Zharkikh N.I. Ukraine in 13 – 18 centuries:
encyclopedic bibliographical guide

Work feature characterized as an encyclopedic bibliography. This is not quite encyclopedia and not quite bibliography.

Project differs from the encyclopedia because there are no entries, arranged in alphabetical order (only parts of the project, such as authors' and geographical indexes have a continuous alphabetical order). However, the project can be considered the encyclopedia as it contains all information about any noticeable phenomenon, related to Ukraine in 13 – 18 centuries.

As the project grew from bibliographic index, it is natural that bibliographic materials dominated in it. But the edition contains much more information than a bibliographic index. In this project the first time in Ukrainian bibliographical practice was introduced a system of items annotation. Annotations reveal the content of the listed works and provides an insight about the subject without recourse to the most printed materials so serve as encyclopedic reference. Reading the names of recorded works and annotations one can get a fairly complete picture of each particular problem, find out what are the views of it, periods of researchers interested in this topic, leading authors who wrote about it. All this will serve as a good basis for further in-depth study of subject for those books and articles, descriptions of which are represented in the guide.

Considerable value for the reader have keyword lists – geographical names, figures, objects. These keywords are often not reflected in the works titles, nor in the annotations, and thus serve to complement the description. However, one should not require the impossible from these lists and hope that it will contain full name and geographical indexes of the described works.

Proposed guide is intended to give all possible complete set of printed products, which covers all aspects of life of Ukrainian people during this period. The need for such guide in independent Ukraine, I think, needs no further justification: historical literature, and particularly the historical bibliography confirms the right of people to possess their land.

This product was prepared in a hierarchical database "Myslene drevo" version 2.5.

This product is a final version of the database (or rather guide).

My goal was to create a retrospective index, and as it is exhaustive retrospective: all that was published on the topic of old Ukraine from 1800 to (approximately) 1995, included in the index. Works published before 1800 included selectively. Works published in 1995 – 2003's accounted in part. Tha last entries added to the database in 2004. On this I decided to stop filling the database, since converted to the current registrar of printed products is not my intentions. Emphasise again that this bibliography is retroactive, and not current.

During the preparing of this final version became clear that the database in terms of the information is far beyond that bibliography itself, so instead of the name "Bibliography of old Ukraine 1240 – 1800" inherent to , the fifth generation has been called "Ukraine in 13 – 18 centuries: encyclopedic bibliographical guide".

In the database included all the important scientific and popular work, which in some way affect the history of Ukraine. There are no restrictions on language and place of publication, and ideological direction of work.

For the final version developed a new database structure and a new form of bibliographic records.

The new database structure have denormalized information. In plain words, this means that each bibliographic record to the database included more than once (for example, paper with multiple authors will be included for each author in particular). It breaks the symmetry in terms of information technology, but make guide more easy to use for people with humanitarian education.

So one can start viewing the guide (here we mean the "All in one" variant) from any of the seven root documents:

Systematic index;

Index of authors;

Index of geographical names;

Index of figures;

Index of subjects;

Index of works by year of publication;

Index of publications by year of initial period.

Thus, article "Kiev, his fate and meaning from 14 to 16 centuries" by V.B.Antonovich can be found in several places:

1. Systematic index / Local History / descriptions of individual areas / Kyiv;

2. Index of authors / A / V.B. Antonovich / 1882;

3. Index of geographical names / Kyiv / 1882;

4. Index of works by year of publication / 19 cent. / 1882 / V.B. Antonovich;

5. Index of publications by year of initial period / 14 cent. / 1301

Each entry consists of the following fields:

Summary description:

<Author of the original language> <Title of work> <Imprint>

<Author in the Ukrainian language>

<Publication year>

<Author in the original language>

<Title of work>

<Imprint>

<Library ciphers>

<Geographical names>

<Figures / subjects>

<Historic period>

<Comment>

<Imprint> field to separate book publications consisting of the following elements: <Place of publication>: <Publisher> <Year of publication>. – <Number of pages>. Place of publication contains mainly abbreviations: K. – Kyiv, Lv. – Lviv, other Ukraine regional centers abbreviated to two letters (Od., Xk.), M. – Moscow, SPb. – Saint Petersburg, Lg. – Leningrad.

For articles from the collections the field consists of: <Collection name in quotes>, <Place of publication> <Publisher> <Year of publication> pp. <first page> – <last page>.

For articles in periodicals: <Name of the periodical without the quotes> <Year of publication> <Volume (if available)>, <№ (if available)> pp. <first page> – <last page>.

Most of the abbreviations, which were used in previous generations of the database, in this generation disclosed. However the list of abbreviations included, and one can look in it if somewhere happened abbreviation.

Publications in twiced issues of magazines noted as follow: № 9-12 (one number character, a hyphen between the numbers and no spaces), and publication in several issues – as follow: №№ 9 – 12 (two number characters, spaces between numbers).

If there were journal publications and a separate printouts, then first described publication in the magazine, then after "Okr. : " describes a separate publication.

Reissue described after the words "2 ed. : " and so on. Only edition that are included in the database are numbered.

Field <Library ciphers> contains ciphers of Kiev's main libraries, where I worked. I will always use these ciphers, so I believe that they will be useful to you. Mark "NBU:?" in this field should mean that the material is not presented in the readers' directory of National Library of Ukraine (maybe you are lucky to find it in official directory).

<Comments> field disclose the contents of work. Most of them are compiled by me. I tried to describe the content using quotations (they are listed in parentheses with indication of pages) that would disclose the basic thesis of the author, or its main conclusions, or characterized his approach. For large-volume books are often given the titles of chapters. In other cases I describe content in the way I understand it, these descriptions often focused on the material about Ukraine 13 – 18 centuries in wider works.

Some library ciphers and comments submitted gray. This is my private records that were not intended for book version. If you find yourself there for something useful – then fine, but not – please ignore them.

Designation XXXX..YYYY used in comments not for the exact value may be known that it lies in between XXXX and YYYY (example: ceramics of 12..13 cent.) Designation XXXX – YYYY is used primarily to process the time interval that started in the year XXXX, continued all the intervening years and ended in the year YYYY (example: Liberation War 1648 – 1654).

Records sorting

Each part of the edition forms a section, which may have its own sort order of records. Most sections are sorted by fields <Author in Ukrainian language> + <Year of publication>. Some sections are sorted by fields <Optional element> + <Author in the Ukrainian language> + <Year of publication>. This additional element is specified in the section heading, it is often geographical name.

Illustrative materials

Some variants contain a certain number of illustrative material. These illustrations, as it usually happens in encyclopedias are intended to recall the item description. Do not expect to find here the great albums of illustrations – is subject to other databases.

7.04.2007 in Kiev.

All of supplied publications are relatively inexpensive. By 2007 the standard book of 20 copyright sheets sold for 40 UAH, i.e., to 2 UAH per sheet. Our "All in one" publication contains 4156 (four thousand one hundred fifty-six) copyright sheets, and it would be fair to determine the price of 8312 UAH. Similarly, one can calculate the fair value of other publication. And the difference between a fair price and actual price of the publication is an economy, which the buyer receives by buying our products to CDs.

None. This product is a bibliography (i.e., it contains information where was published some work) and encyclopedic (that is, it often contains abstract, which reveals the content of work).

The basis of each search – see how is called that you need. If you are found work as it described in our database, you need the 50% case has already done – you have the exact name.

Next, try the following:

3.1. "Myslene drevo" e-library:

- See if there is the product in our e-store (in where you are right now).

- See if there is it in our online reading room.

- Each of our CD contaiin a catalog of all "Myslene drevo" products, including a directory of our e-library. If you found what you need – we will make you a copy (for a fee).

3.2. WWW. Visit your favorite search engine and customize their search for an exact phrase – perhaps some kind soul has posted the full text on the Web. A lot of old books scanned and now they are available for free through file-sharing servers and electronic libraries.

3.3. Electronic document delivery. Large libraries can make for your electronic copy of the needed materials (for a fee). This feature is especially effective if you include the full bibliographic description of the material (as it indicated in our database). Often this comes down to scan and the next delivery it through the WWW. Look at the websites of large libraries for this service or find a private web site which provides such a service.

3.4. Visit the library. With full bibliographic description (or even better – library cipher), please visit the appropriate library and order required materials. Here, data from our database is simply indispensable. Some libraries are taking orders through their websites (saving is that you do not wait in the reading room until your order is fulfilled).

We can make publications on your order special that suits your information needs. Price of such publication equal to the price of common publication.

Special publications include a number of illustrative material (unlike the general publications that do not contain illustrations). These illustrations, as it usually happens in encyclopedias are intended to recall the item description. Do not expect to find here the great albums of illustrations – is subject to other databases.

Main content of each guide – database, illustrations (if any), the necessary software – for both variants of supply is the same. The CD-ROM contains some additional material (e.g., a directory of our library) that are not included in the installation.

One have to execute installation files on your computer and then use guide; the CD owner can run guide directly from disc without prior installation.

We recommend to download installation if one is available.