The Art Library of the State Russian Museum is located in
the central part of Mikhailovsky Palace, near the main staircase. The first
record of the Library was found in the Statutes of the Russian Museum of Emperor
Alexander III in 1897. The collection of the Library includes literature în
art and humanities. The basis of the collection and its specific character is
determined by the Museum's profile - Russian Art. The Library stock has been
actively developed since the 1910s. It has involved books specially bought by
the Museum and the whole collections. Nowadays the Library holdings number
170.000 items in its storage.The staff of the library counts 12 members. The
staff of the library counts 12 members. Being scientific and reference, the
Library helps in research activity in art, museum pedagogics, and humanities.
Taking into account the uniqueness of the collection that disposes of the rarest
editions, in addition to collecting and keeping in storage literature of art
criticism, one catalog of all the rare editions for further systematization and
study has been developed. In 1978 it was decided to form inside the Library the Rare
Books Sector. It numbers today about 10.000 items.
At
present the Library possesses one of the most interesting collections of
printed works - Russian items from the beginning of the 18th century and
foreign from the 17th century, private book collections that had
belonged to cultural and art workers, prominent collectors, artists, and
art historians.
The fund includes libraries that had been
collected by princes Gagarin, princes of Oldenburg, Grand Duke Georgy
Mikhailovitch, V.Argutinsky-Dolgoruky, A.S.Suvorin, S.Makovsky,
E.Reytern, A.N.Benois, V.V.Lebedev, V.N.Petrov, B.N.Okunev,
K.A.Korbadovsky, A.M.Shadrin, and also parts of the libraries of the
Committee of Guardianship of Russian Icon-painting, the Popularization
of Art Editions committee, Schtiglitz School, Izmailovsky and Finlandsky
Regiments, and the Library of the St.-Petersburg Handicraft Wares
Museum.
Every year the Library buys and gets
through the book exchange program near 1,5 thousand titles, and
subscribes Russian and foreign periodicals (magazines and newspapers).
Every 10 days two showcases with new coming books are arranged.
Our readers can search bibliographical
information in the Library in different ways. These are traditional and
not-traditional search means: a general alphabetical catalogue, subject
catalogue, card index of persons (artists, sculptors and architects),
card index of works of research workers of the State Russian Museum,
editions of the State Russian Museum, exhibitions, alphabet card index
of articles, and other means. Professional bibliographers and art
historians can also carry out bibliographical inquiries by phone or in
written form. Besides traditional forms of the storage and dissemination
of information, there is a computer informational-searching system in
the Library since 1993, there are about 70.000 book descriptions in our
electronic catalogue (about 70% of the book fund - all new acquisitions
since 1993 + retrospective from A to S), and near 10 thousand records of
Russian and foreign periodicals, and 12,5 thousand record of articles
from periodicals. You can search bibliographical information by the name
of the author, title, the year of edition, or key word.
Since 1997 with the help of the
non-profit American organization IREX
- International Research Exchange the readers of the Art Library of
the Russian Museum have got the opportunity to search the information
through the Internet.
Specialist librarians can acquaint you in
case of need with our card catalogue and will help you to work with our
electronic catalogue and with Internet. Inquiry-bibliographical service
is possible in the library, by phone, or e-mail.
The Library leads an active book exchange
with Russian and foreign libraries and museums. Editions
of the Russian Museum are available for book exchange.
The Art Library takes part in exhibitions
that are organized by the Russian Museum. These are editions mainly from
the rare books holdings that are of great interest as museum exhibits.
For further information please contact by
phone +7(812)595-4208 or e-mail: