The Far East State Academic Library is a major cultural and educational institution. It was founded in 1894 by the Amur Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Currently the library boasts more than 2,800,00 volumes including books, periodicals, sheet music, microfilms, audio and video materials and CD-ROMs both in Russian and other languages. The library provides services to 45,000 readers, and daily it is visited by more than 600 people. The library actively uses new IT technologies and has developed its own computer network and database. Since 1995, the library maintains not only the traditional card catalog but also an electronic catalog accessible both through the library computer network and through the Internet.

The library has twenty-one departments and twenty-seven sections. Among its most high profile projects are the development of the corporate library system, launching the support center of the comprehensive Free Catalog of the libraries of Russia, and creating the electronic library “The Russian Far East.”

The library’s center for professional development of the Far East librarians offers internships and holds training and re-training courses, seminars and master classes in various areas of library and computer science as part of the continuous process of in-service training of library workers.