This page is divided into the following sections: Library Catalogs, General Resources, Monographic Resources, Academy Publications, Bibliographies of Bibliographies, and Other Formats. Bibliographies and catalogs that do not meet the criteria for national bibliography (geographical and/or chronological scope, sources/collections used during compilation, etc.) are excluded, but may appear on future pages. For more information about the following resources or any others, please contact the Slavic Reference Service.
LIBRARY CATALOGS
Rossiiskaia natsional’naia biblioteka. Otdel literatury na natsional’nykh iazykakh. Katalog literatury na turkmenskom iazyke [microform]. New York : N. Ross, 1998. U of I Library Call Number: International & Area Studies Microform Room (Slavic) M’FICHE 016.9585 R736k
Reflecting the Russian National Library’s holdings of Turkmen-language monographic materials through 1998, this set of 37 microfiche can be an invaluable resource for scholars. This catalog of one of the of the largest Turkmen collections outside Turkmenistan includes cards for approximately 500 works published in the Arabic script before 1930, 3,500 works published in the Latin script between 1930 and about 1940, and about 17,000 works published in Cyrillic script beginning around 1941 — about 21,000 cards in all. Cards for all Cyrillic-script materials appear first, followed by all Arabic-script materials, followed by all works in Latin script. Each of these three sections is alphabetized by main entry (author, title or corporate author), according to alphabetical order in that script: A through Я for Cyrillic, ‘Alif through Yaa’ for Arabic, and A through Ƶ (Z with stroke, representing the sound “zh”) for Latin. In the Latin-script section, it appears that a small number of the Qs are interfiled with the Ks (despite the existence of a separate ‘Q’ section), and some (or all?) of the Ƣs are, likewise, interfiled with the Gs.
The cards for Arabic-script materials in particular are very faint and difficult to read.
Russian translations of the titles of the works in the catalog are provided in the large majority of cases. Fairly often these are given on a separate card, which somewhat reduces the overall number of works represented.
GENERAL RESOURCES
Several of the most important sources for the national bibliography of Turkmenistan include citations to more than one type of material (monographs, serials, journal articles, newspaper articles, reviews, avtoreferaty of dissertations, musical works, pictorial art publications, etc.). These sources are described below.
Iazberdiev, A. Izdatel’skoe delo v dorevoliutsionnom Turkmenistane. Ashgabat: Ylym, 1993. U of I Library Call Number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 070.509585 Ia9i
As is typical of Ýazberdiýew’s works, this union catalog of 268 Russian-language monographs and 29 Russian-language periodicals published in Turkmenistan before 1917 begins with a long and informative essay on the subject at hand; in this case, pre-revolutionary publishing in Aşgabat (then known as Askhabad/Асхабад), and, to a much lesser extent, in Merw (Merv). Ýazberdiýew compiled the monograph portion of the bibliography in the major libraries and Oriental [sic] Studies centers of Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan at the same time as he was compiling his Arap grafikasynda neshir edilen tu̇rkmenche kitaplar (which, by comparison, indexes 188 Turkmen-language works from before 1917, nearly all of them published in Kazan’ and Tashkent) (U of I Library call number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 015.585 IA9A1981. Like the latter, Izdatel’skoe delo v dorevoliutsionnom Turkmenistane (Uof I Library call number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 070.509585 Ia9i) contains a name index and an index of titles for works whose author is not specified, is organized chronologically, and lists not only the libraries and collections that hold the indexed items, but also their specific shelfmarks or call numbers for the items in question.It also contains an index of printing presses/publishing houses.
251 of the 268 monographs indexed were examined de visu. The vast majority are held at one of the following libraries: the National Library of Turkmenistan, the Library of the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, the Library of the Central State Archive of Turkmenistan, the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, or the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The periodical portion of the bibliography was compiled based on entries in M. P. Avsharova’s Russkaia periodicheskaia pechat’ v Turkestane, 1870-1917: bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ literatury (Tashkent, 1960 — U of I Library call number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 016.077 Av8r), as well as on entries in Knizhnaia letopis’, Spisok knig, vyshedshikh v Rossii …, and other sources listed at the end of the section. Detailed publication information is provided for each title, including frequency, irregularities, editorship, supplements, etc. (see examples below).
Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-ning metbugat letopisi: dȯvlet bibliografiiasynyng gȯrkezijisi = Letopis’ pechati Turkmenskoi SSR : gosudarstvennaia bibliograficheskaia ukazatel’. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1930-1991:8 U of I Library Call Number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 015.585 T847 [1990:1-1991:8, incomplete]
Tu̇rkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi : dȯvlet bibliografiiasynyng gȯrkezijisi = Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana : gosudarstvennyi bibliograficheskii ukazatel’. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenistana, 1991:9-? U of I Library Call Number: Oak Street Facility 015.585 T8472 [1991:9-1995:12, incomplete]
Like Kazakhstan’s Baspasȯz shezhīresī, Turkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana is a monthly umbrella publication consisting of a number of distinct bibliographies, each of which indexes a different type of material (books, articles, reviews, etc.), has its own publication history (often including stints as a stand-alone publication), and features its own organizational scheme. Although it began in 1930, between 1932 and 1937 and again between 1941 and 1950 Metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati was not published, presumably due to the upheavals of the time. From 1976 through the 1990s, each issue consisted of Kitap letopisi/Knizhnaia letopis’, Zhurnal ve gazet makalalarynyng letopisi/Letopis’ zhurnal’nykh i gazetnykh statei, Retsenziialar letopisi/Letopis’ retsenzii, and Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-i Sovet Soiuzynyng metbugatynda/ Turkmenskaia SSR v pechati SSSR, which became “Tu̇rkmenistan beileki dȯvletering metbugatynda/Turkmenistan v pechati drugikh gosudarstv” after independence. Avtoreferaty of dissertations were indexed in a special section at the end of “Kitap letopisi/Knizhnaia letopis’.”
The first issue of every year included a bibliography of periodical publications published in Turkmenistan during the previous year (Dȯvu̇rleiin neshirlering letopisi/Letopis’ periodicheskikh izdanii), while the 6th and 12th issues of each year included bibliographies of musical and pictorial art publications (Nota letopisi/Notnaia letopis’ and Shekillendirish sungatyng letopisi/Letopis’ izoizdanii, respectively).
The entries within most of the sections are organized by subject, with Turkmen-language materials listed first within each subject area, followed by Russian-language ones. (Other organizational schemes used in Metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati are discussed in the separate entries for its bibliographies of periodical titles, musical works, and pictorial art publications.) Each issue includes name and geographical indexes as well as a list of the particular journals and newspapers indexed in that issue (and, for the Kitap letopisi/Knizhnaia letopis’ section, a brief supplementary subject index). The organization of the name index is somewhat unusual (see the introduction to the first issue of any given year for an explanation).
Brief Russian translations of the titles of Turkmen-language books (and of the titles of Turkmen-language periodicals listed in Dȯ vu̇rleiin neshirlering letopisi/Letopis’ periodicheskikh izdanii) are provided at least until the mid-1990s. The extent of the bibliography associated with a book, article or avtoreferat (if any) is noted in the entry for that item, giving Metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati some of the functionality of separately-published bibliographies of bibliographies such as Qazaq SSR bibliografiialyq qūraldar kȯrsetkīsh/Qazaqstan Respublikasynyng bibliografiialyq qūraldar kȯrsetkīsh.
Overall, the number of items indexed in individual monthly issues of Metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati is modest. In the early 1990s, about 50 books were indexed per issue; for avtoreferaty of dissertations, the average was less than 10; for reviews, about 11; and for items relating to Turkmenistan but published outside its borders, about 27. In the same years, the annual index of Turkmen periodical publications averages about 100 titles, while the biannual indexes of published works of music and pictorial art average about 18 and 46 total items, respectively. The number of journal and newspaper articles indexed per issue, however, was more substantial, averaging over 1,000 entries each month.
Prior to World War II, Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-ning metbugat letopisi was issued under various other titles, the Russian versions of which were Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana, Letopis’ pechati, Knizhnaia i zhurnal’naia letopis’, and Turkmenskaia bibliografiia. Prior to 1958, the publication frequency ranged from monthly to bimonthly to quarterly to biannual at various times. In these early years, only books and journal and newspaper articles were indexed, with materials in other formats (reviews, pictorial art, etc.) being added later.
The few issues of Metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati published between 1930 and 1932 were irregular both in their coverage and their publication frequency. Issues #2 and #4, for example, indexed only Russian-language works, while #3 and an unnumbered “#5” indexed only works in Turkmen. The average number of entries per issue during this time was about 200, although some issues contained as few as 45 entries.
Letopis’ pechati Turkmenskoi SSR, 1941-1945 : knigi i stat’i na russkom iazyke. Moskva : Izd-vo Vsesoiuz. kn. palaty, 1948. (OCLC: 752432675)
This rarely-seen bibliography of Russian-language works published in Turkmenistan during World War II contains entries for 277 books not indexed in Turkmenistan SSR-ning metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmeniskoi SSR (which, as stated in the previous entry, was not published from 1941 to 1950). Since these books were also indexed in Kitap 1 of Sovet Tu̇rkmenistanyng kitaplary, however, this source’s main significance is as a bibliography of periodical articles (see main entry on our Turkmen periodical bibliography page).
Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-i Sovet Soiuzynyng metbugatynda = Turkmenskaia SSR v pechati SSSR. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1957-1991:11
Tu̇rkmenistan beileki dȯvletering metbugatynda/Turkmenistan v pechati drugikh gosudarstv. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenistana, 1991:12-
This is a monthly bibliography of works relating to the political, economic and cultural life of Turkmenistan but published outside its borders, as well as works published outside Turkmenistan by Turkmen authors, regardless of subject matter. Books, pamphlets, and journal and newspaper articles are included. Entries are organized by subject, and a name index is provided.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, this bibliography was compiled based on bibliographic records provided to the Turkmen Book Chamber by the book chambers of the other Soviet republics and what was then the Karl Marx State Republican Library (now the National Library of Turkmenistan). After independence, it was compiled based solely on materials acquired by the latter.
In the early 1990s, Tu̇rkmenistan beileki dȯvletering metbugatynda/Turkmenistan v pechati drugikh gosudarstv appeared as part of the monthly national bibliographic publication Tu̇rkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana. It averaged about 27 entries per month over the same period, or about 325 entries per year.
MONOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
Yazberdiyev, Almaz. Doğu’da matbu yayınların tarihi: 1802-1917 Arab alfabeli Türkmen kitaplari kataloğu. (Inceleme-arastirma serisi, no. 34). İstanbul: Kaknüs Yayınları, 2005. (OCLC: 63112706)
This work, whose title can be translated as “The history of printed publications in the East : a catalog of Arabic-script Turkmen books, 1802-1917,” consists of what appears to be a Turkish translation of Ýazberdiýew’s very informative Staropechatnye turkmenskie knigi : problemy sobiraniia, bibliografirovaniia i izucheniia (Moskva, 2001) (U of I Library call number: Oak Street Facility 002 Ia9s2001) with the welcome addition of a 1,289-entry union catalog of early Turkmen books. The entries are organized chronologically by year of publication, and alphabetically by main entry (author or title) within each year. Author, title and geographic indexes are provided.
Each entry begins with the title of the work in Arabic script, followed by author, title, and additional bibliographic information in Turkish/Turkish transliteration. Entries also include either an indication of what library or libraries hold the item in question (including that library’s call number or shelfmark for the item), or what bibliography the entry was derived from (including the item’s specific page or entry number in that bibliography). In some cases, both are provided. Unfortunately, not all of the abbreviations used to convey this information appear in the lists of abbreviations and sources at the end of the book, which can lead to some confusion, as can the frequency of typographical errors in general.
Libraries cited as holding works listed in the catalog include the Library of the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, the Turkmen Academy of Sciences’ National Manuscript Institute, the National Library of Uzbekistan, the Russian State Library, the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan, the National Library of Turkey, and Iran’s Tabriz Central Library.
The definition of “Turkmen” books is somewhat broad, since, for example, a number of Chagatai-language works mentioned in Ármin Vámbéry’s Ćagataische Sprachstudien enthaltend grammatikalischen Umriss, Chrestomathie, und Wörterbuch der cagataischen Sprache (Leipzig, 1867)(OCLC: 6711472) are included. On the argument that the Turkic languages (literary and otherwise) of Central Asia were not formally delineated into Turkmen, Uzbek, Karakalpak, etc. until the Soviet period, however, there is some justification for this. A number of small-scale reproductions of the covers of some of the cataloged works are included at the end of the book (see above).
It appears that this Turkish translation was preceded by Persian (Fihrist-i kitabha-yi chap-i qadimi bih zaban-i Turkamani : 1802-1917, Gurgan : Muassasah-i Intisharati-i Makhtumquli Faraghi, 1382/2003) and Turkmen (Köne türkmen basma kitaplary, Aşgabat : Türkmenistanyn Prezidentiniň ýanyndaky Ylym we Tehnika baradaky Ýokary Genesiň Merkezi Ylmy Kitaphanasy, 2004) versions, although it is not entirely clear whether the catalog portion was included in these editions.
Iazberdiev, A. Arap grafikasynda neshir edilen tu̇rkmenche kitaplar = Turkmenskaia kniga na arabskoi grafike. Ashgabat : “Ylym,” 1981. U of I Library Call Number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 015.585 Ia9a 1981
This remarkable bibliography and union catalog of 743 Turkmen-language works published using the Arabic script between 1814 and 1980 begins with a heavily-footnoted 72-page essay in Turkmen on the history of this type of publishing in Turkmenistan and elsewhere, the vast majority of which occurred prior to 1930. Entries for 188 monographic publications dating from before the establishment of the new Soviet version of the Arabic script in 1920 are included, beginning with Kitab-e qyssa-i hezreti Yusuf (=”The book of the story of Yusuf”), published in Kazan’ by Mukhammetjan Miftakhetdin ogly in 1814. This, of course, is only a small fraction of the works indexed in Ýazberdiýew’s 2005 Doğu’da matbu yayınların tarihi : 1802-1917 Arab alfabeli Türkmen kitaplari kataloğu (see previous entry), which scholars interested in the pre-Soviet period may want to use instead. The nearly 500 entries for works from the early years of the Soviet regime gathered together here, on the other hand, constitute probably the single most convenient source for reviewing Turkmen-language monographic publishing during the first decade of Soviet power in Turkmenistan, since works from this period are widely scattered throughout volume 1 of Sovet Tu̇rkmenistanyng kitaplary (see following entry) due to that volume’s subject-based organization scheme.
The entries are organized chronologically by year of publication and alphabetically by main entry (author or title) within each year. Each entry indicates not only what library or libraries hold the item in question, but what that library’s specific shelfmark for that item is. Collections consulted in the compilation of the union catalog include those of what are now the National Library of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen State Book Chamber, the Library of the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, the Russian (formerly All-Union) Book Chamber, the National Library of Uzbekistan, the Library of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences, and those of various institutes of manuscripts and “Oriental studies.” Subject, title, and name indexes are provided, and Russian translations are provided for all titles. 65 entries for works in Arabic-script Turkmen published outside the former Soviet Union (i.e., in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Germany and the UK), and 23 for undated works known to have been published before 1917, are included in separate sections at the end of the bibliography. Facsimiles of the covers of a few dozen of the works indexed are also included.
Sovet Tu̇rkmenistanyng kitaplary : jemleiji bibliografiia = Kniga sovetskogo Turkmenistana : svodnaia bibliografiia. Ashgabat : Tu̇rkmenistan”, 1965-1992. Kitap 1 : 1920-1960. Kitap 2 : Kȯ mekchi gȯ rkezijiler = Vspomogatel’nye ukazateli. Kitap 3 : 1961-1965. Kitap 4 : 1966-1970. 1971-1975. 1976-1980. 1981-1985. 2 parts. 1986-1990. 3 parts. U of I Library Call Number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 015.585 G69k (v. 1 only)
Taken as a whole, this multi-part bibliography of books and pamphlets published in the Turkmen SSR provides researchers with a convenient way to review the entire history of Soviet-era monographic publishing in Turkmenistan. Unfortunately, however, U.S. holdings of the various volumes are quite scattered. It is doubtful, for example, that any U.S. library holds “Kitap 2,” which contains the indexes to the massive (7,000-entry) volume 1. Nevertheless, with the aid of the various volumes’ elaborate subject organization (there are separate, substantial sections for monographs on “Prerevolutionary Russian literature,” “Gardening — Cultivation of fruits — Cultivation of berries — Viticulture,” and “The Soviet electoral system — Elections to the Soviet of workers’ deputies” in volume 1, for example), scholars can familiarize themselves with a range of monographic publications that are quite poorly represented in Western library collections.
In general, under each subject, Turkmen-language works are listed first (in alphabetical order by main entry), followed by Russian-language works. Bilingual Turkmen-Russian works are listed twice, once in each language. Separate indexes are provided in some volumes for Turkmen personal names, Russian personal names, Turkmen-language titles and Russian-language titles, as well as geographic and language indexes. All Turkmen-language entries are supplemented with a Russian translation of the title of the work, and all Turkmen-language works are described using the Cyrillic script, with notations indicating if they were originally published using the Arabic or Latin scripts (i.e., the pre-1940 monographs indexed in volume 1). The bibliographies were compiled based on the holdings of the State Book Chamber of Turkmenistan, what is now the National Library of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen State Medical Library, the State Book Chamber of Uzbekistan, the National Library of Uzbekistan, and the all-Union Knizhnaia letopis’ published in Moscow, although not every volume used all six of these sources. All (or nearly all) items were examined de visu. The volume for 1976-1980 contained 1,216 entries, and the three parts of the volume for 1986-1990 (whose subtitle is Retrospektiv bibliografik gȯrkezijisi/Retrospektivnyi bibliograficheskii ukazatel’) contained over 2,000 entries.
Kitap 1 indexed not only monographs published in Turkmenistan, but monographs published in Moscow, Tashkent and Samarkand for distribution in the republic (presumably some of these are works dating from the early 1920s, before the publishing industry in Aşgabat was well-established). The relationship of Sovet Tu̇rkmenistanyng kitaplary/Kniga sovetskogo Turkmenistana to Kitap letopisi/Knizhnaia letopis‘ is unclear at the time of this writing, although the introductions to some volumes of Sovet Turkmenistanyng kitaplary state that “minor” works and works intended for a mass audience are excluded.
Kitap letopisi = Knizhnaia letopis’. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1930-(U of I Library call number: International & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 015.585 T847)
Indexing books, pamphlets and avtoreferaty of dissertations published within Turkmenistan, Kitap letopisi has been published since 1930, usually on a monthly basis. For much of its history, it has been a constituent (and the oldest) part of Turkmenistan SSR-nyng metbugat letopisi/Turkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi. Entries are organized by subject, with Turkmen-language books listed first within each section, followed by books in Russian. Separate indexes for Turkmen and Russian personal names are included. From 1990-1995 and, perhaps, earlier, Kitap letopisi included entries for avtoreferaty (summaries of dissertations about 20-40 pages in length) in a separate section. In the early 1990s, it was indexing about 50 books and about 5 avtoreferaty per month.
Early issues were printed in the Arabic and Latin scripts as Tyrkmenistan metbughat kitab’jat’, appeared irregularly, and covered different types of material in each issue. Issue #3, for example, was published in 1932 and indexed books received at the State Book Chamber of Turkmenistan before December 30th, 1930, while the 36 pages of issue #4 (also published in 1932) indexed Russian-language works received in 1929 and 1930. Issue #5 indexed Turkmen-language works deposited at the Book Chamber in 1931.
Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-nde neshir edilen taze kitaplar = Novye knigi, izdannye v Turkmenskoi SSR. Ashgabat : TSSR Kitap palatasy, 1962-? (OCLC: 234321348)
This resource indexed new books published in Turkmenistan on a monthly basis. Its relationship to Kitap letopisi, which served precisely the same purpose, is unclear. Print runs were very small (150 copies) and the publication was offered free of charge, perhaps indicating that it served some kind of public-relations or propaganda purpose.
ACADEMY PUBLICATIONS
Bibliografiia izdanii Akademii nauk Turkmenskoi SSR … gg. = Tu̇rkmenistan SSR Ylymlar Akademiiasynyng neshirlerining bibliografiiasy … i. Ashkhabad : Izd-vo “Ylym,” 1970-1993. 5 vols. U of I Library Call Number: Internationl & Area Studies Central Asian Reference (Slavic) 016.068585 Ak1b, v. 1-3 [1941-1975 only]
Covering Russian- and Turkmen-languge books, pamphlets, sborniki, individual articles, avtoreferaty of dissertations and reviews published by the Turkmen Academy of Sciences from 1941 to 1985, this five-volume set is a major bibliographyof Soviet-era scholarship in Turkmenistan. The entries are organized according to an extremely detailed subject scheme (categories include “Molecular physics,” “Comets,” “The Jurassic period,” “Soil types,” “Sheep and goat husbandry,” “Turkmenistan during the period of the first Russian revolution, 1905-1907,” and “[Turkmen] syntax”). Name and title indexes are provided. The name index is separated into two parts according to whether the author’s text is in Turkmen or in Russian, and the title index contains only those titles for which no author was listed (i.e., collectively-authored works). In the first two volumes, a list of the particular issues of periodical publications and sborniki (edited volumes/continuing publications) whose contents are indexed in the bibliography is also included. The vast majority of entries are for Russian-language works; of those originally published in Turkmen, nearly all of them deal with philology and literature. Russian translations of the titles of Turkmen-language works are provided.
Volume 1 indexes publications in all subject areas from 1941-1961, volume 2 covers the period 1962-1966, and volume 3 covers 1967-1975. Volume 4 covers the Academy’s publications from 1976-1980, but is divided into two parts, one for the social sciences and the other for natural and applied sciences. Volume 5, published in 1993, covers 1981-1985. Volumes 3 and 5 were, like volume 4, evidently intended to be published in two parts, but based on the available information it appears that the second part (covering natural and applied sciences) was not published in either case. Among them volumes 1, 2 and 3 contain over 7,000 entries, for an average of 200 Academy publications indexed per year. A huge proportion of these are individual articles in Izvestiia Turkmenskogo filiala Akademii Nauk SSSR (OCLC: 213734882) and its successor Izvestiia Akademii Nauk Turkmenskoi SSR (U of I Library call number: Main Stacks 630.5 AK, meaning that a major function of Bibliografiia izdanii Akademii nauk Turkmenskoi SSR … gg. is as an index of these journals, with all their separate series (i.e., Seriia biologicheskikh nauk, Seriia obshchestvennykh nauk, etc.).
The extent of the bibliography associated with a book, article or avtoreferat (if any) is noted in the entry for that item (as is also the case for Metbugat letopisi/ Letopis’ pechati), giving Bibliografiia izdanii Akademii nauk Turkmenskoi SSR … gg. some of the functionality of separately-published bibliographies of bibliographies such as Qazaq SSR bibliografiialyq qūraldar kȯrsetkīsh/Qazaqstan Respublikasynyng bibliografiialyq qūraldar kȯrsetkīsh.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES
As in the case of Georgia, no comprehensive bibliography of bibliographies exists for Turkmenistan. Other sources, however, can serve the same function in a limited way. Bibliographies that are organized by subject, like Sovet Tu̇rkmenistanyng kitaplary/Kniga sovetskogo Turkmenistana, usually have a “Bibliotechnoe delo — Bibliografiia” (i.e., “Libraries — Bibliography”) section that can function as a bibliography of bibliographies for whatever time period or type of publication is covered by the resource as a whole. Metbugat letopisi/ Letopis’ pechati and Bibliografiia izdanii Akademii nauk Turkmenskoi SSR … gg., as is mentioned in their annotations, can also be considered bibliographies of bibliographies in that they indicate whether or not an item includes a bibliography and, if so, how extensive it is.
Ranging further afield, Almaz Ýazberdiýew’s “V pomoshch’ uchenym i spetsialistam : razvitie retrospektivnoi bibliografii v Turkmenistane” (Sovetskaia bibliografiia, 1977:4, pp. 66-77 — U of I Library call number Main Stacks 010.5 SO v. 161-166 [v.1-124 index is located in International & Area Studies General Slavic Reference (Slavic) 10.5 SO]) is a bibliographic essay that includes citations to about 50 published and unpublished bibliographies relating to Turkmenistan and to Turkmen scholarship in various disciplines, all of them compiled between 1927 and 1977. Brief descriptions of the bibliographies are provided, as well as an overview of bibliographic work in Turkmenistan beginning in the 19th century. O. Nuryev’s article “Bibliografiia literatury o Turkmenistane v poslevoennyi period (1946 g. – konets 50-kh gg.)” on pages 59-83 of Bibliotechnoe delo v Turkmenistane za 50 let : sbornik statei (Ashkhabad, 1974) includes citations to about 50 Russian- and Turkmen-language bibliographies published in monograph form or as part of periodical publications between 1946 and 1959. A. A. Khodzhakulieva’s “Razvitie bibliografii v sovetskom Turkmenistane” (Sovetskaia bibliografiia, 1985:6, pp. 10-20 — U of I Library call number Main Stacks 010.5 SO v. 209-214) provides a slightly different perspective than the article by Ýazberdiýew mentioned above and describes about 30 bibliographies from throughout the Soviet era.
OTHER FORMATS
Katalog kandidatskikh i doktorskikh dissertatsii, khraniashchikhsia v fondakh bibliotek Turkmenskoi SSR. Ashkhabad, 1986.
A project of what is now the Turkmen National Library, this 318-page union catalog of the dissertations held in the libraries of Turkmenistan was published in a very small print run of 150 copies, and does not appear to be held in the West.
Retsenziialar letopisi = Letopis’ retsenzii. Ashgabat : Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1959-
Retsenziialar letopisi/Letopis’ retsenzii is a monthly index of reviews that appeared in journals and newspapers published in Turkmenistan. Entries are organized by subject, and two indexes are provided: one for the names of reviewers, and one for the names of the authors and/or editors of the works being reviewed. In the early 1990s, Retsenziialar letopisi/Letopis’ retsenzii appeared as part of the monthly national bibliographic publication Tu̇rkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana.
Only bona fide reviews of specific works are indexed. The average number of reviews indexed per month in the early 1990s was about 11.
Nota letopisi/Notnaia letopis’. Ashgabat : Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1971-
in the early 1990s, Nota letopisi/Notnaia letopis’ appeared twice a year, in the sixth and twelfth issues of the monthly national bibliographic publication Tu̇rkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana. In the 1970s it appeared only once a year, in issue 12 of its Soviet-era predecessor Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-ning metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenskoi SSR. It indexed all musical works published in Turkmenistan, whether as stand-alone publications or as part of an issue of a journal or newspaper (chiefly the latter).
Published musical works are organized alphabetically by composer. The overall number of musical works indexed in Nota letopisi/Notnaia letopis’ in the early 1990s was quite small, about 18 works per year. For musical works published prior to 1971, scholars can attempt to consult V. Larionov’s Muzykal’nye izdaniia proizvedenii turkmenskikh kompozitorov: bibliograficheskii ukazatel’: 1928-1976 (Ashkhabad, 1977; 77 pages)(OCLC: 7576613).
Shekillendirish sungatyng letopisi = Letopis’ izoizdanii. Ashgabat: Knizhnaia palata Turkmenskoi SSR, 1976-
This index of pictorial art publications from Turkmenistan appeared twice a year, in the sixth and twelfth issues of the monthly national bibliographic publication Tu̇rkmenistanyng metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenistana in the early 1990s. In the 1970s it appeared in issues 7 and 12 of its Soviet-era predecessor, Tu̇rkmenistan SSR-ning metbugat letopisi/Letopis’ pechati Turkmenskoi SSR.
Entries are organized by type of publication and then alphabetically by title, and a name index is provided. While calendars, fine art reproductions, advertisements and other forms of pictorial art were indexed in Shekillendirish sungatyng letopisi/Letopis’ izoizdanii, in practice nearly all the entries contained in it are for posters. Only about 46 pictorial art publications of all types were indexed in Shekillendirish sungatyng letopisi/Letopis’ izoizdanii per year in the early 1990s.