The Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry was founded in 1920 as the Institute of Soil Science and Geobotany at Turkestan State University, and the institute’s Information Resource Centre was established at the same time.
Collection and holdings
Today the Information Resource Centre holds 17,594 books, journals and other publications and has 90 regular readers.
Most of the collection covers soil science, mineral fertilization of soils, soil erosion, soil microbiology, the geography and biology of climate and nature, water and irrigation reclamation, land and salinity, hydrogeology, geochemistry, geology, agricultural irrigation and plant science, soil fertility, and soil maps and cartograms. The centre also holds the Uzbek Soviet Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of the Republic of Uzbekistan and atlases produced by the Davergeodezkadastr Committee.
The reading room houses collections of the works of the first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Islam Abduganievich Karimov — more than 40 volumes.
The centre has a corner for new publications, regulations and bulletins of the Higher Attestation Commission, and new scientific and practical journals.
Publications kept from 1923 to 2021
The institute’s Information Resource Centre keeps the following publications from 1923 to 2021:
- more than 4,000 monographs;
- 2,500 recommendations in soil science and agrochemistry;
- 700 textbooks for higher and secondary specialized education;
- 800 study guides;
- 87 works of fiction;
- 40 political journals, books and publications;
- 7,540 publications on agriculture;
- 10 copies of the Geographic Atlas of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
- 417 dissertations by scientists and independent researchers;
- 1,500 dissertation abstracts;
Location and layout
The Information Resource Centre is on the 4th floor of the institute and consists mainly of 3 rooms: a reading room, a book and publication store, and an archive of office records.