FROM THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH LIBRARY OF LVIV NATIONAL AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY

‘If you want the youth to strive after knowledge,

take care of major and the most  essential sources of

inward culture – library’

V.Suhomlynskyi

The history of  the Research Library of  Lviv National Agrarian University is connected indissolubly with the establishment of Tillage School in Dubliany in 1856. Primarily, it was a small fund of books that was arranged in the principal’ room.

By the time the Higher Tillage School had got the status of Academy (in 1901), the fund numbered 3567 of tittles (5908 units) including such spheres as husbandry, animal breeding and veterinary, management, organization and accounting in agriculture, mechanization of husbandry, technology, farm mechanization, forestry, physics and meteorology, chemistry, mineralogy  and geology, botany, growing vegetables and horticulture, zoology and physiology, general natural science, mathematics, etc.

The Library possessed works of periodicals (234 tittles) published in Poland, Germany, France, USA, England, Italy. Here are some of them: ‘Kosmos’ (Lviv), ‘Technical Periodical’ (Lviv), ‘Tillage Courier’ (Warsaw), ‘Statistic News of Region’ (Lviv), ‘Vienna Agrarian  Newspaper’ (Vienna), ‘Year-book of  the Academy of Science’ (Cracow) and others.

There is a remark in the papers of those times that the fund had insufficient number of professional literature and was situated in unsuited and crammed premises.

Tillage School was one of the first Higher Educational Establishments that contributed to the branch net of small libraries at the departments, rooms and laboratories. The library situated in the room of Physics, numbered 400 volumes and received almost all European Physical magazines.  The library at the laboratory of General Chemistry, was situated in the room of Chief, and numbered 300 volumes. The library of Botanical Museum counted 114 volumes, and received regularly newspapers and magazines on speciality. There were libraries at the laboratory of General Chemistry, at the zoology and zootomy museums. The Department of Husbandry and Crop Growing had the library that numbered 80 volumes in 1896, and 520 volumes by 1914, and received professional scientific periodicals from almost all European countries. The Department of Zoo-techniques, laboratory and museum had the library of  about 500 volumes with catalogues and photos of domestic animals among them.

In 1894-1895 academic year, the library counted 3534 works, 5851 volumes. On the first of July, 1908 it numbered 5076 works in 7437 volumes. The library received 78 newspapers in Polish, German, English, French, Russian, Italian and Chech languages.

During Polish period of our history the library gained unique heritage – about 10000 books of XVIII, XIX and the beginning of XX centuries. The value of that rare fund  reveals  fundamental natural, technical, agrarian sciences of those centuries. There are unique issues published in Berlin, London and Warsaw. The Fund has the collection from private libraries and archives of highborn people with their arms and ex-librises on the covers.

The scientific staff of Tillage Academy increased the Fund of library by their own savings. In the book with the tittle “Dubliany” (Lviv,1897) there is a little table  of bought issues and there are names of those who contributed to it. Mostly there were studio- works of scientific institutions and separate works of Professors.

The information about Library’ functioning could be found in the “Annual of Region of Higher Agrarian School in Dubliany” . In the third volume of scientific works of Higher School (1894) there is a bibliography “List of research works of scientists in Dubliany” published in different issues during 1890-1894.

The most interesting among them are work-books on astronomy, mathematics which date back to the early XVIII century.

The Fund of Rare book is the source of scientific research. Each year the materials of Fund are used by hundreds of members of  scientific staff, post-graduates and students of Lviv Agrarian University, scientists of Ukraine and foreigners from Poland, France, Germany. Owing to Fund materials a great number of dissertations on agronomy, farm building, animal breeding were submitted as well as from the history of agrarian periodicals of Halytchyna.

In 1944 the Higher Tillage School was joined to Lviv Polytechnic Institute. Lviv Agrarian Institute. In 1947, on the basis of the Faculty of Agriculture, Lviv Agrarian Institute was opened officially. At the same time the library was arranged there with the fund of 15000 books.

Soon, the number increased because of generous gift from Moscow Agrarian Academy named after K.A.Saltykov-Shchedrin.

At that time, the library was situated in two rooms of Institute’ hostel on Kotliarevskyi  Street, 22. One of them was a reading-room with 50 reading areas, another served as book depository. A major responsibility of staff was to create the Fund of training books.

In 1948 the first steps towards creating catalogues were done resulted in alphabetical and systematic catalogues, catalogue of foreign literature in 1952 which listed the whole Fund of the Library. The number of readers in 1953 was 2109, 149 professors, 1960 students and personnel among them

It must be claimed that the period of 1960s was the period of knowledge and book cult. The aim of the library was to supply teaching process with the appropriate literature for intelligent and cultural development. However, the amount of books was insufficient, as many as one book per 12-15 students.

Former chief V.L.Koshovyi reported that the period 1962-1965 was the beginning of serious work on bibliography and references.

There were input bulletins, the information was available in the institute newspaper.

In 1966, the library was moved to one of the rooms of main institute premise with the area of 1200 m². Reading-hall could seat 400 persons. It is still here today.

In 1970, the Research Library at LNAU had such structure as follows:

-         the department of book acquisition

-         the department of readers service

-         subscriptions for full-time students and for the student of correspondence, reading hall, sector of bibliography

To improve the information service for the staff each department has someone to inform.  A sector of scientific and technical information, was established at the library.

In 1977, on the basis of this library, it was created Methodical integration of agrarian libraries of Lviv region. It counted 12 libraries: research and scientific institutes (3), research stations (2), higher and secondary educational establishments (6), and the department of agrarian literature of Lviv Regional Research Library.

In 1985, with the assistance of Central Scientific Library of All-Union Academy of Agrarian Sciences, the library of Lviv National Agrarian University granted II category.  The Board of the Institute provided additional premise situated on Studentska St.,1 with the area of 300m² . It became perfect opportunity to have service department of training literature for students.

In 1988, the structure of the library had been improved. It included 5 departments and 5 sectors: the department of development and arrangement of catalogues, book acquisition, the department of fiction and non-fiction, scientific and technical information, cultural and educational, accounting sector, sector of reading-halls. There are 36 members of staff.

In 1990s, Ukraine was proclaimed an Independent country that gave rise to democratic development of agriculture, culture, science. Since then the Library became the center of training specialists.

In 1995-1999, together with UAAS, the library developed the scientific work ‘The history of agrarian science and bibliography’. It was resulted in bibliography guide ‘Activists of cooperative movement in Halytchyna in 1873-1939’, dissertation ‘Ukrainian Agrarian issues of East Halytchyna as the source of bibliographic information’ and others.

Accordind to the regulation of UAAS “About the Concept of Development of Agrarian Libraries of Ukraine and National Doctrine of development of information and bibliography in Ukraine’ the Library works over the introduction of new information technologies. In 2003, the Department of computer technologies was opened, then, computer reading-hall.

Today the Research Library of LNAU is one of the greatest professional branch libraries of Western Ukraine. General Fund of library counts 551953 books: 211367 scientific, 228033 training, 35547 fiction. Each year the library receives over 200 periodicals.

The library intensively promotes historic and scientific, and cultural heritage aimed at attraction of more readers to library. It forms the view by values of national and international cultures and sciences.

During the period that lasted for 155 years the library passed way from small establishment to modern informational and cultural center of the University.

The Library entered the 21^st century with great practical experience that combines traditional and modern technologies and exceeds the expectations of traditional library.