The National Libraries of Britain, France, USA and Russia; from beginnings to today

National libraries around the world came about in various ways.  Many national libraries that we know today evolved or were transformed over centuries from the personal collections or libraries of royalty, popes, and other private individuals wealthy and fortunate enough to have acquired collections of their own.

This report looks at the national libraries of four countries; those being the British Library, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the Library of Congress, National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library.

It was from the 1600s onwards that national, state supported collections began to appear as libraries grew in popularity and university libraries developed, however, some can trace their origins even earlier. This is true for France whose national library dates back to the 1300s. In Britain, a national library was established in 1759 but in other countries however, the national library emerged later as was the case in USA where the Library of Congress dates from 1800 and in Russia where the National Library of Russia was founded in 1795 and the Russian State Library in 1862.

Each of these libraries has expanded, evolved and adapted to the challenges and changes faced through the centuries to become renowned and at the forefront of new library technologies and tools for the 21st century.

British Library

The British Library we know today is very young - operating since 1973 after the passing of the British Library Act of 1972. However, its origins go back to the Library departments of the British Museum and in particular the Department of Printed Books. The library evolved as the "collected historical documents, literary manuscripts and scientific specimens" of private, wealthy individuals were "given or sold to the nation". 

Several private collections were subsequently purchased by the government, most notably that of Sir Hans Sloane (late 1700s) and later King George II added his private royal library which contained items collected by his predecessors back to Edward IV in the 1400s. This combination of gifts and legal deposit continued through the 1800s and saw the library grow and expand to also include and incorporate other libraries and have many constituent parts. The Patent Office Library, the National Reference Library of Science and Invention, the National Central Library, British National Bibliography, and India Office Library and Records emerged and some amalgamated so that by the 1960s the serious lack of storage space led to the recognition that a new building is the library's most urgent need.
More comprehensive information can be found on the British Library's website by following links to about us/quickinfo/facts/history.

The British Library, St Pancras, London


Despite the controversial opening of the new British Library at St. Pancras in 1998, due mainly to the criticisms aimed at the exterior architectural design of the building, the library has been praised for the sweeping light and space of it's interior.  More information on this controversy can be found in an article by Lennon in the publication, Europe.

It has also focused on meeting the challenges of the coming decades as it embraces digitisation, the conservation and preservation of it's extensive collection and meeting the needs of and reaching out to it's users through library Web 2.0 tools and a significant online presence.
 

Interior view of the British Library with the Kings Library housed behind glass towers

 
Bibliotheque Nationale de France

France's national library began as Bibliotheque du Roi, the King's Library during the reign of Charles V in 1364-1380. Legal deposit was introduced in 1537 and the library increased its collection by continuing to acquire materials through donations, bequests and other means such as confiscations (during the French Revolution) and exchanges.

As a part of its long history, the Bibliotheque du Roi was first housed in the Louvre, then over the decades moved to Fontainebleau and back to Paris where it was located in the Mazarin Palace in Rue de Richelieu in 1721. 
 


Reading Room, Richelieu Building, Bibliotheque Nationale de France

    
After being enlarged repeatedly, a new building was constructed in 1996 to allow the Bibliotheque Nationale de France to continue its expansion and focus itself towards the emerging library 2.0 tools and technologies of digitisation, conservation and preservation.  The controversial, modern and futuristic design for the building had initial problems which were rectified (at great extra cost), but a new building has allowed the library to maintain fourteen departments across five public sites with over 30 million items making it one of the largest national libraries in the world today.
For a first hand experience of working in the new building, an article by Durlik in 2002 published in Libraries & Culture, provides more details.


Aerial view Bibliotheque Nationale de France

 

Library of Congress

Washington's Library of Congress was established in 1800 and was initially a library for the use of government (Congress) only. Through the purchases of private libraries, most notably, retired president Thomas Jefferson, the library began the process of building up the collection and in this process changed the original philosophy of the library for the sole use of Congress.  Jefferson believed that all subjects were important and in the following years, many librarians of the Library of Congress regarded it as a national institution with its role as more than just to serve the needs of Congress.

As a result of this philosophical shift, the library began actively seeking out material to enhance the collection which continued until of course the issue of storage space arose. The Library of Congress has grown to now occupy three buildings; the Jefferson Building (1897), the Adams Building (1939) and the James Madison Memorial Building (1981). The Packard Campus for audio visual conservation is the most recent off site, addition in 2007. 


The Jefferson Building, Library of Congress


The task of housing, maintaining, conserving and preserving 147 million items requires almost 4,000 staff and is carried out with an annual budget of US $750 million as at 2011.

The growth of the collection is relentless with materials coming to the library through acquisitions including agreements and exchange arrangements existing with over fifteen thousand foreign governments and research institutions. In 2006, over 31,000 items would arrive daily at LC. In contrast to the other national libraries examined here, the LC does not hold a copy of every book published in the United States. It is not a library of legal deposit except for the years 1870 - 1909. But despite this, the collection is enormous.

This video shows the extent of the digital collection at the LC and talks about the ongoing process of digitisation.

                      U.S. Library of Congress' Digital Collection; One of World's Largest

Recently, in 2009, the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation program announced a "one year pilot program to test the use of cloud technologies to enable perpetual access to digital content". This type of cloud storage appears to be one way in which libraries may be able to cope with the storage issues associated with the digitisation of their collections.


National Library of Russia (NLR)

The National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg was founded in 1795 by Catherine the Great and was to be "the first building in Russia specially intended to house a library".  Catherine's vision was for a national library to become a "symbol of the might of the Russian state". The neoclassical style building housed the NLR and several additions were made through the next century including the Gothic Hall in 1857.


National Library of Russia, St Petersberg

 
The collection developed through various means. Private collections were transported from Poland and France as well as items from the Hermitage library in St Petersberg. The 1800s saw the purchase and donation of manuscripts from the former Russian official at the embassy in Paris who, during the French Revolution, saved papers from the archives in the Bastille and secured manuscripts from French monasteries dating back to the fifth century.

In 1805, a department was created just for special manuscripts and following this, many individual collectors donated their collection to the library. By 1810, funds were allocated from the State treasury. 
In 1948, a building on Fontanka Embankment was assigned to the library which now holds newspapers, music and sound and junior collections. A modern building was added on Moskovsky Prospekt in the 1980s for the extensive collection of printed books.
 


New building for the National Library of Russia on Moskovsky Prospekt

   

Russian State Library

The other great library in Russia is the Russian State Library (RSL) in Moscow also known as V. I. Lenin State Library of USSR between 1925 and 1992 or now known as Leninka.

Its origins date to 1862 when the city of Moscow acquired the library collection of  the Rumyantsev museum donated to the people by count Rumyantsev and transferred from St Petersberg and housed in Pashkov House, a classicist building constructed in 1786. 




Pashkov House

 
The museum with its library collection grew through donations, purchases and "deposits from confiscated libraries". When the lack of space and funds became a problem it was decided to dissolve the Rumyantsev and the museum items were dispersed among other galleries and museums while the library collection and manuscripts were reorganised to form the Lenin Library. Additional buildings were constructed in the 1930s, a 250 seat reading hall completed in 1945 and even more buildings in the 1960s.  In 1968, the library was again at capacity and a new depository for newspaper storage, low demand books and scientific works was constructed offsite in Khimki, north west of Moscow in 1975.

The Russian State Library is involved in many projects as it continuously adds to its digital stock which in 2009 stood at four hundred thousand documents. Another major project begun in 2003 is the Digital Dissertations Library (DDL) which by 2011 had 650,000 full texts of dissertations.


In conclusion, these five national libraries developed in different ways through varying political and historical periods. They have met challenges, survived and emerged today to become world renowned institutions which continue to embrace the new library technologies and tools of the twenty first century.



Bibliography


Krasner-Khait, B 2001, Survivor: The history of the library, History Magazine, viewed 20 September 2011,
<http://www.history-magazine.com/libraries.html>

Lerner, F 2009, The story of libraries, Continuum, New York.

History of the British Library, British Library, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/quickinfo/facts/history/index.html>

'British Library' [image], viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.bl.uk/images/popup/17b.jpg>

Lennon, D 1998 'New library debate' Europe, no. 376, pp. 40-41, General OneFile, Gale, viewed 12 October 2011.

'Interior of the en:British Library' [image] by A Dunn 2004, viewed 13 October 2011,
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BritishLibraryInterior02.jpg>

'Reading room in the Richelieu Building, Bibliotheque Nationale de France' [image] in Encylopaedia Britannica online, viewed 12 October 2011,
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/64592/Bibliotheque-Nationale-de-France>

Durlik, A 2002 'The bibliotheque nationale de France: my French experience' Libraries & Culture, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 256-268, General OneFile, Gale, viewed 12 October 2011.

Bibliotheque Nationale de France 2011, A view on cities, viewed 12 October 2011,
<http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/bibliothequenationale.htm>

'library' 2011, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Library Edition, viewed 13 October 2011.

ABC of the collections 2011, National Library of France, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.bnf.fr/en/bnf/presentation_space/a.abc_of_the_collections.html>

'Aerial view Bibliotheque Nationale de France' [image] in L'Internaute.com, viewed 12 October 2011,
<http://www.linternaute.com/hightech/internet/photo/les-hauts-lieux-de-google-earth-du-ciel-en-3d-et-en-photos/bibliotheque-nationale-de-france.shtml>

History 2010, Library of Congress, viewed 23 September 2011,
<http://www.loc.gov/about/history.html>

Library of Congress n.d., National Park Service, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc79.htm>

'The Jefferson Building, Library of Congress' [image], in americaslibrary.gov, viewed 25 October 2011,
<http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/progress/jb_progress_library_1_e.jpg>

VOAvideo 9 October 2009, U.S. Library of Congress' Digital Collection One of World's Largest, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylFlAQZ0piU>

Rosenberg, D  2009, 'Library of Congress test drives cloud storage', news.cnet.com, CNet news, 14 July 2009,
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10286280-62.html.>

'National Library of Russia, St Petersberg' [image] in nlr.ru, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/>

'New building for National Library of Russia on Moskovsky Prospekt' [image] 2008 in wikipedia.com, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_building_of_the_National_Library_of_Russia.JPG>

The principal book repository in Russia (1795- 1813) c. 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/nlr/history/1.htm>

Johnson, ED 1970,  History of libraries of the western world, 2nd edn, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.

Locations 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/nlr/location.htm>

National Library of Russia 2011, Wikipedia, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Russia>

Division of International Activities 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/md/smd/>

National Library of Russia, Moskovsky Prospekt, St Petersberg [image], viewed 25 October 2011,
<http://petersburgcity.com/city/photos/history/library/>

Russian State Library 2011, Wikipedia, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_State_Library>
'Pashkov House' [image] in spirit-of-moscow.com, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://spirit-of-moscow.com/gallery/Buildings/Pashkov%27s%20House/index.html>

The European Library 2011, RSL History, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/libraryHistory.html?libraryid=34>

Causes and aims of the  DDL RSL 2011, Russian State Library, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://diss.rsl.ru/?menu=aboutus/48/&lang=en>







The challenge of storage for national libraries

As national libraries have evolved and grown over the centuries, it is clear to see that the constant challenge for them has been the ability to acquire more space for storage and housing ever growing collections.  As most national libraries require legal deposit of all items published in the nation, and have done so with varying levels of enforcement dating back centuries, collections rarely remain static and continually expand.

In the previous section looking at the physical buildings of five of the worlds most prominent national libraries, the challenge of storage was usually met by simply constructing additional buildings. While this may continue to happen, we also see the move toward digitisation and the challenges which are associated with it including the preservation of electronic resources in the face of rapidly changing technology.

British Library

Rushton (2005) writing in The Bookseller, discusses how the British Library extended their legal deposit responsibilities to include digital material in 2004. The following year, it then set digital archiving of material at the top of its agenda in response to the conservation and preservation needs for an increasingly electronic collection.  Statistics from research carried out by Electronic Publishing Services predicts that by 2020, 40% of UK research monographs will only be in digital format.  It will no longer be just the physical storage space challenge but in addition the costs, time and 'web of logistical problems' involved with transferring digital material to new media every three to four years to preserve the information will be the challenge for national libraries in the 21st century.

The BL is also using many Web 2.0 tools including blogs. There is a comprehensive list of blogs written by curators and staff of the library covering a wide range of topics.

Bibliotheque Nationale de France

BNF has struggled with numerous problems throughout the twentieth century according to Johnson (1970) including crowded conditions, new book stacks where ever possible, opening new reading rooms and moving bulky, rarely used items off site. The construction of the Francois Mitterrand Library in the 1990s greatly increased the space available but there remains ongoing re organisation. The BNF is currently organised into collection based departments with the fourteen departments spread across five sites;

The François Mitterrand Library (Site François-Mitterrand)
The Richelieu Library (Site Richelieu-Louvois)
The Arsenal Library (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal)
The Opera Library (Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra)
Maison Jean Vilar

Even so, there is continual expansion and renovation ahead. The library's website details the current works being carried out at the Richelieu Library. Described as the 'historic cradle' of the BNF, Richelieu Library requires works to improve the preservation conditions for the national heritage collections, ensure safety of persons at the Library as the 18th century building has deteriorated and make the Richelieu as a major centre for research.

As well as dealing with the constraints of physical space, the BNF is also aware of the issues and challenges ahead relating to digital archiving and electronic material. A study was conducted in 2010/1 looking at internet archives and the issues around being able to in some way maintain a 'memory' of the web and exploring ways to preserve and share the constant flow of information which may seem 'impossible' and 'paradoxical'. Details of the study can be found on the website as well as a short video that looks at the BnF and what it does.

These are the 'big issues' for national libraries of the twenty first century.

Library of Congress

As previously discussed, the Library of Congress now occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington as well as having off site storage facilities. The task of housing, maintaining, conserving and preserving 147 million items requires almost 4,000 staff and is carried out with an annual budget of US $750 million as at 2011.

The growth of the collection is relentless with materials coming to the library through acquisitions including agreements and exchange arrangements existing with over fifteen thousand foreign governments and research institutions. In 2006, over 31,000 items would arrive daily at LC. In contrast to the other national libraries I have looked at, LC does not hold a copy of every book published in the United States. It is not a library of legal deposit except for the years 1870 - 1909. But despite this, the collection is enormous.

This video shows the extent of the digital collection at the LC and talks about the ongoing process of digitisation.

As with BL and BnF, LC is also acutely aware of the challenges ahead regarding the storage and preservation of digital material. Rosenberg (2009) writes that in 2009, the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation program announced a "one year pilot program to test the use of cloud technologies to enable perpetual access to digital content". This type of cloud storage appears to be one way in which libraries may be able to cope with the storage issues associated with the digitisation of their collections.

National Library of Russia and Russian State Library

The National Library of Russia is also undertaking a program of digitisation, increasing their digital content as well as renovation and reconstruction of buildings as they review the long term preservation of a huge collection.  The annual report for 2009 details the plans for construction to increase storage space and the size of the digital collection which stands at two terrabytes.

The Russian State Library is leading the way in Russia in terms of 'going digital'. The website lists the projects the library is involved in as it continuously adds to its digital stock which in 2009 stood at four hundred thousand documents. Another major project begun in 2003 is the Digital Dissertations Library (DDL) which by 2011 had 650,000 full texts of dissertations.

It is apparent then that the major national libraries of the world are embarking upon strategies and projects aimed at keeping pace with their ever increasing need for storage of their collections.  In the twenty first century this will mean the continuation of digitisation and the use of new technologies to store, conserve and preserve the library's collections in primarily digital format.


References

Rushton, K 2005, 'Preserving the present: digital archiving is a huge challenge for the British Library', The Bookseller 5186, pp. 20-21, General OneFile, Gale, viewed 18 October 2011.

Johnson, ED 1970, Histories of libraries in the western world, 2nd edn, The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, N.J.

BnF 2010, Why renovating Richelieu library?, viewed 18 October 2011,
<http://www.bnf.fr/en/bnf/renovation_work_richelieu/a.why_renovation_richelieu_library.html>

Chevallier, P & Illien, G, 2011, Study into the internet archives at Biblotheque nationale de France, BnF, viewed 18 October 2011,
<http://www.bnf.fr/documents/internet_archive_study.pdf>

Office of Inspector General 2011, Library of Congress, viewed 18 October 2011,
<http://www.loc.gov/about/oig/>

The collections 2006, Library of Congress, viewed 18 October 2011,
<http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/colls.html>

 Rosenberg, D  2009, 'Library of Congress test drives cloud storage', news.cnet.com, CNet news, 14 July 2009,
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10286280-62.html.>

VOAvideo 9 October 2009, U.S. Library of Congress' Digital Collection One of World's Largest, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylFlAQZ0piU>

 Annual Report to CDNL 2009, CDNL, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.cdnl.info/2010/CDNL_2010_-_country_report_RUSSIA_-_National_Library_of_Russia.pdf>

Projects 2011, Russian State Library, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.rsl.ru/en/s35/>

Causes and aims of the  DDL RSL 2011, Russian State Library, viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://diss.rsl.ru/?menu=aboutus/48/&lang=en>



Research Process

For this sub topic, it was useful to use mainly online resources as the most current and up to date information could be obtained this way.  The official websites of the five national libraries studied here, provided the most current details especially in terms of digitisation programs and construction and renovation projects with the aim of achieving more storage for continuously growing collections.

Journal articles were valuable as digitisation is a topical subject of recent years with much written about it especially in library and technology publications as well as information from general news sites.

There was a lot more I would cover on this topic of digitisation, conservation, preservation and the future direction of the national library in terms of technology but this would require a greater time frame.

National Libraries: the buildings and the people

As we have seen by looking at the development of the national libraries of France, Britain, the United States and Russia, they each emerged in different ways and as such the buildings we know today which represent these institutions, reflect these differences. For example, the building which houses France's national library, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France today, is one of the most recently built and architecturally modern whereas France was one of the first European countries to have a national library. The library moved to new premises from grand buildings on rue de Richelieu and previous to that the Louvre.

Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF)

Designed by the architect Dominique Perrault and opened in 1996, the building was not without controversy despite winning the Mies van de Rohe prize (the European Union prize for contemporary architecture) in 1996.  The buildings have been described as "glittering" and "futuristic in design".  There is not one but four buildings or rather 24 storey (79 m high) glass towers which are L- shaped (perhaps looking like open books) and grouped together around and overlook a garden courtyard.




Aerial view of Bibliotheque Nationale de France


It has been noted by Durlik (2002) that the building has been criticised as being unsuitable for a library. Controversy stemmed from the plan to house the books on the upper level of floors of the glass towers with offices below however this neglected to identify the problem of light and heat having a detrimental impact on the books themselves. To rectify the problem, protective screens and a mobile wooden light - blocking system were installed on the whole glass facade walls leading to vast cost overruns and making it a very expensive project estimated at anywhere between 600 million and 1.2 billion according to Durlik (2002).


British Library (BL)

The British Library too is a relatively new and modern building now situated in St Pancras, London which like the BNF courted controversy when it was first opened in 1998. According to Lennon (1998), once the decision had been made in 1962 that the library must move out of the British museum and move to it's own premises, it took 35 years for the project to come to fruition. This involved three revision of plans, delays due to change of government in 1979, two site changes with costs over running the original budget by five times. Indeed, it was to be the biggest public building since the National Theatre was built in 1970.

The end result?

A building of finely detailed red brickwork, multi layered terraces, a range of pitched and slate roofs, a clock tower and a large piazza style outdoor area which has been compared to the works of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and in particular his Town hall in Säynätsalo, Finland.  As Lennon (1998) notes, the architect for the BL was Sir Colin St John Wilson who was an admirer of the works of Aalto.

British Library, St Pancras, London

Despite being short listed for the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling prize for excellence in architecture in 1998, the new BL has been described as a "showpiece prison", a "sixties campus" and "an out of town shopping mall". Prince Charles who is known for his love of architecture and laid the foundation stone for the new BL described the plans as "an academy for secret policemen". Even the architect for the buildings, Sir Colin St John Wilson described it as the "great British disaster". 

All of these criticisms refer to the exterior of the BL.  The interior, in contrast, has been highly praised for it's light and space and the inclusion of a four storey smoked glass tower which contains the Kings Library, the collection of King George III of over 65,000 items collected between 1763 and 1820.

Library of Congress (LC), Washington, USA

The Library of Congress has grown to now occupy three buildings. When Congress authorised the construction of a new building for the library in 1886, a design was prepared by Washington architects John L Smithmeyer and Paul J Pelz who designed a building in the style of the Italian Renaissance perhaps even based on the Paris Opera House. In 1892 Edward Pearce Casey began supervision of the interior, commissioning sculptures and paintings by over fifty American artists. A 23 carat gold-plated dome was also included. The Jefferson Building was opened in 1897 and was seen as a "glorious national monument" according to the LC website as well as the "largest, costliest and safest" library building in the world.

As the collection continually expanded, it became necessary to construct more buildings. Land was purchased in 1928, money appropriated in 1930 and a new building, the Adams Building was opened in 1939. This was a simple, classic structure with Art Deco features with a tunnel connecting it to the Jefferson Building. Then in 1965, a third building was authorised with construction taking place in the 1970s so that by 1981 the James Madison Memorial Building was completed and opened by President Ronald Regan. All three buildings are connected by underground passageways.

This short travel guide video shows the grand buildings and their interiors.

The most recent addition is the Packard Campus for audio visual conservation which has been built in Culpeper, Virginia which was opened in 2007. This building was constructed from a Federal Reserve storage centre and Col War bunker to house the LC's movie, television and sound recording holdings. This building contains a reproduction Art Deco theatre which provides free movie screenings to the public.

National Library of Russia (NLR), St Petersberg and Russian State Library (RSL), Moscow

The NLR was first housed in a neoclassical style building designed by architect Yegor Sokolov in the late 1700s. Several additions were made through the next century including the Gothic Hall in 1857. In 1948, a building on Fontanka Embankment was assigned to the library which now holds newspapers, music and sound and junior collections. A modern building was added on Moskovsky Prospekt in the 1980s for the extensive collection of printed books.

Today, the NLR comprises six buildings which house a collection of over 36 million items as recorded in 2010 according to the library's website.

Russian State Library (RSL), Moscow

Pashkov House, a classicist building constructed in 1786 was the original building to house the RSL in Moscow. It was renamed the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR in 1925 after the Russian Revolution led to the Soviets confiscating over 400 private libraries incorporating these into the national library which then became too large to remain housed with the museum.  As a result the Rumyantsev museum departments moved out and only the library remained. Additional buildings were constructed in the 1930s, a 250 seat reading hall completed in 1945 and even more buildings in the 1960s.  In 1968, the library was again at capacity and  a new depository for newspaper storage, low demand books and scientific works was constructed offsite in Khimki, north west of Moscow in 1975.  In 1992, the library was again renamed the Russian State Library (RSL).

Pashkov House

References

Bibliotheque Nationale de France 2011, A view on cities, viewed 12 October 2011,
<http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/bibliothequenationale.htm>

Bibliotheque nationale de France [image], viewed 12 October 2011,
<http://www.linternaute.com/hightech/internet/photo/les-hauts-lieux-de-google-earth-du-ciel-en-3d-et-en-photos/bibliotheque-nationale-de-france.shtml>

Durlik, A 2002 'The bibliotheque nationale de France: my French experience' Libraries & Culture, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 256-268, General OneFile, Gale, viewed 12 October 2011.

Lennon, D 1998 'New library debate' Europe, no. 376, pp. 40-41, General OneFile, Gale, viewed 12 October 2011.

British Library [image], viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/>

Nichols, T 1870 'A handy book of the British Museum: for everyday readers', Google ebook, viewed 13 October.

History 2010, Library of Congress, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.loc.gov/about/history.html>

Library of Congress n.d., National Park Service, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc79.htm>

Library of Congress Washington, DC (United States) - Travel Guide [video], viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWN4y04fcg>
Public events at the Library of Congress 2011, Library of Congress, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.loc.gov/loc/events/#eventlist9>

Locations 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/nlr/location.htm>

National Library of Russia 2011, Wikipedia, viewed 13 October 2011,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Russia>

Russian State Library 2011, Wikipedia, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_State_Library>

The European Library 2011, RSL History, viewed 14 October 2011,
<http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/libraryHistory.html?libraryid=34>

Pashkov House [image] , viewed 19 October 2011,
<http://spirit-of-moscow.com/S_B_Pashkov's%20house.shtml>


Research Process

Researching the information on the national library of Russia was more challenging as there were essentially two institutions which fulfilled the functions of a national library.  I also needed to refresh my own background historical knowledge of Russia/USSR to understand to political changes and the impact they had on the evolution of the country's national library. Although the official websites for the two libraries were useful for facts and figures, I needed to look more broadly and widely for information. I must admit that Google was my primary choice of search engine to get me on the right track and then I could use the references and citations found in Wikipedia. 

I great site I found was Project MUSE, an online database of journals from non profit publishers.
There were a couple of articles which were spot on for the detail and information I wanted which I could then source through General OneFile, Gale. This was a fantastic find!

the development of a national library in Russia

When looking at Russia, it is appropriate to look at two prominant libraries; the National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg and the Russian State Library in Moscow. Both fulfil the role of and have built collections worthy of a national library.

Reading Room at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg

The National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg was founded in 1795 by Catherine the Great and was to be "the first building in Russia specially intended to house a library".  Catherine's vision was for a national library to become a "symbol of the might of the Russian state". To this end, all Russian books and manuscripts were kept here and in contrast to other European national libraries, the National Library of Russia was intended to be generally accessible to all Russian subjects for "learning and enlightenment" and was thus a public library also.

In building the collection, private collections were transported from Poland and France as well as items from the Hermitage library in St Petersberg. The 1800s saw the purchase and donation of manuscripts from the former Russian official at the embassy in Paris who, during the French Revolution, saved papers from the archives in the Bastille and secured manuscripts from French monasteries dating back to the fifth century.

In 1805, a department was created just for special manuscripts and following this, many individual collectors donated their collection to the library. By 1810, regulations were in place for the administration of the Imperial Public Library and funds were allocated from the State treasury.  Principle aims were established, one being to keep an archive of all printed Russian matter and preserve the national manuscript heritage while receiving visitors and providing them with all necessary information. The library continued to grow and fulfil its role and only declined during the years of the second World War when many staff joined the forces or died during the winter of 1941-2, the water supply and heating was lost and the war in general took its toll.

The other great library in Russia is the Russian State Library in Moscow also known as V. I. Lenin State Library of USSR between 1925 and 1992 or now known as Leninka.


Reading Room at the Russian State Library, Moscow

Its origins date to 1862 when the city of  Moscow acquired the library collection of  the Rumyantsev museum donated to the people by count Rumyantsev and transferred from St Petersberg.  The museum with its library collection grew through donations, purchases and "deposits from confiscated libraries" according to Johnson (1970, p.172) and when the lack of space and funds became a problem it was decided to dissolve the Rumyantsev and the museum items were dispersed among other galleries and museums while the library collection and manuscripts were reorganised to form the Lenin Library and new buildings were constructed to house them.

The Leninka, as it is known today, is the largest library in the country and the third largest in the world in terms of its collection of books (17.5 million) according to the Leninka website.


References

The principal book repository in Russia (1795- 1813) c. 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 3 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/nlr/history/1.htm>

'Reading room at the national library of Russia in St. Petersberg' [image] in Wisdom 2008, A taste of life, viewed 4 October 2011,
<http://whatagreatlife.blogspot.com/2008/10/national-library-of-russia-at-st.html.>

'Reading room at the Russian state library in Moscow' [image] in Davis M 2008, Russian studies, viewed 4 October 2011,
<http://www.macalester.edu/russian/credits.html>

Johnson, ED 1970,  History of libraries of the western world, 2nd edn, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.

RSL now c. 2011, Leninka, viewed 3 October 2011,
<http://leninka.ru/index.php?doc=2661>

Research Process

Searching for books and periodicals dealing with the national library of Russia was a little more challenging as there was far less information available than for European national libraries and the US Library of Congress.
Fortunately, the official website of the National Library of Russia had very comprehensive information available on its history with no less than nine separate sections, each devoted to an era in the history of the library dating from 1795.  All contained very detailed information.

The RSL (Russian State Library) and Leninka also had relevant information (albeit not as comprehensive and detailed) and the automatic Google translation from the Russian website worked well to give comprehensible information.

Wikipedia also proved to be useful to give basic background information and clarify historical facts I was unsure of. Although not always reliable, the Wikipedia information was referenced and cited the official national library websites which provided a credible source to use.