Libraries of Russia: Events dedicated to the 199th anniversary of the opening of the Imperial Public Library

January 14, 1814 in Saint-Petersburg was officially opened to readers the Imperial Public Library, now the National Library of Russia.  Traditionally, this day in the NLR hosts solemn events, dedicated to the event.

January 14, the conference hall of the main building of the NLR hosts the Research conference “The Old Russian manuscript book in the virtual environment: a return to the reader”.

The Korff Hall presents "Presented for the general good". The tradition of gift came at the opening of the Imperial Public Library. The authors considered it an honor to find the books on the shelves of the first Russian Public library.

The exhibition at the National Library of Russia presents 300 most valuable books and documents granted to the National Library of Russia for the last year. Totally in 2012 the library was granted 12,488, of which 9,023 were domestic gifts storage units, foreign - 3456. These are editions of the world-famous museums, gifts, consulates, foreign libraries, various agencies, as well as individual authors and publishers.

There will also be the opening of a new reading room of the Department of Prints. In the former Larin hall were carried out repair works to recreate the historic interior. The hall was designed by the architect of Apollo Shchedrin. It is this hall, Emperor Nicholas, visiting the library on July 24, 1835, ordered to call the "Larin" in honor of the merchant and philanthropist Peter Larin, who left the capital, partially consumed by the construction of one of the buildings of the Imperial Library.

The National library of Russia takes an honorary place among the number of National libraries of the world for its history, unique collections of manuscripts and printed documents in all languages of the world. Its rich collection includes more than 36 million editions which are available to a wide audience.