Pyotr Mstislavets in 1564. The library stores were enriched with the best works
of Russian literature. Lobachevsky immediately bought all new works by A. S.
Pushkin. He also got Vechera na khutore
bliz Dikanki ("Evenings at the Farm Near Dikanka") by N. V. Gogol (óÐÂ.,
1831), Gore ot Uma ("Wit Works Woe")
by A.S.Griboyedov (M., 1833), collected works by Ye.A.Baratynsky,
V.A.Zhukovsky, D.V.Davydov and many others.
Such
a big and authoritative scientific center as Kazan University has considerable
internal resources for library stores' acquisition. Due to its high publishing
activity exchanges of books' collections with many universities in Russia and
overseas, scientific institutions and communities were established. In-Russia
exchange of books has been made since 1808 when connections with libraries of
Derpth (now Tartu City in Estonia) and Moscow University were founded. First
international exchanges of books were made in the end of the 1920s. The Royal
Asian Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the Royal Dutch Society of
Northern Antiquities were among the library partners. International relations
of the library developed greatly later on. On January 15, 1902 the Director of
New-York City Public Library asked to send them issues of Uchyonye Zapiski (Scientific Transactions of Kazan University).
Taking into consideration that the library had been sending their catalogues to
Kazan University for three years and promised to send duplicate books, the
University Council decided to send "Scientific Transactions" to New York free
of charge.
In
May 1905 in response to the letter of the Head of Slavic Branch of the Congress
Library of the USA the Kazan University Council sent Uchyonye Zapiski (Scientific Transactions of Kazan University),
published from 1834 to 1857, and complete their collection. The decision of the
Council was based on the fact that the university library annually gets more
than 100 publications from the USA as gifts.
In
the XIX - the beginning of the XX century the university intellectuals and men
of culture made a great contribution to the library stores. Many private
collections of books quite natural for university scientists were given to the
library.
The biggest and most valuable collections were given by university
professors. The glory of Kazan University and its library inspired other people
and scientists, officials, teachers, and doctors to present books. Among them
was rector N.N.Bulich, librarian I.F.Gotwald, admiral I. F. Krusenstern, state
man N.P.Rumyantsev, Alexander Humboldt, sinologist N.Ya.Bichurin and many
others. There were also gifts from numerous institutions and companies. In
general the library got many thousands books as presents.
Expansive
and various library stores are of great interest not only for university
readers. In Lobachevsky time in accordance with educational traditions of Kazan
University it was a public library open for citizens.
During
the first years of the Soviet period, since October 1917, the situation with
the library got much worse. New editions were acquired very seldom, exchanges
of books stopped. But decisive events happened in 1921. As one of the biggest
libraries of the country it had a right to get a free compulsory copy of all
books and magazines published in the RSFSR. More over, since 1928 it used to get
a compulsory copy of editions published in the USSR.
A
large library of universal acquisition answered both current and future
requirements of the university as far as possible. When faculties of humanities
were re-opened there the library was quite ready for it. The Faculty of History
opened in 1939 was reorganized as the Faculty of History and Philology in 1940,
and in 1952 the Law Faculty was re-opened. A free compulsory copy was the main
and quite reliable source of library acquisition for almost 40 years up to the
1950s. Books were delivered even during the first most difficult years of the
Great Patriotic War, not from the All-Union Book Chamber, but directly from
printing houses of the country.
The
library, which received all publications of the country, was an ideal one for
interests of such big industrial, scientific and cultural center as Kazan. As a
matter of fact it was an informal public library of the city.
One
should remember that a compulsory copy completely satisfied requirements of
lecturers and scientists, but not students. The library had to enrich stores of
textbooks itself taking money from the university budget, which was far from
being rich up to the middle of the 1950s.
The
greatest expansion of library stores (1933) was promoted by its integration
with another biggest Kazan library, the Scientific Library of Tatar Republic.
Appeared in 1931, it was a result of cataclysms of social and cultural life,
which took place in Kazan during the first years of the Soviet period. Its
stores implied dozens of books' collections, nationalized after the October
Revolution in 1917 or became no man's as the result of reorganizing in the
1920s. The biggest one was a collection, earlier belonged to the former Kazan
Theological Academy, actually its remains. Some books of the library were given
to the Kazan Pedagogical University.
The integrated library store became more than twice
bigger. Above one million volumes were added to its 700 thousand books, many of
them as duplicates. The united library remained at the university, but got more
duties and a status of republican academic library. It was called the Kazan
University Academic Library of the Republic of Tatarstan. The new status became
useless in a few years, as the republic didn't meet its financing obligations.
Since the middle of the 1940s the library had been called the Academic Library
of Kazan State University. In 1953 within the 150th anniversary
celebration of the university the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR named the
library after N.I.Lobachevsky.
The
Kazan University library showed its possibilities during the Great Patriotic
War, when its work was mainly aimed at serving numerous institutions and
branches of the USSR Academy of Sciences, evacuated to Kazan. O. Yu. Schmidt
and L. A. Orbeli, Ya. I. Frenkel and P. L. Kapitsa, V. G. Khlopin and S. A.
Sobolev, Ye. V. Tarle and other famous scientists worked with the library
materials. D. S. Likhachyov used to spend all his spare time in a reading hall
of the library. Usually he came with his own inkpot hidden in his breast to
keep ink from freezing. The historian N. V. Pigulevskaya wrote: "It was
difficult to leave Leningrad. It seemed impossible to start working far from
remarkable books' collections of the gigantic city: The most desirable point
was Kazan as one of the oldest university cities: The Academic Library of Kazan
State University really exceeded all hopes we set on it". In 1941 the library
provided 21 hospitals and 18 libraries of military plants with books.
In
September 1959 the library forfeited the right to get a free compulsory copy.
Certainly it was a loss, but rather for the city, where there was no another
library of equal value. From the 1960s to early 1990s the main source of
library acquisition was a compulsory payment-requiring copy. Those were copies
of books published in the USSR in Russian on the university aspects. As there
were very different (humanities, natural sciences, and fiction) and financed
constantly, the library had no problems in acquiring new literature. There were
no limits in subscribing for periodicals. The library suggested not only the
books to its readers. In the second half of the 1950s it became one of the
leading university libraries, which developed the system of bibliographic
indexes as well as description of manuscripts and books. The library issued
reference books on Tatar literary critics and linguistics (1957, 1958, 1961,
1974, 1976, 1987), History of Tatar ASSR (1960, 1970, 1986), flora, geography
and soils of the republic (1971, 1985), labour law (1971, 1984, 1989), and
international law (1987, 1992). There were also reference books on "Scientific
Transactions of Kazan University" (1955), other university periodicals (1960),
and so on. Catalogues of old relics and books (incunabulas and books in
Cyrillic published in the first quarter of the XVIII century) were issued
alongside 19 issues of manuscripts' descriptions, including 8 editions in
Tatar. Many reference books were compiled on initiative of university lecturers
from different departments.
In
1991 the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in economical crisis and total
chaos. Budget funding was almost cut off. They financed only subscribed
periodicals, but the number was reduced. Post expenses increased too much. A
tradition of full acquisition with home publications kept for many years was
broken that caused huge irreplaceable gaps in the stores.
At the
beginning of the XXI century the financial situation improved. But the number
of new publications, delivering to the stores per year, is twice less than
figures of the middle of the 1980s.
Despite
all difficulties of enriching the library with new literature it still plays an
important role in giving information to scientists and specialists in different
fields of science. This kind of activity is a priority one even now as well as
the duty to satisfy requirements of students and university lecturers.
First
of all the library considers interests of local scientific community and
provides free access to its wide collection. It is open for this important
category of readers without any restrictions. The statistics shows that the
library is still in demand. Annually more than 600 thousand readers, including
200 thousand lecturers from local scientific community, lecturers from
universities and academies, representatives of city research institutions and
others, visit it. There are also scientists from Russia, the USA, countries of
Europe and Asia.
In order to provide favorable conditions for information service there
is a special reading hall accommodating 100 people. Readers order materials
necessary for their researches such as books, journals, newspapers and theses,
to the reading hall from a book depository. They should fill special
application forms to make an order. The order is executed during 1-3 hours.
There are no time limits for using documents. Researchers can find new
publications, received during a week, which are exhibited in the same reading
hall.
In
the near future one can get free access to the most demanded scientific and
educational literature in two reading halls, thus getting wider access to
library stores.
The
library staff took active part in arrangements for the 200th
anniversary of Kazan University. On the whole in 2000-2004 nineteen jubilee
books were to be published. Among the authors, co-authors and editors there
were also library workers. Fifteen books were issued, including three-volume
biography reference book "Kazan University, 1804-2004". It is the biggest book
about Kazan University, having been published by its 200th
anniversary. Among publications there is also a complete description of Persian
manuscripts of Kazan University Academic Library compiled by A. A. Arslanova.
In
the early 1990s the library began to introduce new information technologies.
One of the main fields of this works is providing wider access to information
and documents from the library stores through the Internet. It can be possible
with electronic catalogue of books, theses defended in Kazan University, and
abstracts of them, which are composed in the library since 1992. There is also
the electronic catalogue of journal articles on Humanities (since 1994);
catalogue of scientific journals received by the library (since 1997) as well
as various bibliographic data bases, which promote studies and researches such
as "Scientific Transactions of Kazan University".
Great attention is paid to transfer the most valuable scientific
literature, which is the part of cultural heritage, into electronic form. It is
necessary both for saving rare collections and providing wider access for
scientists and specialists. At present the project of electronic library of
Kazan periodicals, published during the period from the XIX to the XX, is being
realized. They evoke great interest of researches both in Russia and abroad. We
are also working on electronic version of abstracts of theses. Such electronic
resources are accessible either through the Internet or only within the
information net of the university. It depends on the author's opinion as the
library sign agreements with them. An important factor of information service
improvement is access to electronic versions of foreign scientific publishing
houses. We use different possibilities for it. The library takes part in
charity projects. For example, readers of the library have access to the
journal collection Arts & Sciences I JSTOR thanks to grant of John D. and
Catherine T. Macarthur's Foundation. Certain money is paid annually from the
library budget to get access to foreign scientific journals. The library became
a participant of projects of the National Electronic Information Consortium,
which united Russian libraries, interested in getting scientific information on
favorable terms in order to reduce such expenses. Owing to the fact, researches
have an opportunity to use EBSCO and Elsevier resources. Analyzing statistics
of readers' applications to foreign publishing houses resources, there are in
demand.
Collaboration
of libraries aimed at creation of electronic resources and making use of them
promotes widening the spectrum of information service. A model of such
interaction of libraries, based on information technologies, is the Corporative
Library Net of Kazan, directed by the university library. This net, which
unites 12 biggest libraries of the city, was created with financial support of
"Open Society Institute. Supporting Foundation". Their common effort resulted
in compiling general electronic catalogue of participating libraries (more than
250 thousand bibliographic notes http://lsl.ksu.ru/inside9.htm
), electronic collection of educational and scientific materials, and
general catalogue of educational Internet resources on Humanities.
Realization
of joint project on general scientific journals' catalogue with the library of
Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences let researches get
information about new magazines received by these libraries quite quickly and
to see their electronic versions in the Internet with reference to
bibliographies.
Participation
of several leading libraries of the Corporative Library Net of Kazan in
activity of the Association of Regional Library Consortiums (ARBIKON), which
unites electronic versions of 13 Russian consortiums, was organized together
with "Open Society Institute. Supporting Foundation" and also widens base
resources. ARBIKON provides distant access to library stores through common
point of access (http://arbicon.ru/).
N.I.Lobachevsky
Academic Library is important part of System "Research University".
© 1995-2008 Kazan State University