Leningrad Oblast Universal Research Library, the

Subject / Archives. Libraries./Libraries
THE LENINGRAD OBLAST UNIVERSAL SCIENCE LIBRARY (LOUSL) (19 Kirillovskaya Street, St Petersburg). The library was founded in 1944 with the aim to restore, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the library network and book funds of the Leningrad Oblast libraries. Nowadays (as of 2005) the LOUSL funds number over 400,000 items on all areas of knowledge. The library offers educational books, scientific, popular science and reference literature, monographs and memoirs, as well as publications of the pre-revolutionary (before 1917) period, including books published in the lifetime of the writers and scientists, and periodicals. Of special value is the fund of books on the Saint Petersburg Gubernia and the Leningrad Oblast (around 25,000 items). The library is a subscriber to about 500 periodical titles. Its Centre for Law Information offers full-text databases of low documents. Culture and art workers will find here the fund of unpublished documents and materials on culture, printed music, records, video cassettes, etc. The library departments include: book acquisition, research processing / documenting, main fund keeping, interlibrary loan, external services, literature on agriculture, regional studies, information-and-bibliographical, as well as sector for scientific information on culture and art, centre for legal and business information and science-and-methodological centre. The library provides traditional catalogs as well as electronic media catalogs and indexes. Library-and-bibliographical and information services, including extramural, are offered at single or extended request. In order to facilitate access to the library electronic resources for remote users, LOUSL provides municipalities with electronic databases (“Neopublikovannye dokumenty po kul’ture i iskusstvu” (The Unpublished Documents and Materials on Culture and Art), “Sel’skoe khozyaystvo” (The Agriculture), “Krayevedenie” (Local History) and (since 1997) electronic catalogue. Residents of the Leningrad Oblast has an opportunity to use the library’s funds in reading rooms and through the interlibrary loan system. It also organizes mobile off premise libraries and show exhibitions in the Leningrad Oblast towns and villages. LOUSL is the centre for library regional studies activities in the Leningrad Oblast, the major depository for documents and materials related to regional studies. It is also the leading institution in the area of regional studies bibliographical information and the organizing force in cooperation between libraries and other institutions working in the sphere of regional studies. As a scientific-and-methodological and coordination centre for the 458 libraries of the Leningrad Oblast, LOUSL does research in the area of organization of library services for the population, conducts the methodological monitoring and prognostication of main areas of activity. It provides annual reviews of the libraries work in different areas. With the view to further training and professional advancement of the library staff the library runs a range of workshops, practical courses, simulation exercises, round tables and other activities. LOUSL encourages professional contacts of the Leningrad Oblast professional experts. The library participates in international projects (“Frantsuzskiy prazdnik chteniya” (The French Reading Festival), “Pushkinskaya biblioteka” (The Pushkin Library), “Finskiy zaliv” (The Gulf of Finland), etc), as well as in charity events, conferences, seminars and meetings. LOUSL has moved several times and has been located at its present premises since 1976. The building of Roman Catholic charitable society, erected in 1912 – 1913 upon the project of architect M. M. Peretyatkovich, is a history and cultural monument of regional significance. Blyudova, Lyudmila Konstantinovna
Peretyatkovich, Marian Marianovich
Saint-Petersburg City/Kirillovskaya Street
Тутова О.А. Ленинградской областной универсальной научной библиотеке – 60! // Область культуры: Информационно-методический сб. СПб. 2004. № 11, 58-65
Все о ЛОУНБ. URL: http://www.reglib.spb.ru, 58-65