The Russian State Library holds more than 50 million items. Its collections include domestic and foreign documents in 367 languages of the world, dating from the 6th century to the present day, on various media. About 300,000 documents are added to the RSL collections each year. About three million items are particularly valuable documents, including book monuments (cultural heritage items), archival materials, and manuscripts.
The library collection is developed across all branches of knowledge and includes all types of documents on various media. It is built on the basis of legal deposit copies, including electronic copies, as well as through donations, bequests, international book exchange, and purchases.
The contents of the library collection are recorded in the Electronic Catalogue and in the card catalogues.
