The history of the Sverdlovsk Regional Library for children and youth began almost two hundred years ago. Then, at the beginning of the XIX century, on the Great Ascension street (now K.Libknekhta street) a magnificent manor was built by Panfily Matveevich Borchaninov, one of the richest merchants in the Urals. The Borchaninov family owned this house for a short time. For some reason, the merchant sold it to the Ekaterinburg zemstvo council, which in 1899 ordered the opening of the Yekaterinburg folk school in the mansion. Here boys from the lower strata of society-peasants, workers and employees-were trained. In the part of the building, the police department is located, and the farm buildings were given to the fire department.
Since 1916 the history of the former mansion of the merchant Borchaninov has always been associated with the word “library”. It was in this year for the Yekaterinburg Men’s Primary School. A. Pushkin was built a new building, and here, by the efforts of devotees under the instruction of the Yekaterinburg Zemstvo Board, the first public library in our city opens – Yekaterinburg Public Library named after A.Sh. VG Belinsky. One book from the collection of Yelena Kremlyova still preserves the day in the funds of the Sverdlovsk Regional Library for Children and Youth: In the Far North (along the paths and paths) of William Long: Essays from the life of animals in the Far North. – Translation by MG Linguistic. Drawings by Charles Copeland. – M .: Published by VM Sablin, 1909 – 357c .: ill. The title page of this edition is decorated with two stamps: “the library of EM Kremlyova” and “Central District Library. VG Belinsky. Sverdlovsk.
In 1919 the library named after. VG Belinsky moved to a specially constructed building for her, but some of the funds remain in their original place. On the first floor of the mansion, children’s voices sound again, because the first children’s library in Yekaterinburg opens here. According to one source – it is an independent city children’s library. DN Mamin – Sibiryaka. According to others – the children’s department of the library. VG Belinsky. For the reader of the beginning of the XXI century, a public library with a fund of 500 copies is nonsense, because a modern family that has raised children has about the same home library. But at the beginning of the last century, the newly opened children’s library with a fund of 428 books became a real treasure for young lovers of reading.
After the Civil War, in 1928 the children’s library moved to the building of the farmstead of the merchant Rastorguev – Kharitonov – the Sverdlovsk Palace of Pioneers (now the City Palace of Student Creativity) – where he works and develops, despite the small premises provided to it, until the end of the fifties. The book fund is growing rapidly. If by the end of 1928 it was 1.249 books, then on January 1, 1950, there were 55,649 copies. And this was during the formation of the Soviet state, heavy military and post-war years …
The 90s, which became a turning point for the whole country, marked a new stage in the life of the library. In 1994 there was a merger of two regional libraries – children and youth. So on the cultural map of the region appeared Sverdlovsk Regional Library for Children and Youth. Today our library is not only a unique collection of books, but also a center for children and youth culture, whose doors are open to everyone who loves to read, knows and respects the cultural traditions of Russia.