With adoption in 988 of Greek Orthodox faith in Kyivan Rus rapid development of written language culture began accompanied by libraries emerging at churches and monasteries. Founded in 1037 by Yaroslav the Wise, the largest and most abundant for the time was the library of the Saint Sophia Cathedral of Kyiv where in addition to learning they also made books. At start containing mostly church manuscripts, it turned with time into educational center of Kyivan Rus with numerous titles on astronomy, geography, history, philosophy, law treatises and ones of public interest of those days. In all the library had up to 9 hundred handwritten books, the quantity immense for the Middle Ages, while the total fund of Rus numbered from 130 to 140 thousand manuscripts.

Books that left the bookshops of the Saint Sophia Cathedral were the staring basis for other libraries, for instance, the huge book collection of the Kyiv Pechersk monastery that since 11th century became the center of cultural life of Kyivan Rus. From the very foundation by Antoniy and Feodosiy the monastery was famous as the place where theological books were copied and made. With time, the monasterial library to add to the ones own began accumulating Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian books.

Gradually, in every plenty large enough town a book making shop was organized, chronicles written as well as libraries and schools established.

In the Western Ukraine, concurrently with emergence of the Galych-Volyn Principality (from c. 13th century) vigorous bibliothecal advance commenced. At the court of Prince Volodymyr Vasylkovych, a booklover and philosopher, a large bookmaking shop existed, and the Prince bestowed the books to monasteries and churches.

Libraries of that time predominantly contained works of foreign authors translated into the Old Slavonic, however with time original writings gain value.

Unfortunately, the intestine strife and the Mongol invasion took heavy toll causing great ruin: books were destroyed in wars and fires. By now, single copies from the Saint Sophia library remained. Of the mentioned the most famous are the following: the Rhine Gospel, which Yaroslav’s the Wise daughter Ann took out from Kyiv to France (it is this book that French kings solemnly swore on in the past just as the Presidents of France do today); the Gospel of Ostromyrov (1056—1057); two Izborniks (collections of articles and extracts from various books of Kyivan Rus) of 1073 and 1076, and Mstislav’s Gospel of the 12th century.

The Great Lithuanian Princedom and later Rzeczpospolita came to take the place of the bicentennial subjugation of Ukraine by the Horde of Nomads Along with the decline of the statehood the country’s bibliothecal business also deteriorated. Books kept on being produced and collected however on private orders of noblemen or their friends, as well as for private funds. It was later on that the newly created libraries started using them.

The emergence of book printing in the middle of the 15th century  brought about great changes in the whole European publishing and, of course, librarianship. Already in the first half of the 17th century there were close to 20 print works in Ukraine with the one at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery being the largest among them.

Libraries achieved considerable progress in the 16th century with significant collections of books in Ostroh and Lviv. The library of the Academy of Kyiv had been put in good order and absorbing the old book collections originated as far back as even the princedom periods. In the 18th century, significant book collections had the wealthy gentry, Cossack’s superiors, bishops, monasteries and various schools.

The revolutionary events of 1848 resulted in the more lax attitude of the Austria-Hungarian Empire towards the national issues. During the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, with the Western Ukraine being part of the Austria-Hungary, the network of cultural and educational centers Prosvita (Enlightenment) was highly active. In 1914, this fellowship had 78 branches and 2944 reading rooms all over the land operating in 75 % of Ukrainian localities of Galicia: in 1939, this network of Prosvita branches and reading rooms enveloped 85 % of Western Ukraine.

During the times of the Soviets, the issue of librarian practice became part of the state policy. In view of the fact that before the 20s of the 20th century the concern of the Ukrainian library science was raised high within the context of European development, starting with the 30s and, especially during the post-was period, it found itself in the background of the Soviet one, which best scientific potential was concentrated in Moscow and Leningrad.

As of today, there are 45 thousand libraries in Ukraine: such institutions as the V.I.Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine, and the State Library for Children, the State Historical Library, etc. are among the most prominent.

Since 1984, the work is on to introduce all-around automation and electronic classification systems within the major libraries of Ukraine.

Useful references:

The V.I.Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine

The National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine

The State Library of Ukraine for Children

The State Library of Ukraine for the Youth

The Lesia Ukrainka State Library

The State Scientific Medical Library of Ukraine

The State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine

The M.Maksymovych Scientific Library at the National Taras Shevchenko University

The Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University

The Ivan Stefanyk Lviv Scientific Library

The O.M.Gorky Odessa State Scientific Library

The V.G.Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library

The State Committee of Archives of Ukraine