Collections
Collection of magazines and serials published in Belarus, Russia and other CIS member-states comprises more than 2,300,000 items (chronological coverage: from 1917 to present day). The collection of the national document comprises more than 416,000 items. The collection also features the sets of magazines, collected works and articles, reports, scientific papers and other sources of the oldest Belarusian scientific and educational institutions: the National Academy of Sciences, Belarusian State Agricultural Academy, Belarusian State University and others.
The collection of foreign magazines and serials includes more than 1,000,000 publications from the beginning of the 21th century to the present day. The major magazines in many fields of knowledge and in all European languages are presented. Besides, the collection features the publications of the United Nations and other international organizations covering their activities in different regions of the world.
The collection of magazines and serials published before the Russian Revolution (1917) comprises more 280,000 items. The magazine “The Son of the Motherland” (since 1815) is one of the earliest editions in the collection. The collection features the complete sets of scientific magazines in different fields of knowledge: “The News of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (1825–1828), “Proceedings of the Department of People’s Education” (the publications contain information on educational institutions, including those in Belarus) (1825–1829), “The Journal of the Ministry of People’s Education” (1832–1917), “The Proceedings of Russian Imperial Geographic Community” (particular volumes are dedicated to the ethnography of Belarus), the sets of magazines “The Contemporary”, “The Home Proceedings”, and others. The collection is universal and contains the full sets of publications on sociology and politics, philosophy, law, economy, religion, ethnography, statistics, art and education.
Fine arts collection (over 165,000 items) includes posters, reproductions, photos, postcards and engravings. Each kind of sources have their specific characteristic. Posters, reproductions and postcards are presented as single lists and sets of large and small size. The collection has been developing since after World War II. It holds the complete set of Soviet posters, the best part of which are works by Belarusian poster artists: V. Kryukovsky, L. Krol and V. Shmatov. The collection of engravings includes publications from the 18th century up to the present day.
Music collection (over 95,000 items) includes printed music published before, during and after the World War II, as well as contemporary publications. The works by foreign composers published in the early 18th century are the most valuable. The works by F. Shubert published in the author’s lifetime, claviers of all operas by R. Wagner, V. Bellini, J. Rossini and other composers are presented. The collection of printed music published before World War II contains complete sets of revolutionary and patriotic songs. The collection of music published after the World War II includes complete sets of works by M. Glinka, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as collected works by S. Prokofiev and P. Tchaikovsky. The collection of Belarusian music represents the values of the nation. It contains instrumental music, folk songs and teaching material for children’s musical schools, as well as music publications autographed by L. Shleg, V. Kondrusevich, G. Surus and others.
Audio and video materials collection (over 30,000 items) includes CDs, audiocassettes, vinyl disks, videocassettes with records of classical music by Belarusian and foreign authors. The collections of folk music, jazz, pop- and rock music, as well as the records of Belarusian bands and performers, are presented.
СD collection includes over 10,000 items. The collection includes digital documents on science, culture, art and other fields of knowledge.
Newspaper collection holds more than 11,000 titles making up about 54,000 annual sets. The collection includes national documents, documents of the member countries of the CIS and post-soviet countries and foreign publications. The sets of newspapers of the end of the ХIХ century are presented. The most precious is the collection of the national newspapers which holds the historical and cultural importance for the Belarusians. The national documents compose over 65% of the general newspaper collection. Among them are national, regional, district, municipal, published in large editions as well as the newspapers of no longer existing territorial entities. Of great importance are also the newspapers issued in the first years of the Soviet period, both legal and illegal, during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). The collection of foreign newspapers is represented in 25 languages, including the single publications before the World War II in Polish, Czech, French, and German languages, as well as newspapers of foreign communist and labor parties and collections of German newspapers issued in the 1960s–1990s.
The collection structure is presented in the NLB electronic catalog.
