Welcome to the website of the al-Farabi Library
Dear readers!
The scientific library of the Kazakh National University named after al-Farabi was founded simultaneously with the university in 1934. In 2012, the library moved to a new modern five-story building with a total area of 17,856.6 m2, equipped with new technologies and communication solutions, harmoniously intertwined with elements of oriental style. Built on a university campus located in one of the most picturesque districts of Almaty and better known as KazGUgrad, the library was renamed the Al-Farabi Library in 2014.
The Al-Farabi Library, as a library of one of the largest and leading universities in the country, has its own mission, values and vision.
Mission of the Al-Farabi Library:
1. Storage, management and provision of the scientific fund of the library.
2.Providing users with the necessary resources.
3.Enrichment of experience and expansion of opportunities.
Values of the Al-Farabi Library: striving to be better:
1.quality;
2.openness;
3.responsibility for the success of our University.
Library Vision: a creative, innovative library that closely interacts with university life – integrated into learning, teaching, research; providing access to knowledge around the world and popularization of the intellectual assets of the University.
Al-Farabi Library today is:
1.A structural subdivision of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, providing information and library services for educational, research processes for 25 thousand students and undergraduates studying at 16 faculties of the university and 3000 people. Teaching staff (TS) and university staff;
2.The largest university library in the country, the fund of which contains about 3 million copies of books.
3.Fund of the electronic library of its own generation with a full-text database (DB) (Click here)
4.Subscription databases and perpetual access to electronic books of the world’s largest publishers EBSCO, Springer, Elsevier and etc ( http://elibrary.kaznu.kz/ru).
5.Classical reading room with an area of 1850 m2 for 700 seats.
6.Subscriptions that work on the principle of “one window”, serving all readers of the university, regardless of the faculty.
7.Hall of the electronic library for 270 seats with a conditional division into zones (multimedia, Internet zone, zone for working with graphic programs, zone for working with electronic resources, zone for working with personal laptops).
8.Hall of periodicals, where you can get access to the fund of periodicals, numbering 299 titles of domestic and foreign, incl. Russian magazines for three years and 56 newspapers for the current year (http://elibrary.kaznu.kz/ru/node/81).
9.The hall of rare and valuable publications, where rare books and manuscripts dating back to the 16th-21st centuries are kept. In 2017, for the first time, an electronic card index of the fund of rare and valuable books was created, with more than 19,000 documents.
10.The Hall of the First President, which was opened in 2017, is a kind of educational center, the tasks of which are to create, constantly replenish and store an information array on the history of the formation and strengthening of the independent statehood of Kazakhstan.
11.Al-Farabi Center, engaged in the study of the scientific heritage of al-Farabi.
12.The al-Farabi Museum dedicated to the life and work of the greatest philosopher, encyclopedic scientist of the second half of the 10th century Abu Nasr al-Farabi at Turki, whose name the university has been worthily bearing since 1991.
13.Exhibition hall with an area of 1800 m2.
14. 4 conference halls for 300, 80, 60 and 50 seats, equipped with modern equipment.
15.Communication and relaxation zones for readers to relax Cafe for 75 seats.
There are 3 departments in the structure of the Library: department for the acquisition and storage of fixed assets; information service department; management of automation of library and information processes (http://elibrary.kaznu.kz/ru/node/70).
The Al-Farabi Library is actively mastering the latest technologies. The library has implemented an automation system based on RFID technology, as a result of which the issues of integration of the automated library and information system (ABIS) “IRBIS 64” and the use of university unified identification cards for employees and students of the university (ID-card) as library cards have been implemented. The traditional reader’s form has been replaced by an electronic reader’s form that is unified for all service departments. It reflects all information about current issues, including the timing of the return of documents and control over their compliance. Thus, a single database of readers eliminated the need to maintain registration files in each reading room, at the subscription, and a single form also made it possible to control the return time at all service points and prevent negative situations associated with a delay in the return of literature. At the same time, self-service stations operating on the basis of RFID technologies have been installed in the reading room, giving readers the opportunity to independently register the selected literature and issue it for up to 3 days. In addition, copiers and a planetary scanner “ELARSKAN A2-300” were installed, with the help of which Library users can scan the necessary pages of selected literature for free and send them to their e-mail or to a USB flash drive.
The Al-Farabi Library, being the information, educational and cultural center of the university, contributes in every possible way to obtaining a quality education and training highly qualified specialists; provides a book fund and modern electronic resources corresponding to the educational programs of the university; is in a continuous process of interaction with faculties and departments: it studies the needs of users, provides information services, regularly holds exhibitions of new acquisitions, and also develops cooperation with other universities of the city and the republic. In the daily educational and scientific process of the university, the library seeks to create optimal conditions for its users. All activities of the library are aimed at making the reader feel comfortable, receive the necessary information, due attention of the staff and moral satisfaction from each visit.
