Project on digitization of the scientific library of the State Natural History Museum NAS

The project is aimed at digitizing the most valuable copies of books that are kept in the library of the State Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences.

The implementation of such an important project, in the current difficult conditions for Ukraine, became possible only thanks to the help of the NGO "Danube-Carpathian Program / Danube- Carpathian Program", which financed the purchase of the necessary equipment for the digitization process, and above all, a specialized book scanner and a laptop for processing the received scans.

In 2024, the project of digitizing old prints is carried out within the framework of the Voice for Nature Foundation project.

Project statistics

As part of the new project, 125 books were scanned (101 old hands and 24 books published in more recent times) and 11 issues of periodical publication.

The number of authors of the scanned books is 109 (books by old hands: 50, other books: 12 and periodicals: 47).

The number of scanned pages is limited to 36233 (books by old hands: 31172, other books: 2543 and periodicals: 2318). All files were, after scanning, submitted to further processing in a graphic editor and converted into pdf format for posting on the website and further free downloading and in review mode without first downloading.

Statistical data on scanning of old prints

Statistics on scanning other books

Statistical data on scanned periodicals

The museum library contains about 120 old prints (before 1800), the oldest of which dates back to 1548. Old prints have more historical value. But the newer ones (published before 1939), which relate to the research of the region of Galicia and adjacent territories, have scientific value. Our library is one of the oldest natural history libraries in Ukraine. Scientists in modern research turn to the sources, so these books have not only important historical significance, but also great importance for modern scientists.

The foundation of its foundation was a unique collection started by Józef Kalasanty Didushytskyi (1776-1847). In his estate in the village Potorytsia in the Sokal region (Lviv region), collecting unique books, old prints, manuscript materials, parchment and iconographic materials, Yu. Didushytskyi founded a library, which was known as the "Potoritsky Library". Maintaining ties with bookstores in Lviv, Krakow, and Vienna, exchanging books with well-known bibliophiles, and thanks to his financial capabilities, Y. Didushytskyi collected a library of more than 10,000 volumes.

In 1857, his son Volodymyr Didushytskyi (1825-1899) moved the library from Potorytsia to Lviv and from 1863 began to stock it exclusively with naturalistic literature, which as of March 1, 1865 had 18,325 printed volumes, 321 manuscripts books, 203 documents (of which 93 are parchment), 1473 autographs, 2568 drawings.

Since 1858, the Potorytsk library has been available to scientists, journalists, writers and students. "Rules for borrowing books of the Potorytskyi library" dated 1866, and journals accounting for books borrowed in 1863, 1868-1900 have been preserved.

Since 1870, the library began to function as a part of the Natural Museum founded by V. Didushytskyi. In 1950, the library was replenished with natural literature (about 20,000 items) from the Scientific Society named after T.G. Shevchenko. Today, the library fund consists of more than 70,000 preservation units.

The museum's library houses books from the 16th century, the historical, cultural and scientific value of which is obvious. The fund contains more than 100 foreign old prints, including: the first encyclopedia of natural science "Natural History" by the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder, published in 1548 (paleotype) and 1779 in 37 books; the books of the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle, who made a significant contribution to the development of biology as a science.

These unique books include the lifetime editions of world-famous naturalists - the first encyclopedia of zoological knowledge by the Swiss naturalist, bibliographer K. Gesner "History of Animals" in 5 volumes (1598-1613); the books of the Polish naturalist of Scottish origin Y. Jonston, including "Natural History" (1650-1653); the book of the French writer, science popularizer B. Fontenel "Conversations about the greatness of the world" (1765); books by the German botanist J.H. Schreber, in particular, "Description of herbs with their drawings" (1769); the encyclopedia "History of Nature" (1785) by the French naturalist D. L. Buffon, who studied the problem of the origin of species 100 years before Ch. Darwin; many editions of the scientific works of the Swedish naturalist K. Linnaeus, published before 1778; the first "Natural History of Invertebrates" (1792) by the French scientist J.H. Brugier; books by J.-B. Lamarck, N. Poda, G.V. Dobel and many others, published before 1800.

The library's periodicals have always been an important component of the fund. They widely present materials from the 19th - early 20th centuries. In the catalog 1903-1938. recorded 499 titles of scientific and natural journals and newspapers (all in foreign languages), which the museum subscribed to or received through exchange. Among those included in the list are many complete sets of a number of seminal journals from their inception. Among the long-standing collections used by scientists even today are: "Sylwan" (since 1820), "Zeitschrift für Entomologie" (since 1847), "Journal für Ornithologie" (since 1853), "Verhandlungen der Keiserlish - Königlichen Zoologisch - Botanische Gesellschaft in Wien" (since 1859), "Sprawozdanie Komisyi Fiziograficznej" (since 1867), "Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift" (since 1872), "Łowiec" (1878), "Pamiętnik fizyograficzny" (since 1881), "Rozprawy i Wiadomości z muzeum im. Dzieduszyckych" (since 1914), "Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne" (since 1921), "Bulletin of Entomological Research" [London] (since 1922) and many others.

The fund of the museum library contains 269 folders, each of which contains from 10 to 80 prints (copies of articles) of the 18th - 20th centuries. On 125 folders made during the lifetime of V. Didushytskyi, his initials and the names of the materials stored in them are embossed in gold. All materials, many of which are autographed by the authors, relate to Galicia and adjacent territories. The materials stored in the folders (90% written in Latin print) highlight the diversity of approaches and views on one or another scientific problem.

The museum library contains a large fund of cartographic materials (maps and atlases), which are an essential attribute of everyday work with museum collections. The chronological boundaries of these materials begin with 1772. Most of them cover the territory of Galicia and highlight the political and administrative structure of the region at different historical times, for example, maps of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1855 and 1872), Galicia and Bukovyna (1870), etc.

Fundamental cartographic works of the main cartographic schools and significant publishers of the 19th century, namely F. Handtke, K. Fleming, H. Freitag, etc., are fairly fully represented in the library's holdings.

Of particular interest among the cartographic materials of the end of the 19th century. represent large-scale maps produced by the Austrian Imperial Military Cartographic Institute on the order of the Austrian General Staff. These are scale maps from 1:75000 ("special") to 1:200000. Among them there are "special" maps of the Carpathians and the western regions of Ukraine. Until now, the "Geological Atlas of Galicia" is valuable, which consists of 74 geological maps (64.52 cm) with texts to the atlas (1887-1911), most of which were written by museum employees (M. Lomnytskyi, Yu. Semiradskyi, V. Shainokha and etc.).

A significant part of cartographic materials consists of maps of Russia depicting the territory of Ukraine, which reproduce the events of the First World War.

As for city plans, the museum library has plans for Lviv, Vienna, Prague, Kraków, St. Petersburg, New York, etc. The most valuable of them is the "Plan of the City of Lviv", issued by the City Council in 1868.

The collection of handwritten materials (author's originals) remaining in the museum library covers the period from 1819 to 1939

Among these materials, the archive of the Didushytskyi family has historical value. The following are stored here: the charter of the Didushytsky practice, business documents about the family's property since 1845, the family's business correspondence, personal notebooks and scientific works of the museum's founder, alphabetical lists of books made by V. Didushytsky.

The author's manuscripts are of interest to scientists, including scientific articles, monographs, essays by geologist L. Zeishner, zoologist E. Schauer, naturalists M. and Ya. Lomnytskyi, Yu. Teyser, forester F. Vyshomirsky, etc.

The "Sprawozdania Muzeum" of various years before 1937, the reports and correspondence of the Society for the Protection of Nature 1930-1940, the Statute, Program and reports of the Entomological Society of Galicia, books of reviews of museum visitors since 1871 are of considerable value.

The library fund has a significant number of diplomas, certificates, and other awards, which were awarded to V. Didushytskyi (since 1856) and the museum for public and scientific activities, for significant achievements and successes in world and regional exhibitions. Of the 84 diplomas and certificates, 59 were signed by the most famous personalities of those times.

The modern fund of the Museum's Scientific Library consists of naturalistic literature. According to its purpose, it is divided into main and exchange.

The main fund consists of:

• Cyrillic books ( civilly printed books ),
• of foreign literature before 1939,
• modern foreign books,
• reference and bibliographic literature,
• abstracts and dissertations,
• modern periodicals (in 30 languages of the world) from 1940,
• cartographic materials (geographical, topographical, historical, etc.),
• manuscripts;
• diplomas and honors.

The exchange fund of the library, started by the founder of the museum, existed until 1939. In 1960, it was created anew. Based on the "Regulations on the exchange fund of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" drawn up and approved in 1996, it is compiled from the museum's scientific publications. As of January 1, 2023, it has 71,954 documents (books, periodicals, dissertation abstracts, prints, brochures, booklets). The library maintains book exchange relations with 48 specialized institutions.