Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, is the only library outside Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 to collect exclusively in the field of Belarusian studies and its collection is the most comprehensive in this field in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

. The library is an independent institution owned by a charitable trust. It is located at 37 Holden Road, North Finchley, London. The library is named after Francysk Skaryna, a Belarusian and East-Slavonic publishing pioneer.

Collections

Currently, the book collection is estimated to contain over 30,000 volumes, among them over 20 printed before 1800. The strongest areas of the collection are history, literature, language, religion, folklore, local lore, bibliography, music and art. All standard reference works are available. A collection of expatriate publications, both books and periodicals, is fairly comprehensive. New publications from Belarus are being purchased regularly, as well as all important Belarus-related works appearing abroad in any language. Most of books are in Belarusian language

Belarusian language

The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...

, a fair number in Russian and Polish, fewer in German, French and other languages. The library receives over 40 current periodicals from Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 and abroad. The serials collection has over 200 titles; some of them are rare pre-1939 publications. The cartographic collection consists of over 100 maps from the sixteenth century onwards. The collection of Belarusian music records on LPs is comprehensive; more recent records on cassettes and CDs are collected episodically, with the emphasis on folk, rock and classical music. The archive is extensive; it is the least studied area of the library collection. It contains Church documents of the 18 and 19th centuries, materials dating from the period of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (1918), archives of Belarusian organisations and personalities in exile.

History

Officially, the library was launched in 1971. Its initial holdings incorporated 6,500 volumes of the Belarusian Catholic Mission in England Library (established in 1948, since 1958 — Bibliotheca Alboruthena). The initial holdings included the collection of the Belarusian Catholic Mission and the books of three Belarusian Greek Catholic priests — Ceslaus Sipovich

Ceslaus Sipovich

Ceslaus Sipovich was a bishop of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church.He was born in Homel, son of Heorhi Sipovich, a Belarusian carpenter, and Anna Kilipova, a teacher of Russian origin...

, Leo Haroshka and Alexander Nadson

Alexander Nadson

Father Alexander Nadson is the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad and a notable Belarusian émigré social and religious leader.Born Aliaksandar Bochka in the village Haradzieja near Niasvizh, he studied at the Niasvizh seminary...

.

The library has organised several international seminars and conferences in Belarusian studies.

External links

• Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum in London - the Library's pages on the Belarusians in Britain website (in Belarusian and English).
• Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum - history and description
• Guide to the Library - in English