Library Collections

Dating from 1638, the Harvard University Library is the largest university library in the world and the oldest in the United States. It now contains more than 11 million volumes, in addition to other materials, housed in 98 individual libraries. Harvard’s Ukrainian collection is located primarily in Widener Library and Houghton Library, with the remainder housed in several specialized collections (Fine Arts, Music, Anthropology, Science and Law).

The development of the Ukrainian collection long preceded the actual establishment of the Ukrainian Studies Program. As early as the 1890s, books on Ukraine were acquired by the University Library in the course of its expansion into areas concerning Eastern Europe. Ukrainian materials, however, were collected largely without plan. Some important early acquisitions included the donation of Bayard L.Kilgour. Jr. in the 1950s, and the purchase of the library of the Ukrainian journalist Mykola Ceglinskyi in 1957. It was not until 1968 that a systematic program was initiated by the Committee on Ukrainian Studies to build Harvard University’s library collection on Ukraine. In 1969, the first full year of subsidy and guidance by the Committee, special exchange agreements were reached between Harvard College Library and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, the Lenin Library in Moscow, and the Leningrad Public Library. Since then, the Ukrainian collection has continued to grow through purchases and exchanges with other libraries in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Canada, and through donations from private collections. Some of the major gift collections received include the libraries of Yaroslav Pasternak (1970), Michael Bazanskyi (1974), Bohdan Krawciw (1978), Onufrij Murmeljuk (1978), Dr. Ivan Panchuk (1981) and Vasyl Brazhnyk (1981). In addition to these collections Harvard University Library has received hundreds of important gifts of Ucrainica from other generous donors.

Among the rare Ukrainian tides housed at Houghton Library are the Apostol and Primer, the first books printed in Ukraine (Lviv, 1574); the Ostrih Bible (1581); the edicts of Hetman Ivan Mazepa; the manuscript of Hryhoriy Skovoroda’s Dialogue; and first editions of classic works by Ivan Kotlyarevskyi, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, and important 20th century authors.

Unit 5

The British Library

The British Library, established in 1973, is the national library for the United Kingdom under the control and management of the British Library Board. It consists of the Reference Division, the Bibliographic Services Division, the National Sound Archive and the Research and Development Department in London, and the Lending Division in Yorkshire.

The Reference Division has its origins in the library departments of the British Museum and includes the Department of Printed Books, the Department of Manuscripts and the Preservation Service which are in the British Museum building; and, elsewhere in London, the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, the Science Reference Library and the India Office Library and Records.

The British Museum was founded by Act of Parliament in 1753 to bring together the collections of Sir Robert Cotton, which were already national property, and those formed by the two Harleys, first and second Earls of Oxford, and by Sir Hans Sloane; both collections were on offer to the nation for sale on favourable terms. Under the terms of the Act, which closely followed lines laid down in the will of Sir Hans Sloane, a government lottery was held to provide a build­ing to all these collections and future additions to them, and to pay for the Sloane and Harley collections.

Montagu House, a seventeenth-century building, standing on the present site of the Museum, was bought, and in 1759 it was opened as the British Museum. It stood until 1845, but the present King’s Library, the first part оf a new building on the site, was finished in 1826, and the new south wing, with the entrance portico in its pres­ent form, was completed in 1847. The architect was Sir Robert Smirke and the sculptured tympanum was designed by Sir Richard Westmacott.

The Royal Library, containing the books of the kings of England from Edward IV onwards, was presented to the nation by George II in 1757 and added to the collections. The library of George III, pre­sented to the nation by his son in 1823, was transferred to the Museum and housed in the King’s Library, mentioned above, which had been designed to hold it.

In 1973 the library departments were separated from the Museum and joined with other institutions to form the British Library.

PART V

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1017