History

On the 14th of October the Perm branch of Petrograd University was open and at the same time the University Library started to work. The Library situated in the private house nearby (41 Permskaya Street) rented deliberately for it. The foundation of the Library collection consisted of book donations of universities, scientific establishments, museums, public organisations and citizens. The first Head of the Library (during the period of 1916-1917) was Professor A.P. Kadlubovskiy, and later it was N.P.Obnorskiy.

In 1921 the whole Library collection (73 thousand copies) was located in the Zemskaya Uprava (Administration) building on Sibirskaya St. (which is now the main building of Pedagogical University) which made a fundamental library. Whilst every study room, every department having organised their scientific work and teaching process were gradually forming their own small libraries. This system was kept till the beginning of 1970-s.

In 1923-1925 at the Natural Science faculties on Zaimka, the Learners’ Library Department was organised and Student Reading Hall was equipped. The Collection was replenished by buying private collections of books; international editions were also ordered and the Collection grew up to 100,000 volumes.

As new Higher Educational Establishments were set up on the basis of PSU in 1930-1931 most part of the library collection was passed over to them. In 1934 the rule was reinstalled that a copy of a new edited book should be sent to the Library; subscription for periodicals increased.

During the World War II the Library rooms were occupied by Headquarters (Narkomat) of the Coal Industry. So there wasn’t any control or security of the books. During the War period the collection reduced to 50,000. 

1954-1949 are the years of restoration of the collection, opening of the departments of international books and periodicals. Book exchange with 113 scientific establishments of the country was restarted. The Head of the Library from 1949 till 1987 was Filiniyh Zoya Dementievna.

In 1956 the Library gets the structure of the modern university library. The following departments were open: the Lending Department of Natural Sciences and Humanities, the Learners’ Lending Department for Part-time Students, Inter-Library Learners’ Department. The circulation is getting more active.

On the 17th of October 1972 the 1,000,000th book was registered in the Library. The staff consists of 70 people. In 1970-s more rooms are given up for the main book storage, Scientific-bibliography Department, the Department of Periodicals, reading halls for the books on Chemistry and Natural Science. Library stock volume reached 1300 copies.

The Head of the Library since 1987 till 2006 is Rogalnikova Raisa Nicolaevna.

In 1990 in the Library there was created the Department of Automation. Since 1992 there started to form electronic catalogue of the new arriving national and international books, database of the articles in periodicals, rare collections. The subscription and a big volume of information and reference work is done on computers.
In 1997 2 Faculty Library Departments were opened: the Reading Hall of the Faculty of Geography and the Law Faculty Library.

At present the Library includes 5 Lending Departments and 9 Reading Halls (560 seats each). The Collection consists of 1,367,000 copies and is differentiated according to the area of knowledge principal, the type of edition principal, and the purpose basis. It consists of the main collection in Russian and other languages, national and international journals, rarities. Every year the Library buys and gets more than 20,000 copies, including compact discs, audio and video cassettes, electronic issues. The annual circulation is 1,000,000 copies. More than 17,000 readers use the Library.

PSU Library is one of the biggest libraries in Perm Region; has a big information database and traditionally settled connections with other libraries of Higher Educational Establishments of Perm, Ural region; and is the Head of the Section of Readers’ Service of the Higher Educational Establishments’ libraries in Perm.