Final Report

National libraries are a very common form of library, with a large number of countries having one.  Many of these date back several centuries, and contain fascinating and important information and items on a huge range of subjects.  Two of these national libraries, the State Library of Russia (or as it is more informally known, the Lenin library) and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, may not be as well known to the general public outside of Europe, but nonetheless play an important part in the history of national libraries of the world.

Why National Libraries?

The development of early national libraries such as the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Lenin Library is interesting.  The development of these libraries and others, from mostly private collections and how they have developed into the forward-thinking, technologically aware institutions that they are today is also an interesting lesson in history.  Would public libraries today be the same without them for instance?  Without national libraries how would the way in which different nations collect items including books published by that country have changed?  We will not delve into these questions within this report, however these are just a couple of the areas that could come to mind when the subject of national libraries is discussed.

History of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France is the state library of France, and was originally founded from the royal library at the Louvre art gallery, which was founded by Charles V in 1368 (Wikipedia 2010). The library’s collection increased during the reign of Louis XIV, and then again during the French revolution when many private collections were taken.
The library itself underwent a brief name change, to the Imperial National Library, after several regime changes in France, and with this, the library itself moved as well in 1868. The new buildings were designed by Henris Labrouste, and the library was again expanded after Henri’s death in 1875 by Jean-Louis Pascal, an architect.  In 1988 the then president Francois Mitter announced that a new library would be constructed.  This was designed by an architectural firm, Dominique Perrault, and was eventually completed in 1995.  Much of the collection was moved here, although some still remains at the old site.

The new Bibliotheque de National library buildings, image taken from the France Diplomatie website.

History of the Lenin Library

The Lenin library is the State Library of Russia, and is located in Russia.  The library is quite young compared to several of the other well-known libraries, being founded in 1862.  It is Russia's first free public library, and was originally called the Library of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumiantsev Museum, or The Rumiantsev Library.  The name of the library comes from count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, whose art collection was held by the public library housed at the same complex as the library.  Along with the art collection, a collection of books and manuscripts were also donated, and these are what formed the library.  When the collection expanded after the October Revolution, and in 1925 it was decided that the complex holding the museum and library would be dissolved, and the collection spread out over various sites.  The library was also renamed the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, and the collection was rehoused at premises know as the Old Building of the Russian State Library, with construction of new buildings for the library started in 1930.  In 1992, the library was again renamed to what it is now known as, this being the Russian State Library.

The Lenin Library, image courtesy of http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Russia/Moscow/Highlights/index.html

Collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France

The collection of books at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is about 12,000,000
volumes, with a further collection of about 180,000 manuscripts.  The remainder of the library's collection is made up of prints, maps, drawings and paintings, sheet music, phonograph records, and medals and antiques (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010). 

The library has a number of major collections, these being the Archives of the Bastille; the Fonds Prosper Enfantin collection, the Fonds Lambert collection (a collection of items connected with the writer Joris-Karl Huysmans (New World Encyclopaedia 2009) the collection of Louis-Sébastien Mercier Papers; the Fonds Lacroix collection; the Fonds Péladan collection (another writer, this one with a particular interest in the occult); the José-Maria de Heredia Collection (a poet, who was also a librarian at the library); the Fonds Georges Douay collection (a collection of items associated with French theatre) and the Archives Parlementaires, the official, printed record of the French National Assembly from the 1789 Revolution forward (New World encyclopaedia 2009).  The library also has an extensive collection of prints, charts and plans, and music.

A museum, known as Cabinet des Médailles (or Cabinet de France) also forms part of the Bibliotheque de Nationale de France.  The museum is known mainly for its coin collections, although it also holds other items, such as this cup, the "Sassanian "Cup of Chosroes", from Saint-Denis (New World encyclopaedia 2009).

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Collections of the Lenin Library

The strength of the Lenin library's collection appears to be the fact that is has the most complete collection of Russian newspapers and periodicals in the world and the largest collection of foreign books and journals in the USSR (The free dictionary 2010).  During the 1800's, a collection of foreign-language publications was gathered by what is now known as the National Library of Russia, to be used as justification for a plan to take over land on Russia's borders (Lerner 1998).

 Its manuscript collections contain manuscripts dating back to the sixth century. Collections includes, including a collection of old Russian manuscript books, beginning with the Arkhangel’skii Gospel (1092), as well as manuscripts of writers, scholars, and public figures (The free dictionary 2010). Other collections include manuscripts and item in several different early forms of script.  The Russian State Library website has what is called its Central Main Collection, described on the website as being periodical publications in 192 languages of the world in all spheres of knowledge (Russian State Library 2010). The collection is comprised of Russian material published after 1825, and non-Russian published material, published after 1700.  This Central Collection also contains approximately 200 personal libraries and collections of Russian historians, scientists, writers and artists.  Other collections at the library include maps, lithographs, dissertations, newspapers, musical scores and records and periodicals.  More unusual collection include ones on military literature, an oriental collection, a collection of Russian literature abroad which is a collection of works by writers' who were born in Russian but whose work was published overseas and overseas published work by other countries about Russia.  Another collection, possibly of particular interest for library studies' students is a Collection of literature on library science, bibliography and bibliology.

Exhibitions and Events at the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Lenin Library

Like the State Library in Victoria, both libraries run a range of different events showcasing the unique and interesting items in their collections.  Up and running right now at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France are four exhibitions, one of which is a permanent exhibition.  'France14' is based on a book featuring fourteen young French photographers, 'The Villemot Collection' is a collection on the works of French artist Bernard Villemot and 'Raymond Depardon: A Personal Vision of France' an interesting exhibition on photographs throughout different areas of France.  The permanent exhibition, 'The Globes of Louis XIV', is described on the library's website as "the incredible story of the spheres made for King Louis XIV".

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France also has a website for what they call Virtual Exhibitions, which are online exhibitions.  These cover books, literature, photographs, art and architecture.

An image courtesy of Bibliotheque Nationale de France, from an online exhibition by the library on Medieval Gastronomy

The Russian State Library (Lenin library) currently lists three current events/exhibitions on the English version of it's website, and although it does mention that they hold regular cultural and events such as book presentations, readers' conferences, public talks and concerts with scholars, writers, artists and actors, in the interests of promoting reading to the public (Russian State library 2010). At present, these are the Ninth Annual Scientific Conference "The Digital Age of Culture", a meeting of the heads of information services for culture and arts, focusing on "information support of regional cultural policy" (Russian State library 2010), and lastly, an international scientific conference, title "Bibliophilia and private collections".  None of the events appear to be open to the general public however, and seem to be more industry-related conferences.

Of the past exhibitions held at the library, only one is mentioned on the website, the "Day of Orthodox books in the RSL".  This was a one day exhibition, for the day of the same name, and showcased several rare religious books.

One of the rare book from the Day of Orthodox books at the RSL event, image courtesy of the Russian State Library website

All in all, in the history of national libraries, and history in general, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Lenin library.  The Bibliotheque Nationale for its part it played in the French Revolution, and in particular how this affected the growth of its collection.  The Lenin library also has an important role in history, with its connection to the Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.  Both libraries have important and historically significant collections.  Today, these collections are better catalogued than they were previously.  Changes in technology has also meant that these libraries are looking to the future with regards to cataloguing and accessibility of their collection, meaning that now much of these collections are now available not only in physical form, but in an electronic, online format.  Both libraries are also ensuring that their collections are put to good use, by providing opportunities for the general public and specialist organisations.

Bibliography:

1. 'Bibliothèque nationale de France' 2010, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, viewed 19 September 2010.

2. Bibliotheque Nationale de France 2010, 'National Library of France', Bibliotheque Nationale de France, viewed 6 October 2010.

3. 'Bibliotheque nationale de France' 2010, New World Encyclopedia, New World Encyclopedia, viewed 19 September 2010.

4. 'Bibliothèque nationale de France' 2010, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, viewed 27 August 2010.

5. 'Collections' 2010, Russian State Library, Russian State Library, viewed 29 September 2010.
6. 'Lenin state library of the USSR' 2010, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, The Free Dictionary, viewed 3 October 2010.

7. Lerner, FA 1998, The story of libraries: from the invention of writing to the computer age, Continuum, New York.

8. Raven, J (ed.) 2004, Lost libraries: the destruction of great book collections since antiquity, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, U.K.
9. 'Russian state library' 2010, Russian History Encyclopaedia, Answers.com, viewed 29 September 2010.

10. 'Russian state library' 2010, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, viewed 4 September 2010.

11. Zemina, E 2010, 'The Russian state library (RSL)', The European Library, viewed 29 September 2010.

Present & Future

Like the State Library in Victoria, both libraries run a range of different events showcasing the unique and interesting items in their collections.  Up and running right now at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France are four exhibitions, one of which is a permanent exhibition.  'France14' is based on a book featuring fourteen young French photgraphers, 'The Villemot Collection' is a collection on the works of French artist Bernard Villemot and 'Raymond Depardon: A Personal Vision of France' an intersting exhibition on photographs throughout different areas of France.  The permanent exhhibition, 'The Globes of Louis XIV', is "tthe incredible story of the spheres made for King Louis XIV (viewed 5th October, website below).

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France also has a website for what they call Virtual Exhibitions, which are online exhibitions.  These cover books, literature, photographs, art and architecture.

One of the books featured in an online exhibit

The Russian State Library (Lenin library) currently lists three current events/exhibitions on the English version of it's website, and although it does mention that they hold regular cultural and events such as book presentations, readers' conferences, public talks and concerts with scholars, writers, artists and actors, in the interests of promoting reading to the public (Russian State library, 2010). At present, these are the Ninth Annual Scientific Conference "The Digital Age of Culture", a meeting of the heads of information services for culture and arts, foucsing on "information support of regional cultural policy" (Russian State library, 2010), and lastly, an international scientific conference, title "Bibliophilia and private collections".  None of the events appear to be open to the general public however, and seem to be more industry-related conferences.

 Of the past exhibitions held at the library, only one is mentioned on the website, the "Day of Orthodox books in the RSL".  This was a one day exhibition, for the day of the same name, and showcased several rare religious books.

One of the rare book from the Day of Orthodox books at the RSL event, image courtesy of the Russian State Library webiste

References:

1. Bibliotheque Nationale de France 2010, 'National library of France', Bibliotheque Nationale de France,viewed 6 October 2010.

2. Russian State Library 2010, 'Collections', Russian state library, viewed 29 September 2010.

For this post, I mainly relied again on internet searches using Google.  I have mostly stuck to using only a couple of sources as these were the best sources of the type of information I was wanting.  I still found the language issue to be a problem however.  I also used Swinburne library this week to search for articles on their databases which might be of use.  I did find quite a few results for the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and I am considering a couple of these for use.  On the Lenin library, I did not find quite so many results, and some of these appeared to come from encyclopaedias, of which I already have sufficient, somewhat similar information.  For the Bibliotheque Nationale, although there were several hundred results, most of them did not appear to be useful for my purposes.

Lenin Library Collection

The strength of the Lenin library's collection, appears to be the fact that is has the most complete collection of Russian newspapers and periodicals in the world and the largest collection of foreign books and journals in the USSR (The free dictionary 2010).  During the 1800's, a collection of foreign-language publications was gathered by what is now known as the National Library of Russia, to be used as justification for a plan to take over land on Russia's borders (Lerner 1998).

 Its manuscript collections contain manuscripts dating back to the sixth century. Collections includes, including a collection of of old Russian manuscript books, beginning with the Arkhangel’skii Gospel (1092), as well as manuscripts of writers, scholars, and public figures (The free dictionary 2010). Other collections include manuscripts and item in several different early forms of script.  The Russian State Library website has what is called its Central Main Collection, described on the website as being periodical publications in 192 languages of the world in all spheres of knowledge (Russian state library 2010). The collection is comprised of Russian material published after 1825, and non-Russian published material, published after 1700.  This Central Collection also contains approximately 200 personal libraries and collections of Russian historians, scientists, writers and artists.  Other collections at the library include maps, lithographs,dissertations, newspapers, musical scores and records and periodicals.  More unusual collection include ones on military literature, an oriental collection, a collection of Russian literature abroad which is a collection of works by writers' who were born in Russian but whose work was published overseas and overseas published work by other countries about Russia.  Another collection, possibly of particular interest for library studies' students is a Collection of literature on library science, bibliography and bibliology.


References:

1. Pilch, JT 2004, 'Russian state library', Russian history encyclopaedia, Answers.com, viewed 29 September 2010.

2. Zemina, E 2010, 'The Russian state library (RSL)', The European library, viewed 29 September 2010.

3. Russian State Library 2010, 'Collections', Russian state library, viewed 29 September 2010.

4. Klevenskii MM & Silversvan EN, 1979, 'Lenin state library of the USSR', The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, The Gale Group, The Free Encyclopedia, viewed 3 October 2010.

5. Lerner, FA 1998, The story of libraries: from the invention of writing to the computer age, Continuum, New York.

**4 - 3rd edition - not sure if cited correctly.**
For this stage of my research, I again completed a Google search to find information about the collections the Lenin library has.  This I found to be a little difficult, not knowing whether to search under 'Russian State Library', or it's former name, 'Lenin Library', which is what many people still refer to it as.  In the end I did both, which made searching a bit time-consuming.  Again, as with the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, some of the search results were in Russian, which made it a little difficult to know whether they were relevant.

Collections of Bibliotheque Nationale de France

For this post, I again relied mainly on internet searches to find the information I was looking for.  I also went to Swinburne library again to use some of the books there.  Again, with searching online, the language problem where some results were not in English was an obstacle.  I also found it a little difficult making sure the information I found in the books and on the internet was on the right French library, as there is another with a similar name and it was sometimes unclear which was being referred to.


The collection of books at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is about 12,000,000
volumes, with a further collection of about 180,000 manuscripts.  The remainder of the library's collection is made up of prints, maps, drawings and paintings, sheet music, phonograph records, and medals and antiques (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010). 

The library has a number of major collections, these being the Archives of the Bastille; the Fonds Prosper Enfantin collection, the Fonds Lambert collection (a collection of items connected with the writer Joris-Karl Huysmans (New World Encyclopaedia 2009) the collection of Louis-Sébastien Mercier Papers; the Fonds Lacroix collection; the Fonds Péladan collection (another writer, this one with a particular interest in the occult); the José-Maria de Heredia Collection (a poet, who was also a librarian at the the library); the Fonds Georges Douay collection (a collection of items associated with French theatre) and the Archives Parlementaires, the official, printed record of the French National Assembly from the 1789 Revolution forward (New World Encyclopaedia 2009).  The library also has an extensive collection of prints, charts and plans, and music.

A museum, known as Cabinet des Médailles (or Cabinet de France) also forms part of the Bibliotheque de Nationale de France.  The museum is known mainly for its coin collections, although it also holds other items, such as this cup, The Sassanian "Cup of Chosroes," from Saint-Denis (New World Encyclopaedia 2009).

Image courtesy of New World Encyclopaedia

References:

1. 'Bibliothèque nationale de France' 2010, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, viewed 19 September 2010.

2. 'Bibliotheque nationale de France' 2010, New World Encyclopedia, New World Encyclopedia, viewed 19 September 2010.

3. Raven, J (ed.) 2004, Lost libraries: the destruction of great book collections since antiquity, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, U.K.

The Lenin library

For the next stage of my research, I am focusing on the history of the other library I am researching, which is the Lenin library.

This week, I started my search, with a trip to the library at the Prahran campus of Swinburne University, where I spoke to the staff member on the Research desk about what I was looking for.  This turned out to be mostly fairly unhelpful, as she explained she was not the best person to ask as she was new, and could I come back during the day.  After explaining why I couldn't, she did try and help me by trying to find a subject guide for the library studies course on the Swinburne website and then in Google (nothing on the Swinburne website but found something through Google, at VUT).  In the end, I asked her to look up a book which I thought Swinburne might have on the shelves, and from this we found a few other titles, and she suggested I have a look around in the area where the book I wanted was, as the other titles had similar call numbers.  In the end, this is what I did after I found the book I wanted, and I managed to find a few other interesting books that might help my research on the shelves, as well as the ones she had helped me find on the catalogue.  From here, I decided that the next step should now be to try a basic Google search for information on the Lenin library and it's history.

Now, onto my findings.  The Lenin library is the State Library of Russia, and is located in Russia.  The library is quite young compared to several of the other well-known libraries, being founded in 1862.  It is Russia's first free public library, and was originally called the The Library of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumiantsev Museum, or The Rumiantsev Library.  The name of the library comes from count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, whose art collection was held by the public library housed at the same complex as the library.  Along with the art collection, a collection of books and manuscripts were also donated, and these are what formed the library.  When the collection expanded after the October Revolution, and in 1925 it was decided that the complex holding the museum and library would be dissolved, and the collection spread out over various sites.  The library's was also renamed the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, and the collection was housed at premises know as the Old Building of the Russian State Library, with construction of new buildings for the library started in 1930.  In 1992, the library was again renamed to what it is now known as, being the Russian State Library.

It's difficult to find good pictures of the Lenin library, this one is courtesy of http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Russia/Moscow/Highlights/index.html

The research for these two libraries has been interesting.  I found it interesting that so much of both these libraries collections come from royalty or rulers, of whom today society generally does not seem to have a lot of use for or interest in (at least not in Australia), and also that a lot of both collections were obtained during times of political events.  If things had of turned out differently, one consequence may have been that I might not now be writing as much about these two libraries, and maybe instead about collections owned by particular people!

I have realised from my search today that perhaps I should have started my search at the Swinburne library, more to rule it out as a source of information, and also due to the fact that as an online student who does not live all that close to Swinburne's campuses, actually physically getting there is time consuming.  So, my advice would be to start with this first.  Although you can access the catalogue from home, I found it much better to actually come into the library itself.  For me connectivity to the library's catalogue and resources like the online databases is much better, and you can browse the shelves like I did, which I found useful.

References

'Russian state library' 2010, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, viewed 4 September 2010.

Starting the search - history of the Bibliotheque de Nationale

Image taken from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France

When I first started this blog, my original research topic was going to be the history of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the British Library, the Lenin library, and the Library of Congress. However, I realised that I underestimated just how much of a task it would be to write about all four, and I have now decided to cut the list in half. Therefore, I am now focusing on on just the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Lenin library.
I started my research with the history of the Bibliotheque Nationale with a basic Google search. The main problem I found with doing this, which I had not thought was that being a French library, many of the results were in French rather than English. This meant that although some of the results might have relevant to what I wanted, I couldn’t use them unless I tried to translate them.

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France, is the state library of France, and was originally founded from the royal library at the Louvre art gallery, which was founded by Charles V in 1368 (Wikipedia, 2010). The libraries collection increase during the reign of Louis XIV, and then again during the French revolution when many private collections were taken.
The library itself underwent a brief name change, to the Imperial National Library, after several regime (?) changes in France, and with this, the library itself moved as well in 1868. The new buildings were designed by Henris Labrouste, and the library was again expanded after Henri’s death in 1875 by Jean-Louis Pascal, an architect.  In 1988 the then president Francois Mitter announced that a new library would be constructed.  This was designed by an architectural firm, Dominique Perrault, and was eventually completed in 1995.  Much of the collection was moved here, although some still remains at the old site.

The new Bibliotheque de National library buildings, image taken from the France Diplomatie website.

'Bibliothèque nationale de France' 2010, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, viewed 27 August 2010
 
 
 
2. http://www.bnf.fr/en/tools/lsp.site_map.html

Getting Started...

The topic I have chosen from the ones provided, relates to the Renaissance, Reformation and Modern World (to 1900) era of history. From within this topic, I have decided to focus on the development of early national libraries, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the British Museum Library, the Lenin Library and the Library of Congress.
My interest in this topic is partially to do with an interest in libraries and their history in general. Despite being a library studies student, I don’t actually really know anything about any of the above libraries other than the Library of Congress, and so I think that this might be an interesting topic. The other reason for this choice of topic is that I am hoping that such large well-known libraries will have plenty of information available on them.