Libraries of Russia: The exhibition "Heritage of the Semyonov Public Library", dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the founding of the first public library in Kursk Province, was opened

July 18, 2017 in the N. N. Aseev Kursk Regional Scientific Library took place the opening of the exhibition "Heritage of the Semyonov Public Library", dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the founding of the first public library in Kursk province.

The Kursk Semyonov public library, opened to general use in 1897 and named after the outstanding self-taught astronomer F. A. Semyonov, lasted 36 years, gradually gaining popularity among the residents of the city and Kursk province. It became not only the basis for introducing the Kurians to the culture of the book, but also the predecessor of the main modern library of the region - the N. N. Aseev Kursk Regional Scientific Library, whose fund was transferred 200 thousand editions from the libraries of the region and the city, including from Fund of the Semyonov Public Library (more than 300 copies of publications).  

The exhibition presents, among other things, rare books that have become a bibliographic rarity. First of all, this is the publication of a native of the Kursk province Nikolai Polevoy - a writer, playwright and literary critic. His play "Ugolino" is the first dramatic work of the author, published in 1838.

A special place in the presented book exposition is occupied by publications devoted to the Kursk astronomer Fyodor Alekseevich Semyonov, after whom the library was named. In the library, according to the by-laws, there was placed a portrait of F. A. Semyonov and all his papers and printed works, as well as materials about him, were kept. The publications about the Kursk self-taught astronomer I. S. Remezov and Petr Grigorievich Popov, the first head of the Semyonovsk meteorological observatory, published in 1889 and 1911, are presented.