Assembling the heritage of scientific manuscripts in scientific libraries of vilnius in 1990-2010

Three scientific libraries of Vilnius have been long assembling the heritage of scientific manuscripts in their Manuscript Departments. These libraries are the Vilnius University Library, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. After Lithuania regained its independence, the archives of the libraries were enriched by the archives of the emigrant scientists. The heritage of scientific manuscripts is being assembled both in scientific libraries of Lithuania and in archives. The principles of assembling the manuscript heritage are similar in both types of institutions. A scientific library is oriented more to scientists and specialists of intelectual working field. The Lithuanian scientific libraries are divided into the following five main groups according to their size and goal: a national library, a library of a universal purpose, a regional library, a university (or other equivalent higher education institution) library and a specialised library). A heritage may be described as a way to get in touch with the past. A manuscript heritage is an entirety of written texts that are considered a heritage. In a broader sense we regard it as a cultural and material heritage. The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is a main scientific library in Lithuania that is open to public and is assembling a universal archive of documents written in various languages. It is considered as an institution of a humanitarian profile; therefore, when assembling and forming collections of documents in a manuscript archive, a priority is given to the documents of writers, public activists and cultural workers. The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LLAS) is one of the most important repositories of historical sources and is known not only to Lithuanian scientists, but to foreign researchers as well. The Vilnius University Library (VUL) and LLAS belong to a group of the libraries of educational and scientific institutions that are obliged by law to „assemble and preserve a collection of documents that would satisfy the needs of a scientific research institution to use documents and information“. In addition to other archival material, the archives of the scientists and professors are also assembled in the Manuscript Departments of LLAS and VUL. Meanwhile, the archives of public activists, writers, regional researchers are mostly assembled in the manuscript archive of the National Library. The Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and Vilnius University Library are libraries of State significance. The biggest number of personal archives of scientists (162 of them) are kept in the Manuscript Department of VUL. LLAS has assembled the biggest number of document collections (395 in total). All three libraries that have been analysed here have been assembling the largest collections of the printed and manuscripted heritage of national significance in Lithuania. The above mentioned heritage consists of the old, historically formed collections of the manuscripts and the manuscript heritage of modern scientists, artists, cultural workers. In scientific libraries, the heritage of scientific manuscripts is assembled from various sources and by using various methods. The main methods of collecting are: receiving documents as donations, purchasing, exchange, inheritance and internet auctions. The main sources are academics, institutions and donations. As a result of historical circumstances and a lack of criteria and regulations for collecting and compiling documentary material, several individual libraries often simultaneously form collections of archive documents of the same persons. Therefore, the documentary material is being duplicated and that is not very beneficial to researchers who are interested in these archives and these persons