Information

Director V. I. Spirova.

This is a large cultural, educational and information centre of the Crimea established back in 1918. The Library was created by a number of prominent scholars and public activists who were at the origins of the University. One of the first private collections granted to the library comprised a selection of books written by the first Rector of the University Mr. R. I. Gelvig. This example was followed by Academicians V. I. Vemadskiy, N. M. Krylov, V. A. Obruchev, N. I. Andrusov, Professors A. M. Tikhomandritskiy, A. I. Markevich, E. V. Vulf, and others.

The library stock includes antique books and rarities of 15th-18th cc. A Bible printed in Germany in 1482 is a special pride of the library. The rarities include The Gospel (1575) printed by Petro Mstislavets, Ostrog Bible (1580-1581) by Ivan Fedorov, The Cordial Lunch (1681) and The Rhymed Psalter (.1680) by Simenon Polotskiy. The famous French 35 volume Encyclopaedia or Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Art and Craft (1751-1780), Bonplan's Trip to the Equinoctial Realms of the New World Undertaken in 1799-1804, and other books are of great interest.
The library has a wide collection of Ukrainian books, published in Kiev Pechersk Lavra, including The Discourses of John Chrysostom on 14 Epistles of Apostle Рйм/(1б23), The Discourse on the Book Entitled 'The Key to Understanding' (1660) by loannikiy Galiatovskiy, The Spiritual Sword (1660) by Lazar Baranovych.

The relics also include the classical works of A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol and L. N. Tolstoy published at their lifetime. Place of honour is given to books that belonged to Decembrists and bear owner's signatures on them.
The library stock dedicated to the Crimean studies is unique. It includes the first works about the Crimea: K. I. Gablitsa, Phizicheskoe opisanie Tavricheskoi oblasti po ее mestopolozheniyu in po vsem trem tsarstvam [Physical Description of Tavricheskaya Oblast With Regard to Its Position and All Three Realms], 1785; P. S. Pallas, Kratkoe fizicheskoe i topograficheskoe opisanie Tavricheskoy gubemii [Brief Physical and Topographic Description of Tavricheskaya Province], 1795, etc.
Today the library stock includes more than one million books, periodicals and electronic documents. It contains books in Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean- Tatar and many foreign languages. The library subscribes annually to 345 peri-odical publications. A network of reading rooms is available to the users, includ-ing rooms for humanities, core university disciplines, natural science and mathe-matics, and an electronic room. The library offers three study loan rooms, three scientific loan rooms, a reference and information section, and a section of rarities.
The library stock is covered by a system of catalogues and card indices of alphabetic, systematic and electronic types. The library accumulates electronic data on domestic and foreign publishers and information centres. Today it pro-' vides services to some 10,000 readers. An annual number of borrowed books in various fields and topics amounts to one million entries.
The library has its own local computer network linked to the university net-work and Internet. Works of university scholars have been made available on the library site.
The library stock has been continually Studied'ior many yeSr? arid фе , results of this study have been published in various reference directories and periodicals.
The library issues methodological and auxiliary material anabibliosrapriic indices to facilitate studies and research. The library staff provide academic and methodological guidance to other university libraries in the Crimea.

The library maintains relations with international organizations, publishers, charity foundations, in particular, a German publisher Springer Verlag, tlie International Renaissance Foundation, Goethe Institute, EBSCO, Consortium, and others.