Formation of the Library of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1932—1940

Abstract

The article considers organization of information and library services for scientists of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences during the formation of academic science in the Urals in 1932—1940. The author discusses the activities of the Library of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Central Scientific Library of the UB RAS) against the background of the development of the Branch, which experienced repeated attempts to reform and eliminate in the first years of its existence. Financial and personnel difficulties of those years affected both the activities of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a whole and the development of the Library. The turning point in the history of the Library of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was its integration in 1939 into the Ural Institute of Physics and Technology, which had considerable material resources and personnel potential.Based on the library and previously unknown archival documents, the author makes the conclusion on the simultaneous formation of both collections — the Branch library and the Institute library, which later formed the unified library stock of the Library of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The article studies the development of each of these collections during 1932—1940. The author describes contribution of individual scientists to the development of the Library, the history of the appearance of some private collections in its holdings. The article provides information about the first employees of the institution.