Online Catalogues

Now our library is converting physical card catalogues to machine-readable form and aims to create the union online catalogue.

The electronic catalogue is multilingual. In addition to descriptions of Russian items and books in the European languages, it contains books in languages of the Russian Federation and the Former Soviet Union (since 2000).

Time span: it covers books published in the European languages since 1501, Russian items dated from 1708 to the present day.

The electronic catalogue includes information on books, booklets, abstracts, serials (Russian and foreign), as well as cartographic editions (since 1994), printed music and sound recordings (since 2009), electronic resources on CDs; data on the Digital Library.

The catalogue records represent work in progress which is edited and added due to new acquisitions and gradual replacement card catalogues by their electronic version. In 2015, it embraced the following catalogues:

Publications of the 16th Century in Foreign Languages describes one of the world's largest collections of sixteenth-century works in foreign European languages. The collection numbers roughly 40 000 items held in the National Library of Russia.
The electronic catalogue contains details for books, booklets, and theses published in European languages between 1501 and 1600 in a wide range of subjects: history, theology, philosophy, natural sciences, medicine, social sciences, law, printing, belles-lettres, arts, technology, and classical philology. Among them are many precious, unique masterpieces by early printers in Italy, France, Germany and the Low Countries.
The Library has created the electronic catalogue of the sixteenth-century publications by converting old hand-written catalogues of the Imperial Public Library to machine-readable form. It comprises 36 202 bibliographic records of three kinds: most of these records are brief descriptions, some of them are expanded or full scientific descriptions, displayed in the RUSMARC format.
The quality of the information reflects the cataloguing standards for early printed books.
The catalogue records represent work in progress which may be edited and added.

The Rare Books Department's collection of incunabula is largest in Russia. It comprises more than 6 000 titles and contains landmarks of the fifteenth-century European printing in Latin, German, Italian, French, Dutch and other languages.
They represent a diverse and rather comprehensive range of heritage books printed in West European countries during the earliest years (infancy) of typography and include Bibles, theological and liturgical books, works of Fathers of the Church, scientific literature, and fiction.
The Catalogue of 15th-century European Publications is based on brief descriptions of incunabula from the Short Title Catalogue of the Incunabula Collection (issues no. 1-4, descriptions of incunabula from Abiosus to Lupoldus de Bebenburg inclusive), supplemented with descriptions of incunabula made by the staff of the Rare Books Department for the subsequent issues of the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue. Over 150 records of the catalogue specify the particular features of copies belonging to the National Library of Russia.

The database European Publications of the 15th Century. /Incunabula/ in the Collections of the NLR includes more than 3,400 records. The Library continues to edit the catalogue entries and add new records to the catalogue.

The electronic catalogue Rossica was created by converting information from the similar part of the card General Foreign Author/ Title Catalogue to an electronic format.
The electronic catalogue contains descriptions for items from the collection Rossica, including:

• foreign works relating to Russia, published in West European languages;
• translations of Russian writers into West European languages.

The catalogue covers foreign-language publications about Russia acquired before 1930.
Excluded from the catalogue are: regulations, periodicals, publications in Greek, as well as some material types.
If you were not able to find the description of the publication you are interested in, please, contact our librarian, using the Online Enquiry Form.

The 1st Cadet Corps Library database contains bibliographic details for items in a special collection held in the Rare Books Department of our Library.

The military school's library was founded in 1732, the year of the foundation of the 1st Cadet Corps itself. The library of the 1st Cadet Corps had grown over the years and in 1909 contained 15 thousand books (4,5 thousand titles) and 365 hand-written cadets' notebooks.
Later, however, the library were dispersed between some different collections. The National Library of Russia possesses of the greater part of its holdings and now stores a single collection of 7,137 items, of which 6,822 are in foreign languages.
The database lists every books and brochures, periodicals and other serials from this collection of particular importance, held in the National Library of Russia. In addition, it also includes records for thirteen rare book of the 16th century from the 1st Cadet Corps Library, now available in the Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow.

The catalogue records comprise bibliographic description, author, organisation, title and shelfmark. The descriptions also contain such characteristic features of items like owners' autographs, hand-written notes, ex-librises, stamps, labels etc.
Bibliographic records provide valuable and faithful resources for the study of not only the history of the 1st Cadet Corps Library but also cultural relations of Russia with Baltic and West European countries during the 18th-20th centuries.
The catalogue records may be edited and added. Newly-received information on items from the 1st Cadet Corps Library, held in other libraries, helps to expand the coverage of the database.

The Books in West European Languages Published in Russia between 1701 and 1800 is a database created by converting data from the printed Union Catalogue of Foreign Language Books Published in Russia during the 18th Century to an electronic format. This includes descriptions for documents published both by Russian printers and by publishing firms that used foreign printing facilities. The NLR (Rossica collection) holds 60% of the documents listed in the printed catalogues.
The compilers prepared some descriptions when viewing the book at first-hand. The database contains 2200 records for books, pamphlets, periodicals, as well as decrees, manifestos and other government publications with title-page or title information. The database includes material in various fields of knowledge and in many European languages: Latin (scientific writings and belles-lettres, mainly verses and speeches on different occasions); German (works on mathematics, philosophy and linguistics, travel writings, etc.); French (fiction, books on natural sciences and history, generally published in the second half of the 18th century), Italian (libretti, presentation verses and speeches on different occasions), Greek and Polish (textbooks, presentation verses and speeches on different occasions), and some others.

The electronic catalogue of the Publications in Yiddish from Collections of the Asian & African Literature Department was launched in 2006. There are approximately 3,380 titles in the current catalogue which covers items produced in Russia from the early nineteenth century onwards. It contains details for books, booklets, dissertations, and individual serial volumes, chiefly, in Yiddish, and partly, in Russian and West European languages.

The catalogue entries include: bibliographic description; name headings, the headings for publishers/printers.
Some details such as authors, titles, titles of serials are also given in Russian translation.
The catalogue records represent work in progress which may be edited and added.

The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. It covers accessions from 1725 to 1998. The catalogue contains bibliographic details of over 7 million books and other items including prints, collected standart-technical documents, dissertation abstracts and microfilms.
The catalogue includes entries for journals, periodicals and other serial titles. The catalogue entries contain full details of the title, the place of publication, and the dates which are held. However, data about specific issues of these titles are not available in all cases. Records of music scores, maps (see Cartographic Materials) and newspapers are excluded from the database.
Please note!
The catalogue will only find records that are written on guide cards.
The guide cards devide the catalogue into separate sections for easier search. A typical section comprises about 50 cards, each one numbered sequentially. The catalogue search identifies the guide card, which is at the beginning of each section. To see the contents of a section, press the guide card.

The International Union Catalogue of Russian Books (1918 - 1926) includes bibliographic details for books in Russian, produced by state, cooperative and private publishers between 1918 and 1926. The database includes information about books issued in the Russian Federation, Soviet Union, as well as books of the Russian Diaspora abroad and the "White Movement".
The material will be made available in both electronic and printed form. The seven volumes of the similar printed catalogue appeared in 2002/2017 (about 5 thousand records per volume). Volume eight is still in course of preparation and will be published soon.
The catalogue describes not only our Library's collections but also holdings of 1202 organizations from 41 countries. Catalogue records were compiled from a wide range of external sources, including domestic and foreign libraries, book chambers, museums, archives, universities. The compilers made maximum use of electronic and printed catalogues, bibliographic indexes, bibliographic resources on the Internet and so on.
Today the Library continues to add records to the catalogue. Data on material from collections available in other libraries helps to expand the coverage of the catalogue. At present the NLR maintains the database containing 143492 entries.

The catalogue Russian Eighteenth-century Secular Printed Books (1708 - 1800) in the Libraries of the Russian Federation lists almost every book published in Russia between 1708 and 1800. It has been a long process creating the catalogue. In the early stages of the work, the catalogue described our Library's eighteenth-century collections. Later, catalogue records were compiled from a wide range of external sources, including libraries, museums, archives, universities. At present, the catalogue contains details for over 20,880 books, held in the National Library of Russia and in 166 other major Russian, Ukrainian, CIS countries and Baltic institutions. In 2006, the database was supplemented with descriptions of 5049 imperial decrees and manifestos available in the NLR. The similar printed union catalogue did not contain these data.
The quality of the information reflects the cataloguing standards for early printed books. The catalogue is regularly updated. Newly-published material from reference works and bibliographies helps to expand the coverage of the catalogue.

The electronic catalogue of Russian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian Journals/Serials (1728 -) contains details of journals, periodicals and other serials in Russian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian, held by the National Library of Russia. The catalogue describes periodical publications, dating from 1728 to the present day.
The catalogue was created by converting information from the card General Auther Catalogue of Serials to an electronic format. Today the Library continues to add data to the catalogue and edit catalogue entries. You may search the catalogue for a title of a periodical or a title of its specific issue. Periodical publications of an organization or learned society may be searched by the name of the organization.

The database Russian Journals/Serials of the First Quarter of the Ninteenth Century. A Description of the Content was compiled between 1995 and 2006 in preparation for the Union Catalogue of Russian Journals/Serials (1801-1825) (vols.1-3).
There was a need of experts in literature, history, bibliography for search for individual works included in journals published during the reign of Alexander I. In response, compilers of the Russian Journals/Serials of the First Quarter of the Ninteenth Century placed the local database, describing the content of 84 journals from this period on the site of the National Library of Russia. This resource, containing over 29 thosand entries, enables users to search by author/editor, by title, year of publication, geographical index. The records correspond to the text of three printed volumes, but a name index is represented in a more simplified form.
All other details about journals (a full bibliographic description of an item, its creation story, its censorship story, list of literature, a location in libraries etc) you can find only in the ptinted catalogue.

The Foreign Journals/Serials database covers European journals, periodicals and other serials in the NLR Foreign Journal stocks.
The catalogue was created by converting information from the card General Auther Catalogue of Serials to an electronic format. Today the Library continues to add data to the catalogue and edit catalogue entries.

The union electronic catalogue Russian Newspapers (1703 - 1917) was created as a result of co-operative efforts of the three libraries: the National Library of Russia (NLR) in Saint Petersburg, the Russian State Library (RSL) and the State Public Historical Library (SPHL) in Moscow. Descriptions of newspapers from the collections of these libraries form the basis of the catalogue. They enriched by entries for newspapers, held at the Scientific Library of Federal Archives (SL FA), the Sverdlov Regional Universal Scientific Library named after V. Belinsky (SRUSL) in Yekateriburg.

The catalogue includes bibliographic records for union sets of newspapers (compiled from all libraries – participants), published in Russian from 1703 to 1917 inclusive. In geographic scope it covers the territory that was the Russian Empire in 1913. In addition, the catalogue includes newspapers, printed in such important centers of the Russian Diaspora abroud as Lviv, Chernivtsi, Harbin, and also those items that were issued by armies in the field.

As part of the creation of e-catalogues describing the Collections of the Asian & African Literature Department, the National Library of Russia made the first attempt to convert records from the card Catalogue of Yiddish Newspapers to an elecronic format. It resulted in a list of the newspapers in the Roman alphabet, provided for the attention of readers.
The list represents the most accurate copy of the card Catalogue of Yiddish Newspapers: even the notes of cataloguers on cards are retained as far as possible. The notes also reflect differences in versions of bibliographic descriptions of various newspapers. If necessary, information from the catalogue is confirmed in the notes by the word "sic". At this stage of the work, reconciliation of the newspaper holdings was done only for selected items.
The list is presented in two versions. The first is the Alphabetical Index of titles, provided with numbers and notes. For each title, it gives the dates and place of its publication and issues available in the NLR. The Geographical Index is arranged alphabetically by the place of publication, then by title. It is incomplete as compared with the title index, since the place of publication is not always included in the catalogue entry. The geographic list shows only the titles of newspapers and years of publication.

The Union Catalogue of Publications in Finno-Ugric contains bibliographic details for publications in Finno-Ugric languages, covering Ingrian, Lappish, Karelian, Udmurt, Khanty, Komi, Mansi, Mari, Mordvin, Sámi, Udmurt, Veps.
The catalogue records for pre-revolutionary publications (printed before 1917) were compiled from a range of external sources including National Libraries of Republics of Karelia, Komi, Mariy-El, Mordovia, Udmurtia, as well as the National Library of Finland at the Helsinki University and the Institute for the Languages of Finland.
The catalogue lists every publication in Ingrian, Lappish, Khanty, Mansi or Veps, held in the National Library of Russia. All the pre-revolutionary literature from the NLR holdings, listed in this catalogue is digitized and presented in the Digital Library.
The catalogue also covers accessions in Finno-Ugric languages of the Russian Federation since 2000. The catalogue describes not only our Library's collections but also holdings available in National Libraries of Finno-Ugric Republics. The catalogue records represent work in progress which may be edited and added. Записи даны в формате RUSMARC.

The electronic catalogue of Publications in Languages of the Russian Federation and CIS countries contains bibliographic records for items in all languages of the Russian Federation and CIS countries other than Russian.
The catalogue lists every publication in Palaeosiberian languages (Chukchi, Koryak, Eskimo etc), Samoyedic languages (Nenets, Nganasan, Selkup etc), and Manchu-Tungus languages (Evenki, Oroqen etc), held in the National Library of Russia. It also covers accessions in other languages of the Russian Federation since 2000.
The database is constantly expand. It will be updated with publications from previous years. Publications in the languages of the peoples of Russia with a parallel title and text in Russian are included in the Electronic Catalogue.
Publications in Finno-Ugric languages, covering Ingrian, Lappish, Karelian, Khanty, Komi, Mansi, Mari, Mordvin, Udmurt, Veps, are listed in the Union Catalogue of Publications in Finno-Ugric.

The Author/ Title Catalogue of Books in Armenian (1623-2006) is arranged in Armenian alphabetical order by un-transliterated author name or title word. The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images.
It covers Armenian materials printed from 1623 to the present day.
The catalogue contains records for publications in Armenian language held in the Department of National Literatures. The catalogue includes entries for books, and serial titles.
The catalogue comprises over 64 thousand cards. The catalogue records, written in Armenian script, contain full bibliographic details of the title. The records include Armenian-Russian translations of titles.

The Catalogue of Armenian Newspapers of the Department of National Literatures is arranged in Armenian alphabetical order by un-transliterated title word. The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. The catalogue includes more than 200 titles, among which 89 are newspapers published before 1917.
The bibliographic descriptions are written in Armenian script. The catalogue contains about 2,000 cards.

The online Catalogue of Armenian Journals/Serials was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. It lists Armenian journals, periodicals and other serials held in the Department of National Literatures.
The catalogue covers publications since 1845 up to the day, among them are 97 titles of journals published before 1917. The catalogue includes1,100 cards for more than 200 titles, among which 89 are newspapers published before 1917. The bibliographic descriptions are given in Armenian with the translation of the title into Russian.
The entries are arranged in Armenian alphabetical order. The catalogue of Armenian periodicals contains about 1,100 cards. It is periodically updated with new journal titles.

The Author/ Title Catalogue of Books in Georgian is arranged in Georgian alphabetical order by un-transliterated author name or title word. The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images.
It covers Georgian books, dissertation abstracts and periodicals printed from 1629 to the present day.
The catalogue comprises over 105 thousand cards. The catalogue records are written in Georgian script and include Russian translations of titles.

The Catalogue of Georgian Newspapers of the Department of National Literatures is arranged in Georgian alphabetical order by un-transliterated title word. The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. The catalogue includes more than 350 titles, among which 153 are newspapers published before 1917.
The bibliographic descriptions are written in Georgian script. The catalogue contains about 2,000 cards.

The Catalogue of Georgian Journals/Serials was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. It lists Georgian journals, periodicals and other serials held in the Department of National Literatures.
The catalogue covers publications since 1852 up to the day, among them are 179 titles of journals published before 1917. The catalogue includes1,100 cards for more than 200 titles, among which 89 are newspapers published before 1917. The bibliographic descriptions are written in Georgian with the translation of the title into Russian.
The entries are arranged in Georgian alphabetical order. The catalogue of Georgian periodicals contains about 1,700 cards. It is periodically updated with new journal titles.

The Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia is widely known as one of the world’s most important repository, not only by size, but also by its exceptional historical and cultural value.
The electronic Catalogue of Manuscript Materials describes Old Russian, Oriental and archival materials stored in the Manuscripts Department. It may be searched by all the main characteristics of the manuscript. The catalogue is based on the "Depository" Information Retrieval System, developed by the specialists of the National Library to create an electronic database of the manuscript holdings.
The catalogue is regularly updated.

The catalogue of Manuscripts Collections provides brief descriptions of all the collections of the Manuscripts Department, which are on open access to the public. These are about 1,400 collections. The search is carried out by collection number or name, as well as by personality, and institution name. The catalogue is based on the "Depositary" Information Retrieval System, used by the Manuscripts Department for conducting an electronic database of manuscripts.

The Author/Title Catalogue of Printed Music (1518- ) provides access to information about music scores housed in the Printed Music and Recorded Sound Department.
The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images.
It covers materials dating from 1518 up to the present day.
The catalogue is arranged alphabetically by composer name or title word. It is regularly updated. The Library continues to add new records to the catalogue. We apologize for the inconvenience.
In case of any problems, contact us by email at oniz@nlr.ru.

The database of Cartographic Materials (1994-) provides access to information about maps and atlases acquired by the Cartographic Department since 1994.

The Catalogue of Russian Printed Maps and Atlases (1700-2004) is arranged alphabetically by geographic heading.
The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. The Library maintains the catalogue in Russian. It covers cartographic materials published from 1700 to 2004.
The catalogue contains records for Russian printed maps and atlases held in the Cartographic Department. The catalogue includes over 60 thousand cards. Catalogue records contain full bibliographic details representing a cartographic item and added entries.
The catalogue has guide cards, reference cards and cross-reference cards.
The catalogue is divided into two parts, it consists of two separate catalogues one for maps and the other for atlases which are searched separately:
Catalogue of Russian Printed Maps (1700-2004),
Catalogue of Russian Printed Atlases (1700-2004).
Please note!
The catalogue consists of some sections. A typical section comprises about 50 cards, each one numbered sequentially. The Catalogue Search identifies only the guide card, which is at the beginning of each section. To see the contents of a section, press the guide card.

The Catalogue of Foreign Printed Maps and Atlases (1500-2004) is arranged alphabetically by geographic heading.
The online catalogue was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images.
It covers cartographic materials printed from 1500 to 2004.
The catalogue contains records for printed maps and atlases held in the Cartographic Department. The catalogue includes over 48 thousand cards. The catalogue records contain full bibliographic details representing a cartographic item and added entries. The catalogue has guide cards, reference cards and cross-reference cards.
The catalogue is searched by entering a keyword - a geographic name in Russian. If necessary, you can use our virtual keyboard to enter search terms in Russian.
The catalogue is in two parts, it consists of two separate catalogues one for maps and the other for atlases which are searched separately:
Catalogue of Foreign Printed Maps (1500-2004),
Catalogue of Foreign Printed Atlases (1500-2004)
Please note!
The catalogue consists of some sections. A typical section comprises about 50 cards, each one numbered sequentially. The Catalogue Search identifies only the guide card, which is at the beginning of each section. To see the contents of a section, press the guide card.

The online Catalogue of Russian Historical Maps and Atlases (1700-2004) was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images. The catalogue contains records for historical printed maps and atlases (maps depicting historical periods or events irrespective of the year of publication), held in the Cartographic Department.
The Catalogue of Russian Historical Maps and Atlases (1700-2004) is a part of the systematic catalogue maintained by the Cartographic Department, but entries listed in the historical catalogue are not duplicated in the Alphabetical Geographical Catalogue arranged by place names.
The catalogue includes about 5 thousand cards. Catalogue records contain full bibliographic details representing a cartographic item and added entries under the names of historical events.
Please note! The catalogue has guide cards arranged in chronological order. All guide cards are provided for the user in Russian.

The online Catalogue of Foreign Historical Maps and Atlases (1501 - 2004) was created by scanning the similar card catalogue and represents the database of electronic card images.
The catalogue contains records for historical printed maps and atlases (maps, reflecting historical periods or events irrespective of the year of publication), held in the Cartographic Department.
The Catalogue of Foreign Historical Maps and Atlases (1700-2004) is a part of the systematic catalogue maintained by the Cartographic Department, but entries listed in the historical catalogue are not duplicated in the Alphabetical Geographical Catalogue arranged by place names.
The catalogue includes about 5 thousand cards. Catalogue records contain full bibliographic details representing a cartographic item and added entries under the names of historical events.
Please note! The catalogue has guide cards arranged in chronological order. All guide cards are provided for the user in Russian.

The Union Catalogue of Eighteenth-century Russian Printed Maps covers maps and plans in Russian, Latin, German and French printed in Russia during the 18th century.
The catalogue describes collections of the two largest libraries of Russia, namely the National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library, and also holdings of the largest archives and museums: the Russian State Historical Archive, the Russian State Archive of the Navy, the St Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences, the State Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, the State Museum of Fine Arts after A.S. Pushkin, the Central Naval Museum, the State Memorial Museum after A.V. Suvorov.
We look forward to further cooperation with libraries and archives which store maps and plans published in Russia during the 18th century, with the aim of supplementing and expanding the Union Catalogue.
Please note!
The union catalogue excludes plans of St Petersburg.

The database Electronic Copies from the NLR Collections includes bibliographic descriptions for the NLR collection of electronic resources, as well as the materials produced as a result of the digitization of the most valuable and rare items from the holdings of the Prints Department (various types of graphic materials), the Cartographic Department (printed maps and atlases), manuscripts (handwritten books and autographs), as well as work carried out in the framework of various joint projects and contracts. The database comprises a varied mix of materials.
The full-text materials are available to all readers of the National Library of Russia in the reading rooms of specialized departments and at the places of access to the NLR electronic catalogue.
Documents digitized as a result of various joint projects and contracts are presented in the form of separate collections. The outside access to them may be closed because of the contract, as well as in cases where they are subject to copyright and related rights.

The main reference tool for the holdings of the Archival Documents Department are inventories.
The Pre-Revolutionary Archive Collection of Library Documents Libraries - F. 1 The Imperial Public Library. 1795 – 1916 - includes seven inventories compiled in the 19th century and partly in the 20th century. They are handwritten books arranged chronologically.
The inventories presented here are created on the basis of handwritten ones, with minor revision, in accordance with the modern holdings of the Fund 1. During their preparation, all descriptions were checked against items held in storage. Their titles and quantitative characteristics were specified, necessary corrections were made and additional references were given. Vocabulary, punctuation and spelling of the original are kept.
The main part of the fund is reflected in Inventory 1 Chronological Register of the Imperial Public Library for 1795–1916 (5730 items) and in Inventory 1-a “Inventory to the Affairs of the Imperial Public Library, not included in the main Inventory 1, for 1800–1916 (917 items).
A total of seven inventories listed 8172 items survived until today.