Scientific Library of Zaporizhzhia National University
The Scientific Library of Zaporizhzhia National University is adynamic modern information and librarycentre for educational and research activities of faculty, students, and staff. The library organically combines traditional and new information resources of its own, as well as those of Ukrainian and global information space.
The ZNU Library collection contains books that have been collected by several generations of libraries of different educational institutions in Zaporizhzhia. The collection dates back to 1897, when Oleksandrivska Women's Gymnasium was opened. The modern library of the XXI century inherited books from the library collectionsof Oleksandrivska Teacher’s Seminary (1919-1921), Zaporizhzhia Institute of Public Education (1930-1933), and Zaporizhzhia State Pedagogical Institute (1933).
In 1930, the library collection included 7,152 books and 270 readers. At the beginning of the Second World War, the library had the largest book collection in the city, with about 100,000 items. During the war, the library, as well as the institute, was evacuated, but most of the collections remaining in the occupied territory were destroyed. The library resumed its work on October 18 1943, when the Pedagogical Institute returned to Zaporizhzhia.
Today, the library staff includes 28 highly professional librarians, 24 of them with higher education degreesin different fields. Of those 21 librarians have more than 20 years of work experience in the library. There are also 2 computer systems engineers on the library staff. Director Nina Chala has been in charge of the Scientific Library since 2016.
The library collection is formed according to the educational and research missions of the university, taking into account the needs of scientific and academic processes in ZNU and on the basis of ongoing cooperation with the faculties and research centres of the university.
As of June 2022,the library collection is comprised of 1 million 293 thousand items, both printed and electronic, including 138,781 publications in foreign languages, where English is represented by 87,407 printed and electronic publications. The PeriodicalsCollection includes 125,000 issues of magazines and newspapers. The Dissertations and Abstracts Collection amounts to 112,000 items.
Thanks to cooperation projects with international charitable foundations and organizations, book exchanges between Ukrainian institutions of higher education and gifts from private collectors, the library collection is constantly growing.
Among the international organisations the ZNU Library has collaborated with are The International Renaissance Foundation, Japanese Literature Publishing Project (Japan), The Flemish-Dutch Cultural Institution“Ons Erfdeel vzw” (Belgium, Netherlands), Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia Regional Society of Polish Culture named after A. Mickiewicz, and many others.
The development of the Scientific Library into an information centre of the university is assisted by the automation of library processes and the creation of an e library.
The Scientific Library of Zaporizhzhia National University has 66 computers with access to the local network of ZNU and the Internet, three servers, a website
http://library.znu.edu.ua/.
. All structural subdivisions are connected by the local network with access to the e-catalogue, e-library, and Readerdatabase. Registration for the library is carried out in an automated mode using the student card.
All students have access to the Scientific Library’s electronic information resources from their home computers and smartphones.
The e-catalogue contains 1 million 347 thousand bibliographic records. The catalogue is available to users on the library website or by downloading and installing the mobile application LibClient Android on a smartphone or a tablet.
The Digital Collection includes more than 206,000 electronic publications.
The library provides an information support of the university educational process. A special module of the e-catalogue “Academic Disciplines” provides students with comprehensive information on the library textbooks, manuals, and reference books available forstudying in 4,000 academic disciplines across all educational programs.
The library website
http://library.znu.edu.ua/.
Provides the information needs of faculty and students. Interesting events in the library are highlighted, virtual book exhibitions are organised, and information on accessing international databases is provided.
The library provides additional services to support distance users, such as Online Bibliographical Enquiry, Electronic Delivery of Documents, Indexing Documents with UDC Indexes and Author Number, and others.
Exhibitions of thematic library collections are included in the scientific conference programmes at ZNU. The total number of editions which are annually exhibited for the participants of the conferences and other events reaches 20 thousand items.
Bibliographic indexesprepared by the Scientific Library staff are presented on the website (http://library).znu.edu.ua/2337.ukr.html). They have received recognitionat the all-Ukrainian level, been included in scientific research and discussed in publications (http://library.znu.edu.ua/2351.ukr.html).
The ZNU Library owns a unique collection of rare books published from 1790 to 1945, whichamounts to more than 9 thousand items (http://library.znu.edu.ua/2358.ukr.html).The RareBookCollectionrepresents booksfromallareas which arefreelyaccessibletostudents and scholars. All itemsfromthe RareBookCollectionaresearchableintheonlinelibrarycatalogue. The most interesting items from the Rare Book Collection are presented in the book exhibition “Gems of the Library Collection ‒ Editions of the Past Centuries”. The exposition is in considerable demand, having become an essential part of guided library tours.
The library staff focus on performing informational and educational functions, introducing innovative forms and methods of work with users. The library has developed a curriculum of a practical course “Fundamentals of Student Information Literacy”, which is held annually for first-year students of all faculties.
The Scientific Library of Zaporizhzhia National University provides information support and advisory assistance to users of helargestabstractandcitationdatabases, Scopus and Web of Science. The Library has developed and holds workshops on the effective use of the databases for allfaculty, staff, graduateandundergraduatestudents.
As part of the implementation of the StrengtheningAcademicIntegrityinUkraineProject in ZNU, the Scientific Library is responsible for coordination and technical support of access to the Unicheck plagiarism checking service from Unicheck Ukraine (http://library.znu.edu.ua/2365).ukr.html).
Since 2011, the Scientific Library of ZNU has been part of the project “Electronic Library of Ukraine: Establishment of Knowledge Centres in Ukrainian Universities (ELibUkr)
http://http://www.elibukr.org/.
. Due to the project implementation, ZNU faculty got access to the world scientific information databases: test access to 90 databases; access to 160 open access scientific information databases; search systems of scientific information; open electronic archives of Ukrainian and world universities.
The Centre of European Information was created in 2011 in the ZNU Library with the support of the European Programme of the International Renaissance Foundation. It functions as an information and educational resource centre that provides free access to information resources and electronic databases of the EU institutions to all visitors.
The Scientific Library joined the corporate project "Science of Ukraine: access to knowledge", which was initiated by the V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in 2016.The ZNU Library presents the e-catalogue, an electronic archive of bibliographic indexes, bibliographic information about the e-library publications, and access to the electronic versions of scientific publications of ZNU.
The Open Space Library Project, funded by the British Council in Ukraine,helped to create a new environment for library visitors a coworking space with powerful Wi-Fi, both for group work and individual study. The library’s open space is a place for socialising with friends, holding business meetings, and taking part in cultural events. The Art Zone of the co-working space exhibits the works of ZNU students as well as of artists recognised in Ukraine.
Promotional activities are aimed at improving the perception of the library by the university community. Information about activities, events are presented on the official website of ZNU. Library content is also presented on Facebook
http://http://www.facebook.com/libraryZNU/.
The number of users is about 14,000, visits are 500 thousand, book loans are more than 700 thousand items per year. There are 5 circulation departments, and 4 reading roomslocated in the 2nd and 10th academic buildings.
In order to meet the information needs of the university community, the Academic Library has significant and diverse information resources and communication tools. Its activities are aimed at fulfilling the strategic objectives of the University.
