Birthday anniversary of Russian library scientist and architect Vasily Sobolshchikov

January 13 (25), 1808 in Vitebsk, in an Old Believers family was born a library scientist, an architect, an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts (1858) Vasily Ivanovich Sobolshchikov.

Having completed the course in a local gymnasium, Vasily Sobolshchikov worked with his father in trade, serving at the same time, a scribe in the Vitebsk province board of administration.

In 1830 Vasily Ivanovich was given an opportunity to continue his service in St. Petersburg, where he was appointed assistant clerk in the office of the Roman Catholic Theological College. In spare time, he studied French and German languages on his own, read different books of scientific content, and in January (February) 1834, entered the office of the Imperial Public Library.

Working in the library, Sobolshchikov attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts as a free student and studied architecture under the guidance of Professor Meyer. In 1844 Vasily Ivanovich was appointed architect of the library and was engaged in rebuilding of premises, upgrading heating and ventilation systems.

From 1849, Sobolshchikov had been engaged in organization of a special "section of foreign-language writers of Russia (“Rossika"), founded on the initiative of the library director M. Korff, which later gained a reputation not only in Russia but also abroad. All the library staff, commissioners, national and foreign booksellers, famous scientists, writers and bibliographers from different countries contributed to the section development in one way or another. "Rossica” began to grow actively and in 1860 it already numbered about 30 000 editions.

Sobolshchikov categorically denied a systematic arrangement for large libraries, calling it "a system of constant rearrangement” and highly impractical. He offered his own system for arrangement of the books: according to the size of their binding. Sobolshchikov sought to prevent the gap between the two major library processes – the organization of funds and cataloging. He declined the book form of cataloging and changed for a card form. He put down the code both on a book and index card: the number of the room, bookcase, shelf and book. He arranged cards in alphabetical order and, thus, he could find any book without losing a single extra minute. Simultaneously with alphabetical directory was created a cabinet inventory too - the inventory directory.

In 1859 Sobolschikov was sent to Western Europe to explore the most famous public libraries, where he studied both the organization of service and architecture of buildings. On his return from abroad, in 1859-1862, he constructed a new reading room in the courtyard of the library.

From 1870 Vasily Ivanovich headed the reading room and created an auxiliary library containing the most demanded literature. Also, he had drawn up instructions for the employees of the reading room, from which he demanded to have "the skill to lead ignorant visitors.

Sobolschikov is called the library historiographer and “founder” of the Russian library science. Among the most significant of his works: "Some comments on the article by P. M. Stroyev of easy and convenient way to arrange libraries of large size" (1856), "On the structure of public libraries and the preparation of their catalogs” (1859) – for the first time in Russian librarianship there was described a system combining funds and directories into a unit, and library work was given a clear and organized character; "Review of large libraries of Europe in early 1859" (1860), "The British Museum in London and the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg" ( 1864); "Chertkovskaya Library in Moscow and the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg" (1864), "Memories of the old librarian”. Sobolshchikov is the author of the anonymously published essay "The Imperial Public Library in the period of transition to the Ministry of Public Education" (1863).

October 19 (31), 1872 Vasily Ivanovich Sobolshchikov died and was buried at the Shuvalov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Lit.: Головко С. И. Творческое наследие В. И. Собольщикова в пространственно-временном континууме культуры // Известия Российского государственного педагогического университета имени А. И. Герцена. № 105. СПб., 2009. С. 20–29; Голубева О. Д. Первый хранитель отделения «Россика»// Библиография. 2003. № 4. С. 118—125; Голубева О. Д. Собольщиков Василий Иванович [Электронный ресурс] // РНБ. 1998-2018. URL: http://www.nlr.ru/nlr_history/persons/info.php?id=168; Иваск У. Г. Жизнь и труды Василия Ивановича Собольщикова, старшего библиотекаря и архитектора Императорской Публичной библиотеки. М., 1914; Собольщиков В. И. Страницы из дневника // Публичная библиотека и культура. Три века истории: документы, материалы, исследования. Вып. 1. СПб., 2006.