NLAO structure

The Academy Library

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Director of the ONLA Library Maria M. SOLODUKHINA

The quality of instruction of any higher educational establishment is to a great extent determined by the professor-teaching staff professionalism and the book stock of the library meeting the requirements of the activity of an educational establishment. The Academy Library task is to serve as the information centre supporting the educational process of Odesa National Academy of Law.

The main asset of any library is its book stock. The book stock of the Academy library is unique. The core of the book stock was the library of the First municipal children’s village, created in Odesa in 1920. Gradually the library became the Methodological centre of The Educational Administration of Odesa region. In 1997 it became a part of the Academy and started to develop rapidly. The management of the Academy, following and enriching the university traditions, but experiencing lack of the necessary literature, made efforts to create the fundamental humanitarian library for the law school, used for research purposes by Ukrainian scholars and those from abroad.

Nowadays the diversified book stock of the library amounts to more than 500,000 copies of documents in Ukrainian, Russian, English and other languages. There is also a great variety of literature in the history of law, philosophy, psychology, pedagogics, the works of the Academy scholars, materials and documents reflecting the Academy’s international ties.

The Academy Library receives more than 800 titles of periodical editions, articles, which are reflected in electronic catalogues.

The standards of foreign language teaching, particularly English, are improving from day to day because of the growing importance of the information exchange between different countries, elaboration of the joint projects and etc. To address this need in 2000 the Academy library started to accumulate the section of literature in foreign languages. At first this section comprised the books, magazines and booklets donated by the foreign delegations and purchased in the Odessa book stores. Since 2006 the professor-teaching staff of the Academy have begun to teach some legal disciplines in English with the dual purpose to ensure the profound understanding of these subjects and to enlarge the legal vocabulary. The implementation of this project encouraged the library staff to expand the book stock in foreign languages both for educational and academic purposes. Since 2000 the Academy Library has been cooperating with the "Yevroknyha" (European book) store offering books by Oxford University Press publishing house in such subjects as Constitutional, Administrative, Civil Law and others. Nowadays the section of book stock in foreign languages amounts to more than 8,000 books, magazines, booklets, etc. The Library subscribes to the journals in English containing articles by Ukrainian scholars, e.g. "The Ukrainian Journal of Business".

The book stock of the library is being constantly enriched with the editions donated by readers and sponsors from Odessa and from abroad, such as the European Universities Association, International Red Cross Foundation, the German Foundation of legal co-operation, the European Court of Justice, etc. There are books donated by some American legal scholars, Nottingham University, University of Buckingham (U.K) and other Universities from all over the world. This wonderful tradition to donate books to the Academy has been supported by the scholars, students and the staff of the Academy: The President of the Academy, National Deputy of Ukraine S.V.Kivalov, Professors A.I.Pankov, I.V.Postyka, Y.E.Poliansky; Candidate of Law, Associate Professor V.O.Komakha, a well-known scholar V.V.Berladianu-Berladnyk, Pro-rector M.F.Kryklyvy, public prosecutor P.P.Ivanov, ALR"Trio" and many other friends of the library.

The pride of the Library is the department of rare editions and The Book museum created on its basis. In 2006 on the day of the foundation of the Academy the museum moved to specially equipped premises. The exhibits of the museum comprise about 10,000 documents and materials. Among them one can find The New Testament (1623); "The Statute of Tzar Alexy Mihaylovich..."(1775); " The Decrees of Her Majesty Katherine the Great Russian, adopted in 1, July, 1766 - 1, January, 1767and Published at Her Majesty’s order (1766) "; “Narod”, the organ of Russian-Ukrainian radical party / edited by H. Pavlyk and I. Franko(1890); " Kobzar"(1896) by T.H. Shevchenko. Illustrated by M.Y.Mykshyn, in Ukrainian and Russian. (1896); "Encyclopaedia," published by F.A.Brokgauz (Leipzig) and I.A.Efron ( St. Petersburg) (1897); E. Fryman and V. Stebs. Essays on the History of the English Constitution, translated by M. Kovalevsky (1880 ); Vasyly Mastsyuh. Matrimonial Church Law (1910); manuscripts: deeds of purchases, acts, letters; items from the book collection of the First Municipal Children's village library, existing in Odessa in the 20ies-30ies of the 20th century.

During the recent years the department of Rare Books has been enriched with the collection of miniature books by Lukomsky (over 1,000 books), editions of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada (300 issues), reprinted publications of rare books on law of the 19th century, edited by the “Spark” publishing house ( Russia). The library of legal literature (270 copies ) of Professor V.K.Diablo presents significant value.

The Department of Rare Books performs important enlightening work and promotes cultural values. The Department takes part in organizing conferences, "round tables “, seminars, etc. Guided tours of the museum are held regularly for the students of the legal college, first-year students of the Academy, students of Vienna diplomatic Academy, participants of students conferences, representatives of Ukrainian Ministries and other agencies.

The invaluable documents kept at the Department of Rare Books are used not only by the academic staff, teachers and students of the Academy, but also by the visiting professors and scholars from Ukraine and other countries. So far guests from the Russian Federation, the United States, Austria, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania have visited and appreciated the Book museum.

In modern conditions the Academy library provides its readers with access to various information resources. Looking for new opportunities the Library creatively and actively cooperates with such publishing houses and bookselling firms of Ukraine as: "Yurydychna dumka", " Yurinkom Inter", "Ideya","In-Yure", "Naukova dumka", "Universitetska knyha" and others. The book-stock of the library is being enlarged due to systematic work with the price-lists and catalogues of the publishing houses; analysis of the readers’ needs and interests; coordination of planned purchases with the curriculum of the Academy.

During the recent years the library book stock has increased by 150,000 documents. The library organizes book exchange with other libraries of Odesa and Ukraine. The catalogues and card-files are being renovated regularly, particularly for legal disciplines. The rich book stock of modern legal literature, published in Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the world comprising monographs, textbooks, methodological manuals, has been formed for ten years.

Nowadays the number of the library readers exceeds 12,000 people. In 2007 more than 1.5ml items from the book stock were taken by the readers for various purposes.

The Library renders methodological and practical assistance to six branches of the Academy in different cities of Ukraine, as well as schools, colleges and technical school libraries, to civil servants of the government bodies and Law enforcement bodies of Odessa.

The Academy library cooperates effectively with the M.Maksimovich methodological Centre for assisting libraries of higher educational institutions, with the methodological library centre of Ukraine, the Odessa National University Library, serving as the methodological University library centre for Southern Ukraine, and also with the libraries of other higher educational institutions of Odessa and Ukraine.

One of the most important trends of the library’s activity is its profound research work:

 - creation of the systematic bibliography. The library publishes " The Legal Review” journal". This is a joint work of the Academy scholars and the library staff, which is realized on the basis of an electronic catalogue;

 - bibliographical card-files of the " The Scholars of Odessa National Academy of Law" series have been prepared for the publication by the library staff. The issues, dedicated to S. Kivalov, M. Orzih, Ye. Dodin, Yu. Oborotov, M.Yu.Cherkes, and I. Syrota have already been published, the issue dedicated to Yu. Chervony is being prepared for the publication.

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