The Ryazan Oblast Universal Scientific Library (ROUNB) (est. 1858) is a central

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

in Ryazan, Ryazan Oblast,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. It was one of the first public libraries in the country to offer open access to its holdings.

History

Founding

In the 1830s the idea of public libraries was widely accepted in Russian society. However, due to financial straits, the first one in Ryazan was opened only in 1858. The newspaper ''Ryazanskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti'' ( Russian: Рязанские губернские ведомости, literally "The Ryazan Guberniya Record") printed lists of donors. Among the founders of the Ryazan Public Library were the Ryazan gymnasium trustee, Nikolay Ryumin, the

First guild First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: * World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

merchant and fabulist Alexander Antonov and other well-known people. The library was housed in the town center. The opening day collection consisted of 1,275 volumes and 4,300 periodicals. Use of the reading room was free, but subscription to the

lending library A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library ...

cost 6 roubles per annum, 4 roubles per half-year and 1 rouble per month. Among its members were the later

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

laureate

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physiol ...

, the Russian anti-Normanist historian Dmitry Ilovaysky, the Russian writer Nikolay Zlatovratsky and other famous people. For some time, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, the great Russian novelist and philosopher, appointed in 1858 to the Vice Governor of Ryazan, was a member of the library board of trustees.Дом Салтыкова-Щедрина на Астраханской
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Soviet period

Through the several “mergers and acquisitions” after the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

, the library holdings increased to above 40,000 items. According to the decision of Ryazan City Council dated 31 March 1928, the library was named in honour of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

to mark the 60th anniversary of the writer's birth. After Ryazan Oblast had been created in 1937, the Gorky library changed its status to an

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom ...

library. In addition to the services that the library had been providing, since that year it developed new services (

interlibrary loan Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, interlending, document delivery, document supply, or interlibrary services, abbreviated ILS) is a service where patrons of one library can borrow materials and receive photocopies ...

, bibliographic indices and others). Its facilities were located at 24 Lenin Street,

Ryazan Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Cens ...

Ryazan Oblast Ryazan Oblast ( rus, Рязанская область, r=Ryazanskaya oblast, p=rʲɪˈzanskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Ryazan, which is the oblast's largest city. Geo ...

. Even though the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encom ...

started in 1941, the library continued to serve local people. Some of the staff were called up, while the others went to work in hospitals. In the meantime, the number of visitors was about 12,000 per year.

Turn of the twenty-first century

Since the 1990s, the ROUNB has taken part in different projects for library automation: * 1992: the e-catalogue for local history was launched * 1993: the ROUNB holdings e-catalogue was created * 1996: th
first website
of the library was launched * 1999: the Centre of Business and Law Information was founded, with free access to

Consultant Plus Consultant Plus (russian: Консультант Плюс) is an assistance system to work with the legislation of Russia. Consultant's centralized database is updated daily. It is distributed via a network of partners. Its major competitors a ...

, Garant and other useful resources.

Gorky Library today

Mission and objectives

Location, access and facilities

Main building and branch

The main building consists of two wings. The first one was constructed in 1960-1964. Four years later, the monument to Gorky was erected within the building. The second wing, with modern interiors, was built in 2011. The only branch of the ROUNB is situated close to the main building, at 24 Nikolodvoryanskaya Street, Ryazan.

Holdings

Services and terms of use

Wi-Fi

All of the readers can use free wireless internet. The library members can also use the library laptops within its walls.

Website

The Gorky Library website provides access to the library's news and reviews, online catalogs and

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

s, and has information about the library's events, clubs and exhibitions. An

OPAC The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''library catalog'', is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously u ...

system allows users to search the library's holdings of books,

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...

s and other materials.

Facilities for people with physical disabilities

There are lifts and ramps for wheelchair users, to more easily access the library premises.

Clubs and societies

Art lovers club

The ''Olympus'' (Art lovers club) meets regularly in the library since 1966. Among its guests were Yevgeny Nesterenko, Zurab Sotkilava and other well-known

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists ...

s, composers,

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Languages clubs

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

* English *

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

The lessons are free of charge.

Awards, exhibitions

References

Notes

Sources

The ROUNB website contains much of the information used in this article.
{{Authority control Education in the Soviet Union World Digital Library Organizations established in 1858 1858 establishments in the Russian Empire