Anniversary of foundation of the Russian Book Chamber

April 27 (May 10), 1917 was adopted the decree of the Provisional Government, "On the press institutions" under which was established a bibliographic agency, called the Book Chamber. Book Chamber was the world's first public institution created specifically for the registration of published works. At its origins were prominent Soviet scientists, such as A. A. Shakhmatov, S. F. Oldenburg, S. A. Vengerov, P. E. Shchegolev, V. I. Sreznevsky.

In the early 20th century Russia was one of the major publishing countries. In 1913, in its territory were released over 30, 000 books and pamphlets with a total circulation of about 100 million copies. In terms of quantity, the Russian publishing at that time was inferior only to Germany, and significantly ahead of countries such as Britain, France and the United States. Formation of the Russian book industry in those years was under the control of the General Directorate for the Press under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, when the Provisional Government came to power, the General Directorate was abolished and, at the suggestion of the Special Committee chaired by Count D. P. Kapnist, in St. Petersburg was founded a bibliographic agency of a completely new type, named the Book Chamber.

According to the decree of the Provisional Government, the Book Chamber was charged with registering of all current press in Russia, as well as printing houses, lithography, metallography. The agency was also responsible for the formation of a book fund to supply books to government agencies, and to supply public book depositories with all the press published in Russia. The Chamber also conducted a scientific systematic registration of all printed material in Russian language. At the post of Director of the Book Chamber was appointed Professor S. A. Vengerov, famous scientist, literary historian, bibliographer and editor, author of a number of capital works in the bibliography. In his address to the provincial and district commissioners of the Provisional Government, he urged to control the gathering and submission to the Book Chamber legal deposits of printed editions.

June 30, 1920 V. I. Lenin signed a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the engagement of the People's Commissariat of Education with bibliographic work in the RSFSR." Under the decree, the Central Book Chamber was founded in Moscow, under the State Publishing House. Book Chamber in Petrograd was transformed into the Russian Institute of Book Science.

In 1923, the Russian Central Book Chamber began to develop statistical information about the press. In the early 1930s, Book Chamber began publishing such journals as "Bibliography" (1929), "Bibliography and Library Science" (1930), as well as new bodies of the state bibliography - "Chronicle of Musical Literature" and "Cartographic Chronicle" (1931), "Chronicle of Periodicals" (1933) , "Annals of Fine Arts" and "Chronicle of Reviews" (1934). In 1936, the Chamber proceeded to the publication of "Chronicle of newspaper articles."

At the end of 1935 State Central Book Chamber was reorganized into the All-Union Book Chamber. Its main objectives were to record the publications issued in the Soviet Union and the information about it. As a new obligation, the House was responsible for monitoring the observation by publishing houses and printing enterprises of printing standards established for the issue of press. Besides, the Chamber was authorized to call to account those who violated the standards.

The decree of the CPSU (b) "On the literary criticism and bibliography" of 1940 invited the All-Union Book Chamber to centralize all state registration and accounting bibliography and statistics of press. The Chamber was required to produce a complete record of literature issued in the years of the Soviet rule. Implementing this resolution, the institution contributed to the efforts of the largest libraries in preparing a joint catalog of Russian books, and also received a number of additions to the materials of the general alphabetical catalog, which resulted in greatly refined statistical data on the press of the USSR.

During the Great Patriotic War was realized the project of "Regulations on the work of the All-Union Book Chamber in the field of retrospective bibliography" (1943). In the postwar period, the Chamber started to issue bibliographic cards with a description of journal articles and book reviews, printed cards with the description of articles from major newspapers and bibliographic bulletin "New Books" and also issued the 10-volume index "Periodical Press of the USSR. 1917-1949 ". In 1965 it was adopted the statute of the Union Book Chamber, in accordance to which research departments of the Chamber were created.

In 1973, in the framework of the International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information, the All-Union Book Chamber became the national fundamental body for registration of periodicals and continuing publications. June 1, 1987 "The Book Chamber" publishing house was created

In the early 1990s, the Book Chamber developed and put into operation an automated system, "National Statistics of Press."

In 1992, under the Presidential Decree, the All-Union Book Chamber was renamed into Russian. As the document stated "in order to ensure efficient operation of the state system of information on the printed output" the Russian Book Chamber was engaged with functions of the center of the state bibliography, archiving of publications, print statistics, the international standard numbering of published works and researches in the field of books.

Lit.: История Российской книжной палаты [Электронный ресурс] // Российская книжная палата. 2013. URL: http://www.bookchamber.ru/index.html; История Российской книжной палаты [Электронный ресурс] // Блог Российской книжной палаты. 2013. URL: http://russianbookchamber.blogspot.com/p/kremlevka.html.