Head of the department: Nagiyeva Shahla Ikram
Tel.: (994 12) 493 92 18
E-mail: [email protected]
General Information
Multipurpose book collections of the National library occupy a special place among other library collections which have been developing for long years in our country.
Establishment and development of the National Library’s collections have 90 year-history. In order to provide the activity of the library which was opened officially in 1923, the attention was specifically focused on the purchase of the books from different people. They tried to collect mainly the national printed materials. It is sufficient to show a fact that Economic Board allocated 10 000 manats to the State Library to purchase books published in native language in 1922.
When the Library was opened, 20 441 printed materials had been collected. 900 of them were in Azerbaijani. Then the collections had been systematized in 3 departments:
Eastern department
European department
Russian department
Books, journals, serial publications, newspapers, abstracts on all branches of science (in Azerbaijani and Russian) are held in book stacks. The attention is focused mainly on the establishment, usage and preservation of book collections. Georgian and Armenian items are also held at the collection.
Items have been arranged in systematic, format, inventory code and alphabetical-chronological order.
The Structure
Azerbaijani literature section
The section of items classified by format
Section of journals and serial publications
Electronic section
Section of systematized items
Newspaper collections section
Rare books section
Section of large- format books and maps
Duties
Provides the usage of library collections by all the library users, subscribers of the Department of Inter-Library Subscription and library staff; preserves the numerous book collections.
It promotes a methodical guide to republic libraries on the establishment, preservation and use of the collections.
Establishes preserves and provides the use of the collections on Country Studies.
Main activities
Books are fetched and furnished on the request of users and subscribers. All the library collections are included to the catalogue system;
Rare books section has been functioning since 1962. Its main aim is to collect , preserve and provide the use of scientific works, publications which are regarded valuable for its publication date, miniature books and well-designed items in terms of polygraphy. About 1000 readers use this section during a year. About 7000 printed materials in 16 languages are held and preserved at the collections of the section;
Azerbaijani and Russian newspapers published from 1920 are stored in the newspaper section. Azerbaijani newspaper archive has been created within the collection.