 Did you know...?
The Library is home to:
- Microfilm archives of the Russian Alaskan Missionary Diocese
- The Ostrog Bible, published in 1581. It is the first book printed in the Cyrillic alphabet
- Books printed in many different languages, including Japanese, Chinese, and Tlingit Indian
Fast facts: - Liturgical music scores pose the most difficulties in cataloging in the library.
- The library saves journal articles, pamphlets, and other small papers in a vertical file and all are cataloged in our database.
- The library processes more than 600 incoming and outgoing Inter-Library Loan transactions annually.
- The most urgent need in the library is funding for bookbinding and preservation.
- The seminary is a founding member of NYATLA - The New York Area Theological Library Association.
- Emails, faxes, and phone questions arrive daily at the library from all over the world.
- When compact shelving was installed in the old library, geologists were hired to do core borings in the floor of the stacks to assure that the rock below and the floor would support the weight.
- The seminary library is one of the first three theological libraries in the New York area to have the ATLA Religion Index electronically. This is in index to periodicals, magazines, newspapers, and articles in books.
- The largest book in the library displays the architectural drawings of Hagia Sofia in Istanbul and is 24” x 81”.
- The smallest book in the library is 1 _” x 1 _” and is on the Percheskaia Lavra in Kiev.
- The three librarians at SVS, Eleana Silk, Karen Jermyn, and Irina Itina, have more than 90 years of professional library experience.
- The most frequently asked question in the library is about the lives of saints.
- The seminary library began in a non-functional bathtub in New York City.
- The library stack space was originally built in 1963 to hold a maximum of 30,000 volumes. The seminary has a holding of over 121,000 volumes.
- Library donations are gratefully accepted. Materials that cannot be used are passed on to other Orthodox libraries.
The most unusual questions or requests asked of the library staff:
- What was the Byzantine dress like in the 800’s?
- Please provide the names of all the bishops of the Antiochian Orthodox Church from the very beginning.
- Please provide a list of books published in Russia before 1700. The researcher was studying ancient bookbinding.
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