Abstract:
The Rare Book and Manuscript Department of the Jakub Kolas Central Science Library
of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus keeps many interesting personal collections. Among them
are collections of books printed in Cyrillic and Grazhdanka fonts, rare publications of the XV-XX
centuries in foreign languages, books from the Nesvizh Radziwills' collection etc. Private book collections
of scientists, writers, cultural and political personages such as Adam Bogdanovich, Pavel
Berkov, Petro Glebka, Anatoly Veliugin, Janka Brył and many others are kept as separate units. Some
individual books which have formerly belonged to famous writers and scientists are not kept in separate
collections, but in the general holdings of the department. Books from the personal collections
usually carry autographs, donation inscriptions, handwritten corrections and notes. Starting from the
seventh decade of the XX century, the staff of the department have been compiling a card catalogue
of the book owners' autographs, donation records and other inscriptions. The article discusses the
principles and problems of the catalogue organization and cites the examples of more interesting
inscriptions.
