The Nizhny Novgorod library system is a collection of the city's municipal public libraries, organized into centralized library systems (TsBS) by district. Each TsBS brings together a central district library and a network of branches, both adult and children's. The TsBS of Avtozavodsky District is the largest in coverage among the district library systems of Nizhny Novgorod: the district has about 300,000 residents, and the system itself includes 12 libraries, 8 adult and 4 children's, each of which specializes in a particular area of work with readers.[1] The coordinating center of the entire city network is the Central City Library.[2]

Structure

The libraries are grouped by city district. For example, the Sormovo District TsBS (a municipal cultural institution) includes seven adult libraries — the Central District Library named after May 1 and the branches named after Gogol, the Lenin Komsomol, Lomonosov, Melnikov-Pechersky, Serafimovich, and Chkalov — as well as five children's facilities: the Zaitsev Central District Children's Library and the branches named after Brinsky, Kassil, and Matrosov, and the children's department at the Lenin Komsomol branch. Since 2007, the Gogol Library of the Sormovo District TsBS has hosted the amateur association "Beseda" ("Conversation"), aimed at middle-aged and older readers; its program includes thematic meetings on local lore, healthy living, folk traditions, and getting to know interesting people.[30] The May 1 Central District Library is one of the oldest municipal libraries in Nizhny Novgorod; since 2010 it has operated as a Library Information Center, offering users modern forms of service using information and communication technologies.

The May 1 Central District Library hosts the literary association "Sreda poeta" ("Poet's Wednesday"), led by Marina Eduardovna Nefedova, whose members hold presentations of poetry collections at the library and discuss topics of culture and literature.[31][28] The N. A. Zaitsev Central District Children's Library is located at Zaitsev Street, building 7, and serves about 4,000 readers of Sormovo District each year; since 2013 it has operated as a Children's Reading Support Center, whose work is aimed at raising the status of the book and the library. On April 18, 2026, "Library Night 2026" (Biblionoch) was held at the libraries of the Sormovo District TsBS under the motto "The Unity of Peoples Is the Strength of Russia": all institutions of the system received visitors, and the program included singing, dancing, and joint workshops.[29]

The N. A. Zaitsev Central District Children's Library contains a museum exhibit dedicated to the hydrofoil ship designer N. A. Zaitsev — a fellow native of the area after whom the library is named; the exhibit's holdings include unique documents on shipbuilding, photo and video materials, and the designer's personal belongings.[16][16] The director of the Sormovo District TsBS is Zinaida Mikhailovna Zastelo, an Honored Worker of Culture; her deputy for library activities is Irina Mikhailovna Tsiruleva.[14] The municipal budgetary cultural institution "Centralized Library System" of Sormovo District is located at Yubileyny Boulevard, building 5, Nizhny Novgorod; the institution's telephone number is +7 (831) 222-06-36.

All ten libraries of the Sormovo District TsBS are equipped with staff call buttons for visitors with limited mobility; most of them also have ramps; restrooms for people with disabilities are provided at the May 1 Central District Library and at the Lenin Komsomol, A. S. Serafimovich, and A. P. Brinsky libraries; stair-climbing tracked lifts are installed at the Lenin Komsomol library and the N. A. Zaitsev Central District Children's Library. Since the beginning of 2024, the May 1 Central District Library of the Sormovo District TsBS has cooperated with the public charitable organization of people with disabilities from childhood "Preodolenie" ("Overcoming"): the library hosts the inclusive association "Bez granits" ("Without Borders"), whose sessions are aimed at the socialization of participants, the development of orientation skills in the surrounding world, and introduction to reading; since 2025, its main focus has been introducing participants to world art through painting workshops.[20][17][3][4]

As of the period when the website was in operation, the electronic catalog of the Centralized Library System (CLS) of Sormovo District contained more than 129 thousand books and over 201 thousand journals and articles — about 332 thousand items in total. The electronic reading room of the Sormovo District CLS holds a local-history collection of digitized materials, including books on the history of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, Volga navigation, the history of the region, and notable individuals; poetry by Sormovo authors has its own separate section.[15] The Information and Bibliography Department of the 1 May Central District Library takes part in the interregional corporate project "MARS" (Interregional Analytical Listing of Articles) within the ARBICON consortium, as well as in the project "Virtual Reference and Information Service of Public Libraries," which provides remote service to distant users.

The Acquisition and Processing Department of the 1 May Central District Library of the Sormovo District CLS builds the unified collection of the entire system: its tasks include regularly replenishing the collections with new documents, subscribing to periodicals, scholarly processing of new acquisitions, creating a reference and search apparatus in both traditional and machine-readable forms, and providing methodological assistance to branch libraries on maintaining and editing catalogs.[18] The electronic catalog of books and journal articles of the Information and Bibliography Department of the 1 May Central District Library contained more than 75,000 bibliographic records; in addition, readers have access to the electronic legal reference systems of the ConsultantPlus, Garant, and Spetssvyaz Rossii families.[11][11][5]

Central City Library

According to its management, the Central City Library is "the heart of the entire library system of Nizhny Novgorod" and serves as the methodological and coordinating center for the city's whole library network. All municipal libraries of Nizhny Novgorod are united in a citywide library information system (LIS) running on the MARK Cloud automated library information system; it provides electronic inventory of collections, automated processing of literature, and remote service to readers through web services.[6][2] In January 2021, Albina Akhmetova was appointed its director — a lawyer and human resources specialist, and a semifinalist in the first and third seasons of the "Leaders of Russia" competition. Before this appointment she worked in large commercial organizations: Megafon, Otkritie Bank, and Coca-Cola HBC Russia.[2]

Modernization

In the 2020s, the city's libraries joined the nationwide program for creating model libraries — institutions with digital equipment, media zones, and educational spaces. In December 2024, the city's largest model library opened in Sormovo District — the Leninsky Komsomol Library at 28A Vasily Ivanov Street, which has existed for more than 70 years and underwent a large-scale refit. The Business and Legal Information Center Library of the Avtozavodsky District CLS houses the only information and education center in Nizhny Novgorod called "The Russian Museum: Virtual Branch," as well as the district's only exhibition space — the Exhibition Hall, which in 16 years of operation has hosted more than 200 exhibitions, competitions, and festivals.

The Business and Legal Information Center Library is located at 6 Kirov Avenue; its book collection comprises 23,282 items; the library is open on weekdays and Sunday, with Saturday as the day off. In the 2010s, the library system of Avtozavodsky District carried out a game project, "Theater + Book," based at the Mayakovsky Library: readers were invited to feel like characters from books, for which themed evenings, challenges, quizzes and quests, and costume photo projects were organized; thanks to the library's head, Natalya Zheleznova, several dozen local residents attended performances of the Nizhny Novgorod Youth Theatre free of charge.[27]

The Radishchev Library is part of the Avtozavodsky District CLS and is located in the settlement of Mostootryad, at building 30; its book collection comprises 15,129 items. The library was founded in 1950; it originally occupied one room in a wooden single-story house, moved to the settlement of Mostootryad in 1986, and in 2003 to its current address, in more spacious premises where a reading room appeared. In 2014, a children's lending department and the spiritual and moral center "Paths of Joy" opened within the institution, aimed at reviving the traditions of Orthodox culture and organizing family leisure; its spiritual and moral education work was recognized with a Bishop's Commendation from the Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas (2019).

For children aged 5 to 12, the library runs the creative workshop "Kapelka" ("Droplet"), focused on organizing cultural and creative leisure and drawing children into regular reading; for older users there is the lounge "Give Someone Else Joy"; and, in cooperation with the "Record" cultural center, free screenings of films and cartoons are held at the library every week.[24][24][24][24][23] The Avtozavodsky District CLS also includes the "Family Reading Center" library in the Sotsgorod-2 microdistrict at 2 Plotnikov Street; it comprises children's and adult lending departments, a children's play room, the exhibit "Toys of the Peoples of the World," a reference hall, and a conference hall.

The library opened on November 5, 2013, and became the first and only library in the Sotsgorod-2 microdistrict; the first-floor premises in a residential building had been transferred to the Avtozavodsky District Centralized Library System (CLS) by order of the head of the Nizhny Novgorod administration as early as 2008. The library's collection comprises 15,344 items; the children's lending department houses the "Planet of Dolls" museum — a collection replenished by staff, readers, and visitors to the city, part of whose exhibition ("Ladies of the Era," "Dolls in Folk Costumes") was acquired with the library's own funds.[19][19]

The Avtozavodsky District CLS includes the Konstantin Stanyukovich Library, located in a youth residential complex: the institution has operated there for about 28 years, and the adult department was opened later — on the initiative of the district's own residents, with more than 250 reader cards issued in its first month of operation; the library occupies about 400 square meters — significantly more than the 50 square meters originally allotted, which resulted from an initiative by the management of the youth housing complex at the design stage.[12]

In addition to the municipal network, Avtozavodsky District has an independent library system run by an enterprise: the private cultural institution "CLS" of OJSC GAZ includes 7 branches in the plant's production units and serves over 35,000 readers, making it one of the largest libraries in Russia's machine-building sector; the library was founded on November 19, 1931, and is located at 12 Geroya Smirnova Street.[10][7] The same library houses a personal gallery of the Nizhny Novgorod naive artist Vladimir Mizinov — "Mizinovka": the paintings were donated to the library system by the master's relatives after his death in April 2018. The Avtozavodsky District CLS project "NAIV…NO: Naive Art Week" won the city grant competition "Cultural District" and was carried out at the library-Center for Business and Legal Information: it included lectures by art historians, excursions, film screenings, and free workshops.[1][1][1]

Links

The Moskovsky District CLS operates several museum spaces at its libraries: the Museum of the Poet Alexander Lyukin, the Museum of Evgeny Nikonov, the Museum of Russian Folk Culture and Everyday Life, the Museum of the Poet Boris Zhukov, and the Pushkin Drawing Room.[8]

At the A.S. Pushkin Central District Library (Moskovsky District), free legal consultations are held every Thursday as part of a legal center. The Moskovsky District CLS website offers readers electronic services: online book renewal, a virtual reference desk, a virtual reading room, access to digitized books and the LitRes service, and the option to buy a ticket using the Pushkin Card. The Moskovsky District CLS runs a local history internet project, "Nizhny Novgorod — Mine, Yours, Ours," which gathers bibliographic materials about the city: books, press publications, prose and poetry texts, as well as information about notable people and walking routes through the districts.[33][9][9]

The BDTs includes an information service, a lending department for adults, a lending department for children, a reference hall, and a literature-and-games hall for children; its book collection numbers 77,222 holdings; the library hosts the "Doshkolyonok" club, the "Masterilka" creative workshop for children, the "Sobesednik" club for fans of contemporary prose for adults, the "Serebryanaya Nit" club for pensioners, and the "Solnyshko" club for young people with disabilities. In addition to serving readers, the BDTs performs a methodological function within the Avtozavodsky District Centralized Library System: it develops programs for the development of the system's libraries, handles the automation of library work, and carries out collection acquisition for the entire network.[13][13]

In November 2007, an Exhibition Hall with an area of 125 sq. m opened at the TsDPI, where about 10 exhibitions are held each year: painting and graphic art, art festivals, photo exhibitions, and solo, youth, interregional, and international shows; the space serves as a launching pad for the creative youth of Nizhny Novgorod. In 2015, the information and education center "Russian Museum: Virtual Branch" was opened at the TsDPI — the only one in Nizhny Novgorod; all of the library's events are connected with it in one way or another: master classes and interactive themed sessions devoted to Russian art. In March 2019, the Center of Active People (TsAL) appeared at the TsDPI — a resource center supporting residents' initiatives; the TsDPI became the first library and the only cultural institution in Nizhny Novgorod on whose premises such a center has been opened; the coordinator of the TsAL technology is the Nizhny Novgorod Association of Non-Governmental Non-Profit Organizations "Sluzheniye" (Service). The idea of opening the TsAL was brought back by an employee of the Avtozavodsky District Centralized Library System from the ninth All-Russian forum of social animators "Heroes of Change," organized by the Nizhny Novgorod association "Sluzheniye."[27][23][23][23]

The V.V. Bianki Library houses a museum of the nature writer Vitaly Bianki, as well as the information and education center "Krugozor" (Horizon), with a media hall and a sensory room, which serves the adult population — parents, teachers, pensioners, and young people aged 15 and older — and provides informational support on questions of child-rearing and the prevention of deviant behavior in children.[25]

The structure of the V.G. Belinsky Central Children's Library includes junior, middle, and senior lending departments, junior and senior reading rooms, and a fairy-tale room; the library is home to the Public Center for Legal Information "Rovesnik" (Peer), and its leading area of activity is aesthetic education — more than five hundred events for various groups of young readers are held here every year.[32]

Sources

  1. biblmr.r52.ru — Moskovsky District Centralized Library System — The Moskovsky District Centralized Library System (a municipal cultural institution) includes five adult libraries
  1. biblmr.r52.ru — Moskovsky District Centralized Library System
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Sormovo District Centralized Library System — At the 1 May Central District Library of the Sormovo District Centralized Library System there is a literary association, "Sreda poeta" (Poet's Wednesday), led by Marina Eduardovna Nefedova: its participants
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Sormovo District Centralized Library System
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovo District — On April 18, 2026, the libraries of the Sormovo District Centralized Library System held "Library Night 2026" under the motto "Unity of Peoples"
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovo District (archived)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archived)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archived)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archived)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archived)
  1. biblmr.r52.ru — Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District — The Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District includes six adult libraries (archived)
  1. biblmr.r52.ru — Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District — The Centralized Library System of Moskovsky District unites six adult libraries (archived)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — The "Family Reading Center" Library in the Sotsgorod-2 microdistrict opened on November 5, 2013, and became the first and only library in this microdistrict; the premis (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — The Department of Acquisitions and Processing of Literature of the May 1 Central District Library of the Sormovsky District Centralized Library System ensures the formation of a unified collection for the entire system: its tasks include regul (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — All ten libraries of the Sormovsky District Centralized Library System are equipped with staff call buttons for visitors with limited mobility; most of them also have ramps. Restrooms for (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District — The director of the Sormovsky District Centralized Library System is Honored Cultural Worker Zinaida Mikhailovna Zastelo; her deputy for library activities (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archive)
  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Centralized Library System of Sormovsky District (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System of Avtozavodsky District (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Centralized Library System (CLS) of Avtozavodsky District — the largest by coverage among the district library systems of Nizhny Novgorod: the district has about 300,000 residents. In total
  2. лидерыроссии.рф — Albina Akhmetova, a semifinalist of the "Leaders of Russia" competition, has been appointed director of the Central City Library of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  3. sormlib.nnov.ru — CLS of Sormovo District — the Sormovo District municipal budgetary cultural institution "Centralized Library System" is located at: Nizhny Novgorod, Yubileyny Boulevard, 5. Institution phone number (archive)
  4. libnn.ru — About Us — Centralized Library Systems of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  5. lib.libnn.ru — Search — Electronic Catalog — Centralized Library Systems of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  6. sormlib.nnov.ru — CLS of Sormovo District (archive)
  7. lib-avt.ru — CLS of Avtozavodsky District — The CLS of Avtozavodsky District includes the "Family Reading Center" library in the Sotsgorod-2 microdistrict at 2 Plotnikova Street; its structure includes (archive)
  8. biblmr.r52.ru — CLS of Moskovsky District — The CLS of Moskovsky District includes seven adult libraries (archive)
  9. biblmr.r52.ru — CLS of Moskovsky District — The municipal cultural institution CLS of Moskovsky District includes six adult libraries (archive)