The «Kyiv Society of Natural Scientists» library in the holdings of the Department of Librarian Gatherings and Historical Collections of theV. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine

Abstract

In the article we have defi ned the degree of the «Kyiv Society of Natural Scientists» activity exploration (1869–1929), examined its origins and defi ned the goals and objectives of the society activity. We have given special consideration to its library. In particular, we have submitted the data on the scope of the book and magazine collections and details about the library readers. In 1926 the society library was transferred from its previous location in the University of Saint Volodymyr (the Institute of Public Education at that time) and its holdings were temporarily transported to the National Library of Ukraine by the request of the society head – an academician I. I. Schmalhausen, and after the society and accordingly the contract liquidation in 1929 they remained permanently deposited in the library as a separate collection. The principal part of the librarian gathering of the society consists in the referential literature, relevant to biology, geology, zoology, geography, meteorology, chemistry, physics, mathematics as well as the scholar notes of universities and research institutions, which deal with nature study issues. Despite the fact, that the focal point of the society activities was the one concerning the theoretical nature study, increased attention was paid to the practical implementation of the research results. In this regard the subscription to the territorial agricultural periodicals was conducted from all the provinces of the empire. Since 1929 the centralization processes in the Academy of Sciences of USSR had intensified and the natural scientists library collection received other periodical editions, which had no ideological orientation and were not popular among the public.