Representation of Fiction of the Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries in the Publications of Shevchenko Scientific Society (Based on the Digital Collection of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv)

The purpose of the article is to reveal the type and species structure of the array of literary and artistic publications released on the material and technical basis of Shevchenko Scientific Society in the first two periods of its activity and represented in the Digital Collection "Book Heritage of Shevchenko Scientific Society (1874-1913)" of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv. In order to achieve this purpose, the author used descriptive, analytical, synthetic, comparative, classification, historical and book studies, and systematic and typological methods of scientific knowledge. The scientific novelty of the paper is to highlight the type and species features of the publications of Ukrainian fiction, their authors and customers. Conclusions. Analysis of the array of books, digital copies of which are presented in the Collection "Book Heritage of Shevchenko Scientific Society (1874-1913)" of Vasyl Stefanyk Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine, has shown the following typical features of the printed products of that time: dominance of publications (mostly lifetime, often first) of original works by Ukrainian writers; representation of works by Borys Hrinchenko, Stepan Rudanskyi, Yurii Fedkovych, Taras Shevchenko in the form of scientific multi-volume editions with extensive scientific and auxiliary apparatus (prefaces, introductory articles, notes and comments); high proportion of small-scale mono-editions of prose works: short stories, samples, novels, plays and polygraphs, mainly poetry collections; budget artistic and printing execution (except for anniversary and multi-volume editions); predominance of publications in paper covers decorated with ornamental frames. Given the short period for implementing the project to digitize books and brochures published by the printing house of Shevchenko Scientific Society, there are still many first editions outside the collection that are interesting for the research reader. Taking into account the above, it is appropriate to continue the work we have begun by enriching the collection with other contemporary publications, while improving the platform on which they should be presented.