PERSONAL , PRIVATE , INDIVIDUAL? DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF THE PERSONAL LIBRARY

This article presents a terminological analysis of the concept of the personal library. It notes the lack of presision and uniformity in the way the term is used in bibliographical studies and indicates how this phenomenon of the ‘personal library’ is understood by Russian library scholars. In case is made for the view that the term ‘personal (lichnaja) library’ better conveys the essential character of such libraries than consepts such as ‘private (chastnaja) library’, ‘family (semejnaja) library’.