Scientific Library

Monday - Friday from 11:00 to 18:00
Days off - Saturday, Sunday
Last Wednesday of the month - sanitary day

Contacts
Phone: 498-02-98
e-mail: libraryspbmuseum@mail.ru


Third-party visitors are served on the basis of a letter of application, which must be endorsed by the management of the organization where the potential reader works or studies.
Obtaining reference and bibliographic information is also possible by phone and e-mail.



About the Scientific Library

The Fund of the Scientific Library has about 55,000 copies of books and 10,000 copies of periodicals and is a unique local history collection on various issues of the history of St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad.

The book collection of the museum began to take shape in 1907 in the Museum of Old Petersburg and in 1918 became part of the collections of the Museum of the City, which initially included the arrangement of classrooms, classrooms, workshops, reading rooms and a library.

Since 1922, the library has been part of the Library and Information Department. Pre-revolutionary book collections formed the basis of the library fund and continued to be replenished with modern editions. By 1927, the Museum of the City had already collected more than 66,000 books. The new museum was dedicated not to a specific city, but to the history of urban planning, urban economy and culture in general. Therefore, in our book collection there are publications that tell about architecture and urban planning in the world and a collection of architectural magazines of the 20-30s in foreign languages.

Unfortunately, the library fund suffered the fate of most of the valuable collections. It was partly disbanded and sold at the end of the 1920s, partly was lost during the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad.

As a result, by 1955, when the library resumed its activities, its book collection consisted of about 21,000 books.

In the publications that we inherited from the Museum of the City, the urban economy of Petrograd-Leningrad in the 20-30s was reflected in all its manifestations: economy, transport, construction, cultural life. This tradition continued in the future.

   The thematic structure of the library fund evolved depending on the direction of the museum's activities and was determined by the diversity of its collections. This was reflected in the diversity of the fund. But, despite the change in the name, location and tasks of the museum, its main goal has always been to collect a collection on various issues.
history of St. Petersburg-Leningrad:
- architecture and construction;
- life and urban economy;
- history of enterprises and organizations of the city;
- history of houses and streets of the city;
- scientific and cultural life of the city.

Publications were collected purposefully and systematically. Thanks to this, the library has become the owner of a number of unique collections:
- collection of the book collection of the Museum of the City;
- blockade collection;
- collection of departmental publications;
- collection of publications of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.

A peculiar chronicle of the life of our city is presented on the shelves of the library and new books become its new pages!
The history of the museum has influenced the thematic composition of its collections. Some of its funds are not directly related to the history of St. Petersburg (Fund of photographs of world cities, Fund of painting and graphics, Fund of numismatics, Fund of weapons). To ensure the operation of these funds, the library is equipped with specialized literature.

Along with books, the library has a fairly wide repertoire of historical and art historical periodicals.