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RNPLS&T’s collections embrace over 8 million copies of domestic and foreign publications in natural sciences and technologies, economics, ecology, chess, library studies and sci-tech information, and related disciplines.

The Library collection has been developing since 1958. The book and journal collection of the State Science Library (1918) made its core. The richest collection is being added to due to mandatory copies of documents in science and technologies, publications purchased, subscriptions and donations. Annually, the collection increases by 60,000 entries on average.

The collection structure:

The collection of domestic printed documents comprises over 3.4 m copies and reflects the repertoire of national publications in science and technology. It includes books, periodicals, unpublished translations in science and technology. The collection embraces the works by Russian scholars and academic and educational organizations, reference and bibliographic publications, industrial, practical, popular publications, textbooks and learning aids. Lifetime editions by many scholars and fathers of natural sciences and technological studies: Mikhail Lomonosov, Dmitry Mendeleev, Nikolay Zhukovsky, Nikolay Lobachevsky, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, etc., are well preserved in the Library.

The collection of foreign printed documents comprises approx. 2.9m copies, including monographs and works by foreign scientists, proceedings of international and national congresses, conferences and scholarly societies, reference and bibliographic publications, leading journals in natural sciences and technologies published in 19^th-20^th centuries in over 50 world languages.

The collection of machine-readable documents is one of the largest in the country – over 1.7 m copies. It comprises microcopies (microfilms and microfiches) of the originals in RNPLS&T’s collections or documents acquired otherwise, and the microforms as the true copies without paper original.

The digital collection is the collection of digital copies of RNPLS&T’s rare and precious documents, publications on removable storage devices and foreign books the Library has got perpetual access to. The collection volume is over 20,000 entries being constantly added to. Access to the documents is regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation Part IV. The documents are accessible via Electronic Library or Electronic Archive. The Library has been also expanding its information services by providing online access to many resources (See Remote access to the digital resources).

For the information on publications please see our Electronic catalog and Image catalog of the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology. The users have access to our general depository collections and the specialized collections of the reading rooms and that of the RNPLS&T’s consulting and educational branches.

RNPLS&T holds diverse thematic exhibitions based on its rich collections of books and journals (Thematic exhibitions at RNPLS&T).