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Library occupies a special place at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Indeed, it is
one of the utmost priorities, forming seminary’s true identity. The seminary building
was consecrated in July of 1997. The library collection started in August of that year. In
1997/1998 academic year Fr. Alexei Streltsov, seminary rector, gave the start to the
library. The work included numerous searches in Novosibirsk bookstores (including stores
of used books), book fairs, and several trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg. One trip was
undertaken by Fr. Alexei Streltsov and Fr. Vsevolod Lytkin with specific purpose to
puchase theological books and to locate the places with which to have contact in the
future. An important event was the coming of Fr. Timothy Quill and Fr. Robert Roethmeyer,
director of Walther Library at CTS in Fort Wayne, in December of 1997. Important contacts
were acquired. Fr. Roethemeyer brought couple of boxes of books in English, including the
Triglotta, which put the start to English language literature at the library. This trend
was continued in 1998/1999 academic year, when Fr. Alexei Streltsov was in Fort Wayne –
new books in English joined the collection at LTS library. Seminary staff worker Andrei
Cherkashin was responsible for the library in 1998, and in august of 1999 seminary hired
Igor Andreuk to be the librarian.
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1999 was also the first year for the seminary to subscribe on periodicals. Now
seminary library receives about 27 Russian newspapers and journals and 26 foreign language
(English and German) most important periodicals. The library currently counts over 2,000
volumes of books. It is still the very beginning of the long process, which will
contribute hopefully to seminary’s becoming a center of world class theological learning
in Siberia. At present a work of classification is under way. |
Expansion of present library collection is of the most clearly defined needs of LTS.
Some must collections of writings such as the Luther’s Works are still awaited at
Novosibirsk. Also, help with subscription on theological journals will be readily
appreciated.
Library at LTS seeks to assist the students in their seminary studies. Still, the
vision for the future is that the library should acquire a status of a city public
library, so that anyone in Novosibirsk who is interested in theology, could get acquainted
with the classic Lutheran teaching.
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