.png){kind=logo}
|
« Back Contact information • History • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: G-24Last update of repository: 18 March 2020Nauchno-tekhnicheskaia biblioteka Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta putei soobshcheniia (NTB PGUPS)Previous names
The library was established in 1809 together with the Institute of the Corps of Transportation Engineers under the Main Administration of Transportation and Public Buildings, and later, the Ministry of Transportation (or literally, Means of Communication). The first rector of the Institute, who had been instrumental in its foundation, was the French engineer, Lieutenant-General August in Béthencourt (A.A. Betankur). Previously in service to the Spanish government, he arranged academic relations with the French School of Bridges and Highways (Ãâ°cole des ponts et chaussés) and brought other faculty from France. One of the first technical engineering schools in the country, the Institute trained engineers for the development of the major railroads, canals, and highways of the Russian Empire, although before 1864, it had a predominantly military orientation. The name and administrative affiliation of the Institute has changed many times in the course of its long history. During the Soviet period (1931–1991), while the name of the Institute suggested its orientation for railroad engineering, its faculty and graduates were also involved in electrification, hydroelectric projects, and other major construction enterprises. In 1949, the Institute took the honorific name of the Soviet transportation engineer Vladimir Nikolaevich Obraztsov (1874–1949), whichit dropped in 1992. The Institute was raised to the status of a university in 1993, at which time it received its present name, sometimes translated as the St. Petersburg State University of Means of Communication. Before 1917, the library acquired holdings from the private libraries of Minister of Transportation K.N. Pos'et, the architect Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, and the engineer N.A. Beleliubskii, as well as manuscript materials from the Main Administration of Transportation and other state institutions, construction agencies, archives, and libraries. In1918 the library ceased being only an agency depository. The library developed considerably during the Soviet period. With the change of the Institute to university status in 1993, the library acquired its present name and status as a scientific university library. Current library holdings (ca. 1,300,000 volumes) comprise literature on civil and electrical engineering, railroad transportation, manufacturing, automation and computer technology, and include dissertations defended at the Institute. Most of the manuscript holdings—now part of the Fond of Manuscripts and Rare Books—are connected with prominent engineers and architects who were teachers or students of the Institute and who donated their personal documentary collections or writings to the library during their lifetime or by will. N.B. Considerable documentation from LIIZhT and specialists connected with that Institute is now held by the Central Museum of Railroad Transportation—TsMZhT, which is currently under the administration of the University, as it was after its foundation in the nineteenth century and during parts of the Soviet period. |
