Central Scientific Library

The Central Scientific Library was founded in 1804 on the initiative of the prominent educator, public figure and scholar V. N. Karazin. The general collection of the library contains more than 3,350,000 items. Among them are 1,760,000 items of scientific literature, 1,150,000 items of educational literature. The unique collection of rare editions and manuscripts consists of nearly 60,000 items, including the collection of incunabula (dated before 1500), palaeotypes (1501–1550), considerable collections of Ukrainian and foreign early printed books (XVI–XVIII centuries), life-time publications of outstanding scientists and classics of literature. The collection of manuscripts includes nearly 1,000 items, in particular: The Universal of the Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1704), The Annals of Hrabianka (early XIX century, materials on the history of Ukraine of XVII–XVIII centuries); Ivan Franko’s letters to writer N. Kobrynska (1884–1886), collections of Greek, Polish manuscripts, etc. The collection of foreign publications counts more than 700,000 items written in the main European languages.

The Library also holds publications of Kharkiv University Printing House founded in 1804. Among them are Ukraine’s first magazines and newspapers, published by the University Printing House: Kharkovskie Izvestiia (1817–1823), Kharkovskii Demokrit (1816), Ukrainskii Vestnik (1816–1820), Ukrainskii Zhurnal (1823–1825).

The Library has five lending departments, eleven reading rooms, the Interlibrary Loan Service, two specialized catalog rooms, the Internet Technology Center, the room of the University history literature, the room of local history literature of Greece and Cyprus created with the assistance of A. Leventis Foundation (Cyprus), the Window on America Information Center.

While preserving the University’s glorious traditions, the Central Scientific Library also introduces new library and information technologies. Since 1991, the Library has had an electronic catalog, which is an automated customer service system in scientific and fiction literature lending departments and reading rooms. The Library server stores full-text versions of educational and methodological materials, including those prepared by the University faculty, digitized unique editions. The Library provides high-speed Internet access, e-mail, use of the local LIBER-MEDIA computer network.

Information services are among the main activities of the Library. Day and night, the electronic catalog operates with online ordering and access to an online reader’s record card, there is a Library Forum for feedback from users. For online ordering, the Library has computers in catalog rooms, scientific and fiction literature lending departments, all its reading rooms. The study guide Where to Start was developed to teach readers to use an online catalog and online ordering. It is available on the Library website page Electronic Catalog.

Thanks to the Virtual Bibliographer service (http://www-library.univer.kharkov.ua/vs), the users of the Central Scientific Library can get a professional bibliographic reference. A systematized archive of completed references is freely available on the Internet.

The Central Scientific Library provides access to many well-known electronic databases: EBSCO Publishing, Royal Society of Chemistry, Russian National Bibliography (EastView), online library of educational literature CUL Online — more than 500 Ukrainian-language textbooks and manuals on economics, humanities, and natural sciences recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The Library supports open access to knowledge. In 2008, presidents of classical universities of the Border Belarusian-Russian-Ukrainian Consortium adopted the Belgorod Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge. Since January 2009, the Library has been a participant in the project eLibUkr: Electronic Library of Ukraine. Since its creation in June 2009, the institutional repository (electronic archive) of the University  has been constantly replenished with publications of professors, faculty, scientists, undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Under the project eLibUkr: Electronic Library of Ukraine, the Central National Library provides access to the most well-known publishers of online journals, such as IOPscience Journals, Oxford Journals, Euromonitor's Passport GMID, HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative), and others; test access is provided monthly.

The Central Scientific Library conducts international book exchange with foreign educational and scientific institutions. Among the partners are: RSL, RNL, SPSTL (Moscow), National Library of Serbia, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Library of the University of Latvia “Latvian Academic Library” (Riga), universities of Poland, Bulgaria, France, Japan, and other countries. The Central Scientific Library cooperates with Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation (Cyprus), Goethe-Institut (Kyiv), U. S. Embassy in Ukraine, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Kharkiv, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), French Cultural Center in Kharkiv, Ukrainian-American Sabre-Light Foundation, Greek Cultural Foundation, national societies of Kharkiv and Ukraine.

The Library contributes to the intellectual development of the modern generation. It hosts exhibitions of artists, photographers, masters of various arts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, and other countries.
In 2013, the Central Scientific Library of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was included into the State Register of Scientific Objects considered the national heritage.

The Central Scientific Library is a zonal methodological center of libraries of state higher education institutions of the III-IV levels of accreditation of the Kharkiv zone (36 libraries of Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy regions).

According to the decision of the Board of University Presidents and on the initiative of the administration of the University Central Scientific Library, the project Kharkiv Inter-University Reader Card was launched on September 1, 2013. The single reader card is a universal document that provides free access to collections and online resources in reading rooms of the libraries participating in the project. This project gives undergraduate, postgraduate students, faculty and scientists of universities unlimited access to collections and online resources for study and research.

Regulations on the Central Scientific Library

 

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