Russian State Library

Not to be confused with National Library of Russia.
Russian State Library
Российская государственная библиотека
Main building of the library. The façade still retains the Soviet-era name "Lenin State Library of the USSR"
Map
LocationMoscow, Russia
TypeNational library
Established1862 (162 years ago) (1862)
Branches3
Collection
Items collectedBooks, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings and manuscripts
Size47.7 million (2020)
Criteria for collectionAll publications published in Russia, all Russian-language publications published abroad, all foreign-language publications about Russia and other materials
Legal depositYes, since 1922
Access and use
Access requirementsUsers must be at least 14 years old and present a valid passport or ID card.
Circulation1.116 million (2019)
Members387,000 (2019)
Other information
Budget2.4 billion ₽ (2019)
DirectorVadim Duda [ru][1]
Employees1,699 (2019)
Websitewww.rsl.ru/en

The Russian State Library (Russian: Российская государственная библиотека, romanized: Rossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya biblioteka) is one of the three national libraries of Russia, located in Moscow.[2] It is the largest library in the country, second largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Its holdings crossed over 47 million units in 2017.[3] It is a federal library[a] overseen by the Ministry of Culture, including being under its fiscal jurisdiction.[5][6]

Its foundation lay in the opening of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow in 1862. This museum evolved from a number of collections, most notably Count Nikolay Rumyantsev's[b] library and historical collection. It was renamed after Lenin in 1924, popularly known as the Lenin Library or Leninka, and its current name was adopted in 1992.[8][9]

The library has several buildings of varying architectural styles.[10] In 2012 the library had over 275 km of shelves, including over 17 million books and serial volumes, 13 million magazines, 370 thousand music scores and sound records, 150,000 maps and others. There are items in 247 languages of the world, the foreign part representing about 29 percent of the entire collection.[11][12] In 2017 holdings covered over 360 languages.[3][13]

  1. ^ "Director's Office". Russian State Library. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Libraries in Russian Federation". IFLA Library Map of the World. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b Годовой отчёт 2019 [Annual Report 2019] (PDF). Moscow: Russian State Library. 2020.
  4. ^ Preservation Challenges in a Changing Political Climate: A Report from Russia. The Commission of Preservation and Access. September 1996. p. 3 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Sukhotina, Milena L. (2017). "Contribution of the Federal Libraries of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to the Continuing Professional Education of Library Staff". Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science] (in Russian). 66 (4): 465–472. doi:10.25281/0869-608X-2017-66-4-465-472. ISSN 0869-608X.
  6. ^ Kislovskaye, Galina (1999). "Ten Years of Change in Russia and its Effect on Libraries". LIBER Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries. 9 (3): 268. doi:10.18352/lq.7543. ISSN 2213-056X.
  7. ^ Grimsted 2015, p. 669.
  8. ^ "Information". RSL Official website. Russian State Library. Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  9. ^ Segbert, Monika; Vislyi, Alexander (2000). Creating an Information System for the Russian State Library. A Pilot Project Challenging IT. 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, 13–18 August. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022.{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) See: Segbert, Monika; Vislyi, Alexander (2001). "Creating an Information System for the Russian State Library: A Pilot Project of the European Union Tacis Programme". Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues. 13 (1): 17–25. doi:10.1177/095574900101300103. ISSN 0955-7490. S2CID 113655466.
  10. ^ Horecky 1959, p. 69.
  11. ^ "Russian State Library". RSL Official website. 2010. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  12. ^ "НАСТОЯЩЕЕ / Интересные факты в цифрах / Краткая статистическая справка (по состоянию на 01.01.2012)" [PRESENT / Interesting facts in numbers / Brief statistical information (as of 01.01.2012)]. leninka.ru (in Russian). 1 January 2012. Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Состав действующих фондов (по видам изданий): книги и брошюры – 17,8 млн экз. [The composition of the existing collections (by type of publication): books and brochures – 17.8 million copies.]
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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