| Among the last acquisitions of the manuscript and
rare book department are the G.Polyachek collection, archives of M.Chekhov,
P.Gaideburov, Yu.Slo-nimsky, E.Time, original sketches of costumes and
scenery by S.Yunovich, T.Bruni, M.Kitaev, E.Kochergin, N.Akimov.
The library takes an active part in the research and exhibition work.
These exhibitions help the readers to get acquainted with the library's
stock and with new acquisitions. Original sketches, manuscripts and rare
books are exhibited in St.Petersburg's main museums and abroad.
The library consists of the following departments:
- reader service department;
- the main collection;
- acquisitions, processing and cataloguing department;
- the rare book, manuscript, archive and graphic materials department;
- information and bibliographical work.
The catalogue system of the bibliographical department is a many-branched
system comprised of alphabetic and systematic catalogues and of detailed
card indexes including a summary of the content of each item. Some of these
indexes have a special historical value: the V.Vsevolodsky-Gerngross card
index on the history of Russian dramatic and musical theatre from 1800-1850,
the A.Bryansky card index on Russian books on theatre from 1741-1941, and
the card index on ballet compiled by L.Blok.
Around the turn of the century the library was closed to the wide public,
because of all kinds of art-productions secrets of the producer's department
of the Central Administration of the Imperial Theatres which were kept
there. The pages of the readers' registrations books with the records of
books loaned and books returned were signed by V.Meyerhold, M.Savina, V.Michurina-Samoilova,
A.Sumbatov-Yuzhin, A.Schervaschidze. Among the readers of the library were
theatre producers: E.Karpov, N.Akimov, G.Tovstonogov, R.Agamirzyan, I.Vladimirov,
E.Padve, L.Dodin, S.Spivak, R.Viktyuk; theatre artists: A.Benois, A.Golovin,
K.Korovin, S.Yunovich, T.Bruni, M.Azisyan; actors: Yu.Yurjev, G.Ge, N.Simonov,
A.Raikin, B.Tenin, L.Sukharevskaya, B.Freindlich, A.Freindlich, V.Strzelchik,
S.Yursky, K.Lavrov and others; theatre and ballet scholars: Yu.Slonimsky,
V.Krasovskaya, A.Gosenpud, L.Gitelman, D.Zolotnitsky, G.Mordison, A.Altschuller
and others..
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