National Library of Russia
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The 18th-century building of the library
faces Nevsky Prospekt |
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| Country | Russia |
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| Type | National library |
| Established | 1795 |
| Reference to legal mandate | Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation authorizing the Statute of the Federal State Institution "The National Library of Russia" (March 23, 2001) |
| Location | St Petersburg |
| Coordinates | 59°56′01″N 030°20′08″E / 59.93361°N 30.33556°ECoordinates: 59°56′01″N 030°20′08″E / 59.93361°N 30.33556°E |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, official publications, sheet music, sound and music recordings, databases, maps, postage stamps, prints, drawings, manuscripts and media. |
| Size | 36,475,000 items (15,000,000 books) |
| Criteria for collection | Legal deposit of materials published in Russia; "Rossika": materials about Russia or materials published by the people of Russia residing abroad; selected foreign scholarly publications and other materials. |
| Legal deposit | Yes (Legal Deposit Law) |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | Reading rooms – free. Russian residents must be 14 or older. Foreign visitors are limited by the period of their visa. |
| Circulation | 8,880,000 (2007) |
| Population served | 1,150,000 (2007) |
| Other information | |
| Budget | 569,200,000 RUB ($23,400,000) |
| Staff | 1,850 |
| Website | www |
The National Library of Russia in St Petersburg (known as the Imperial Public Library from 1795 to 1917; Russian Public Library from 1917 to 1925; State Public Library from 1925 to 1992 (since 1932 named after M.Saltykov-Shchedrin); NLR), is not only the oldest public library in the nation, but also the first national library in the country. The NLR is currently ranked among the world’s major libraries. It has the second richest library collection in the Russian Federation, a treasury of national heritage, and is the All-Russian Information, Research and Cultural Center. Over the course of its history, the Library has aimed for comprehensive acquisition of the national printed output and has provided free access to its collections. It should not be confused with the Russian State Library, located in Moscow.
The Imperial Public Library was established in 1795 by Catherine the Great. It was based on the Załuski Library, the famous Polish national library built by Bishop Zalusky in Warsaw, which had been seized by the Russians in 1794.
The idea of a public library in Russia emerged in the early 18th century but did not take shape until the arrival of the Russian Enlightenment. The plan of a Russian public library was submitted to Catherine in 1766 but the Empress did not approve the project for the imperial library until 27 May [O.S. 16 May] 1795, eighteen months before her death. A site for the building was found at the corner of Nevsky Avenue and Sadovaya Street, right in the center of the Russian Imperial capital. The construction work began immediately and lasted for almost fifteen years. The building was designed in a Neoclassical style by architect (built between 1796–1801).
The cornerstone of the foreign-language department came from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the form of Załuski's Library (420,000 volumes), seized in part by the Russian government at the time of the partitions, though many volumes were lost en route to theft by Russian soldiers who sold them for profit. The Polish-language books from the library (numbering some 55,000 titles) were returned to Poland by the Russian SFSR in 1921.
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Wikipedia