One of the enthusiasts started collecting this library in 2000. In 2013, it had a collection of just over 900 volumes. Now the collection occupies 17 shelves, and the number of books here is constantly growing.
The collection of books is divided into sections. The first is called "geography"; there are books and atlases that relate to many branches of the science. This is followed by sections such as cartography and socio-economic geography. There are also industries: geography of culture, population, social and economic geography. The reader can find books devoted to physical geography, biogeography, geomorphology (and Geology), hydrology, glaciology, climatology, paleogeography. You can read literature about medical geography, recreational geography (about the tourist resources of the planet) and country studies of the world. There are also collections on such topics as" Geographers and travelers with descriptions of the lives of famous scientists and pilgrims,"History of geography","Practical tourism","Travel and expeditions","Toponymy".
Any visitor to this library will find sections of books about parts of the world, oceans, and all countries in alphabetical order. The largest section is devoted to Kazakhstan – a whole cabinet of literature about the country's cities and villages, about reservoirs, the culture of ethnic groups living here, the economy and social life, about researchers of the Republic. At the same time, several shelves are dedicated to books about the geography and local history of the Pavlodar region.
Many books are about Russia, Germany, Belarus, the USA, China, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries. Very rare specimens are kept under glass. Many of them were published more than half a century ago. But there are examples from the century before last, for example, the book "Shrikes of the Russian fauna" by modest Bogdanov, published in 1881 in St. Petersburg, or a book about volcanoes in French in the 60s of the nineteenth century. 21 books from this library were included in the "Set of book monuments of Pavlodar region" compiled by the S. Toraigyrov Pavlodar regional library. Books presented by authors with their own inscriptions are kept separately.
In 2018, the Pavlodar house of geography became the regional representative office of the Republican public Association " QazaqGeography "(former name – "Kazakhstan national geographical society"). Hundreds of thousands of tenge were invested in the development of the library.
Members of the house of geography intend to make their brainchild the largest geographical library in the world. An open letter about it was published earlier on the official website of geography house, and in three Newspapers of Pavlodar. Curator of the library Pavel Leonov (pictured), the organization's activists often hold educational exhibitions to demonstrate scientific and popular science literature, and spread geographical knowledge. There are books in Russian and Kazakh, but there are copies in German, English, Polish, Czech and others.
The Public geographical library is cozy. You can find different literature about travel, tourism, geography, nature, local history. You can sign up for the library. Here you can sit and spend time reading interesting books. The room itself is also decorated with portraits and wise sayings about science and reading.
In this "cathedral of science" are often scientists, not only in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, but also from other countries: PhD Svetlana Mogilyuk (Pavlodar), doctor of geographical Sciences Professor at the University of Uludag (Bursa, Turkey) Emine Atasoy, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vice-President of the Russian geographical society Alexander Chibilev from the city of Orenburg, another Vice-President of the RGS Vladimir Kolosov of the Moscow colleagues, a large delegation from the Omsk branch of the Russian geographical society, scientists from the Altai state pedagogical University (Barnaul) and MGIMO (Moscow, pictured), travelers from Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Karaganda, Irkutsk region, and so on. Students, undergraduates from universities in Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as children often come to work with books. There is a separate shelf for them.
How to get there? Any tourist can visit this interesting library. Only you need to inform about your intention by phone number 87056142254. The Public geographical library is located in the office of the house of geography, on 16 Lugovaya street (house of investors), on the second floor, in office 210. This is on the very Bank of the Irtysh River, in the North-Western part of Pavlodar.
There are minibuses 115 and 152, as well as buses 9, 10, 16, 18, 21, 22, 27. For reference: the Palace of culture named after Estay, the Saryarka hotel and the Annunciation Cathedral are located near the investors' House.
Anton Sergeev
Photo from the archive of the Pavlodar house of geography