Opening Hours:
Monday — Friday: 9:00 to 21:00; Saturday, Sunday: 11:00 to 19:00; the Central Reference Library is closed on Sunday.
Number of seats : 16 (some of these have PCs)
Contact us:
Telephone: +7(812) 718-85-97 Address: 1-3, Ostrovsky Square, Saint Petersburg
Where to find us: First Floor Plan
The Reading Room has seating for 16 readers. Number of seats have Internet access and access to remote subscription resourses, some offer access to our digital library and e-catalogues. The room also houses the Central Reference Library and Thematic Reference Desks.
At the Thematic Reference Desks in the room, you can receive assistance on certain research topics (socio-economic sciences, humanitarian areas, St. Petersburg, natural science, technical disciplines, medicine and biology ).
The Central Reference Collection includes pre-1974 Russian reference items published from 1728 and pre-1984 foreign reference books and magazines printed since the 17th century. These are thematic bibliographic indexes, printed catalogues of the largest libraries, union catalogues, state bibliographic indexes of the Russian Federation, personal bibliographic manuals, reference books: encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, biographical and bibliographic dictionaries of all types, linguistic, terminological, spelling, explanatory dictionaries, guidebooks for archives, address books of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The Central Reference Library is also located in the New Building (165/2, Moskovsky Prospekt). The New Building stores post-1975 items in Russian and foreign materials printed from 1985 onwards.
Location Maps
Reader Registration
Reading Rooms
Floor Plans
Using the Reading Rooms
Food, Drink
Cloakrooms, Storage, Wi-Fi
Accessibility
Book Shop
The Library is open Monday—Friday from 9:00 to 21:00; Saturday, Sunday from 11:00 to 19:00.
The Library is closed on public holidays and last Tuesday of each month. On pre-holidays, the Library is open from 9:00 to 16:00.