It was during those years that its staff created major bibliographic works. In the late 1930s, the State Public Library became a true methodological center for other republican libraries, the number of which exceeded 2 500 by that time. The office for Library Science and Bibliography, where lectures, reviews, and consultations took place constantly, was opened.
During the Second World War, such prominent persons as academicians V.V. Struve and V.P. Filatov, corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences V.M. Zhirmunsky, A.Yu. Yakubovsky and N.K. Piksanov, writers A.N. Tolstoy, N.E. Virta, Vs. V. Ivanov, M.A. Tsiavlovsky, V.G. Yan, and K.I. Chukovsky, art workers – Honored Art Worker M.F. Gnesin, professor V.M. Belyaev, composer N.V. Bogoslovsky, People’s Artist of the USSR I.V. Ershov and many others were evacuated to Tashkent and worked in the halls of the Library.
In the post-war period, the main task of the Library was to replenish its book collections. It started to receive books from Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. During that time, friendly relations with libraries of Great Britain, the USA, France, Germany, Japan and others were established.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Manuscript and Book Heritage of the National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi" (Volume XLI) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
Activities of the National Library of Uzbekistan during the Second World War
In the 1920s – 1930s, much attention was paid to the Library’s work on bibliography.