This year marks 100 years since the establishment of the main book Depository of Ukraine — State archive of printing. There is the most complete collection of Ukrainian printed materials over the last century. There are even exclusive books, which the whole world there was only one copy, and some human hand has not touched for several decades! “Today” went to the Book chamber of Ukraine, to learn how to care for the main printed heritage of the country.
“The big nine-storey building filled with books — this is a literary Paradise! I said to the staff of the State archive of printing of the Book chamber of Ukraine, barely crossed the threshold. You probably love to read?” “I love books, — says head of the State archive of the print Yulia sakhnevich. — When I go to visit friends, first of all pay attention to books. I have most of the house has its own small library.”
“I confess, I used to think that Book chamber is the institution, which holds solely different historical and political documents,” I say. “Well, even so — with a smile responsible employee of the State archive of printing Ekaterina Shulzhenko. Usually when I say where I work, people think that I trade books in the tent in Petrovka (book market in Kiev. — Ed.). And my working day begins with the fact that I accept and complete books, then take them into the store and put on shelves. Daily goes through me in about 40 kilograms of the literature is about 100 books. Sometimes eyes clinging to something interesting — this from the archive does not include, left to read. Of the latter, for example, “the Satanic verses”. This novel is banned in many countries of the world, and its author, Nobel prize winner Salman Rushdie, Iranian politicians sentenced to death. But grafomanstva enough, too. Sometimes, in hands come across such absurd books…”.
The head of the office archive. The only warm place in the building.
Cold. Freeze not only books.
The main unit in the truck: “we carried the books into storage. Recently we received a big truck, like in supermarkets. There would be more books. I just uploaded it, so you can come with me to the store”, — says Olga.
The main equipment of the worker — … white gloves and a warm jacket. The fact that the vaults are very cold, from zero to five degrees, and at high cold — even minus. “It’s so cold you need to store books?” — I am interested in. “What are you! The ideal temperature to store them at 17-18 heat — explains Julia. — But the government save us: because of the reduction of budget funds allocated for the provision of Air-chambers, in the archive storage is turned off the heating. And the use of gloves in our work allows to keep books in good condition. We buy gloves mainly at his own expense. The state allocates rubber, but they freeze faster hands.”
Map. The biggest in the archive.
Room. Cipher archival storage.
“We are constantly asking the government to allocate dopsredstv on the contents of the Book chamber — told us the head of Department of publishing and press Committee, Alexei Kononenko. — Not enough money not only on heating, there is an urgent need for additional room. But the resulting failure — say, in the country’s poor economic situation. The money is promised as soon as possible”.
Process. Truck delivered the books to the archive, we begin to place.
Mark. So the staff indicate where the book is.
UNIQUE: 17, 000 BOOKS, WHICH AT LEAST NO LONGER
“The truck is better to drive backwards — tells me the personnel file of Ekaterina Shulzhenko, so convenient to lift and carry her across the threshold”. To reach the archive store on the third floor, we had to go two different stores. To the door each file has a separate key.
“Now we are engaged in the storage of periodicals, says the local guide, head of the state archives Yulia sakhnevich. There are magazines and Newspapers. It is possible that the first number of the newspaper “Today” too. Archive come even Newspapers of small towns, there are millions of copies”. The following store — book: there is new literature. Books “older” are on the fourth floor.
The head of the state Archives print Yulia sakhnevich: “Each binder — rare!”.
“This is the new storage. In fact — the only one which still has a place, — says Julia. — The fact that the place in the vaults of the ends. Now remained only part of the 3rd floor. Books there still can fit a maximum of for the next five years. Negotiations on the construction has long been underway, but the money we allocate to you do not want…”.
Not touched decommunization. On the fourth floor are some old instances(1917-1965 gg.).
The custodians of legal Deposit. 77% of the Fund — periodicals.
We drove trucks to the correct shelf. “When you put the book — look carefully to observe the chronology of the cipher archival storage. We usually take several pieces at once, and when books expose, press with an iron stand, so that they do not fall. The most uncomfortable — a thin book with a soft, slippery cover, they do not hold. They have temporarily put simply pile until they bring the next batch of books hardcover — then they’ll back their weight. In total in our archives there are about a million books alone, says Yulia sakhnevich. Only the Fund has almost 14.5 million printed products. Every year we receive about 150 thousand units of various printed products. By the way, 77% of the Fund is periodical. Ideally, our repository should receive all of the Ukrainian printed materials. The law “About obligatory copy of document” prescribed that all publishers must send one copy of product storage. However, not all send: responsibility for this lies with the publisher. In Soviet times, for a violation of this rule was charged a fee. But today this law, few controls. If the publisher is bona fide, then one copy we receive. We store all types of printed materials: books, pamphlets, theses, magazines and Newspapers, music and fine editions, various signs, posters and even billboards of theatres.” And with all this wealth in the archive is controlled by only 10 people!
Magazines. The names are impressive.
At the end of the year Book chamber publishes magazines — lists of all printed publications issued over the past year in Ukraine.
To apply to the Book chamber and everyone can — for example, if you learned that in 1935 about your grandfather wrote an article in the newspaper “the star”, here you can find a copy. “You can send us a request and we will provide you with a copy of this newspaper, says our guide. In some cases, permission for directory and archive of the Fund of Book chamber get researchers who do not find the necessary materials in libraries. For example, in the library. Vernadsky was a great fire that damaged the newspaper Fund. Because now we very often go to find the copies of the burnt papers. But to take out books from the Book chamber, therefore, as a rule, the researchers come to us with their own scanners.”
From time to time. Because of the poor quality print publications fade.
Here we met the writer, who is looking for information about a forgotten Ukrainian author Andrey Salutem to write an article for… Wikipedia!
There is in the Book room and the special Fund of banned literature — around 17 000 publications that were hidden from the eyes of the readers of censorship. “Many libraries have books “special Fund” is often destroyed, — says Yulia sakhnevich. Or at best sketched the names of the editors and authors. We didn’t do it, they just banned the use of”.
One of the most interesting archival storage of Newspapers, which stores periodicals from 1917 to 1935. Some Newspapers in need of restoration: it was printed in low-quality paint on poor quality paper, and many of the pages had white spots — the paint is weathered. I was allowed to hold the old newspaper Fund. “This is a bibliographic rarity, is proud of Julia. Newspaper “Land and freedom”, published in Kharkov in 1917″. On the first page — the call for elections: “fellow citizens! 9th July there will be elections to the city Duma. I appeal to you with a hot appeal…”.
There are in the store and books from private collections: “these books are ex-libris — a book mark that certifies the owner of the book, which is pasted or stamped with the seal,” explains Julia.
Duty. One copy must be brought to the state archives.
Account. A unique book on spetsnomera.
