The Royal Libary of Youngia is the offical state libary and educational insitution of the Kingdom of Youngia. It is the largest libary in the world by shelf space and by number of books. The head of the libary is the Royal Libarian, currently Jestik Aleskvova.
The Libary was established by Catherine The Great in 1765 and was housed in the Winter Palace for many decades. When an fire destoryed the original collection in the Invasions of 1812, the king, Alexander I of Youngia donated the Royal collection of 6,586 books to the Libary. After experiencing decline in the mid-19th century, the libary grew in size and importance after the reform of 1861, starting the creation of an seperate Libary building and a copyright transfer.
The Libary's primary mission is to serve the government in need of information and educational purposes. Though now open to public use, only the monarch, members of the Royal Family, the prime minister, Councillors, and other high government officals can check out books. Through the Royal Copyright Office, every book, pamphlet, piece of music, video, and map is transfered (in orignial or copied pieces) to the Libary.
History[]
Establishment by Catherine The Great, Early Years, Late Years[]
In 1765, the Queen of Youngia Catherine The Great established the Royal Libary by royal proclamation. The new queen donated 4,500 books, 300 maps, and 800 pieces of music to the new Libary, and housed it in the Outer Western Wing of the Winter Palace. The queen appointed one of her lovers as the Royal Libarian.
In 1812, when Brianna-France invaded Youngia, the Libary was looted and destoryed. Within a month, the king, Alexander The First, donated 6,500 books to the Libary, including volumes on science, phliosphy, arts, culture, social sciences, cooking, history, and legal documenting. The government paid the king $500,000 Youngian Dollars for his donation.
Weakening (1851-1865)[]
During the mid 19th-century, the Libary weakened. During the 1850's, the Royal Szectiv Insistution's libarian agressively tried to make his insistution the successor of the Royal Libary as Youngia's state libary. However, the insistution's supervisor supported the Royal Libary and ended all attempts of state libary takeover. In 1866, the supervisor donated the Szectviv's forty thousand volume libary to the Royal Libary.
On December 24, 1851 the largest fire in the Libary's history destoryed 35,000 out of 55,000 books, including two-thirds of Alexander's original collection. In 1852, the Royal Council set aside $500,000 Youngian Dollars to cover the price of buying new books. The Libary's libarian then started an conservative stance to restrict the libary's activites to spare it from further destruction. In 1857, King Alexander II of Youngia transfered the libary's envorimental volumes to the Department of Interior and Envoirment Affairs, and it's international volumes in 1860 to the Department of State and Foreign Affairs. The establishment of the Royal Patent Office destoryed the libary's rights to many copyrighted books. In 1861, the king decreased libary's actions and appointed a Conservative Liberian. By 1865, only seven people worked for a Libary of 82,000 volumes and 60,000 books.
Expansion[]
Under the Royal Liberian Alexandis Stelviviow's leadership, the Libary recovered. Aided by an overall expansion of government support and a favorable political climate, the Libarian, with the king's apporval, Stelviviow built up national support for the insistution as a legislative resource and state libary, added Youngian culture and science volumes, and led the construction of a seperate, new Libary building. He also built the Libarian's office into an indpendent and strong office. The Council funded the construction and copyright resgristeration, deposit activites, and international book exchanges was restored under the Libary's control. By 1876, the Libary had 300,000 volumes and was tied with the Moscow Public Libary as the country's largest libary. When the Libary moved from the Winter Palace to it's new headquarters in 1897, it had 800,000 volumes, 40 percent of which had been acquired through copyright rights.
The Council doubled the Libary's staff and reorganized it's volumes, improving the Libary.
Post-Reorganization[]
Stelvivow's sucessor, Jehzez Rutsell overhauled the Libary's bureaucracy, acquired more materials from around the World, and established assistance programs for the Blind and Disabled at the Libary. His sucessor, Herbetz Hestens, who remained in office for forty years, made the Libary more public assesible, organized better volumes, and worked on good Libary assistance services. The new Libarian secured transfer of State Papers to the Libary. During his time, the Libary's collection of books exceeded one million volumes, the first libary in Youngia to do so.
Modern History[]
In 1939, King Joseph I appointed Arichbald Michald Libarian of the Libary. The new Libarian heavily supported Democracy, commisioned the paintings of Libary murals, and arranged for safety of Youngian volumes during the Siege of Saint Petersburg. The Libarian also worked hard for improved research services. In 1944, Micethao Jehvans became Libarian, and expanded catologing and bibilographic services. He also improved Libary missions around the world.
Tody, the Libary has been involved in book preservation, acid prevention, and book collection projects.
Holdings[]
The Royal Libary holds books in 470 languages. There are; 167 million manuscripts (the largest book collection in Youngia), 1.5 million Youngian government publiciations, 29.9 million issues of newspapers spanning three centuries, 500,000 reels, 6.7 million comic books spanning seventy years, 89.9 million films from around the world, 44.5 million maps, 500.6 million pieces of sheet music, 22.5 million sound recordings, 40.0 million artistic pieces, and 95.6 million visual art paintings, potraits, drafts, and drawings.