The department was founded in 1973. Currently, the book fund includes 21.424 items. The literature is arranged according to 2 principles: chronological and thematic.
Now, the activity of the department depends on the following functions: preservation of literature, intra-library service, entering literature and electronic mapping, ancient literature dusting and sanitizing, organizing a permanent exhibition of ancient literature, bibliographic information and publishing.
The fund of antiquarian literature, which determines the content orientation of the department, includes 2427 items of Armenian and 8576 items of foreign language sub-funds. The Armenian fund is presented in chronological order on the shelves and in the catalogs, and the Russian and other languages- in radix sort and alphabetical order. Accounting of the letter, comparison and verification of data of electronic and paper catalogs, ledger records, as well as replenishment and rearrangement works are carried out continuously.
A number of books published in the 14th and 17th centuries have their own place in the section of Armenian antiquarian literature due to their uniqueness, artistic design and printing features, including the manuscript of St. Grigor Tatevatsi, books of Arakel of Tabriz, Hovhannes Holov and many other Armenian thinkers.
The book fund also includes foreign-language antiquarian literature, among which "The Genealogies recorded in the Sacred" (1613), "Darinnen gelehret werden" (1616), "Voyage au Caucase chez les Tcherkesses et les Abkhases en Colchide, en Georgie, en Armenie et en Crimee"(1840-1843), «Исповедание хрис. Веры Армянской Церкви» (Санкт-Петербург, 1799), «История Российской церкви» (Санкт-Петербург, 1840) and others are noteworthy.
Other funds separated by thematic principle are arranged in alphabetical order within the scientific division. These funds contain rare literature related to art, jurisprudence, history, medicine, agriculture, philology, as well as multilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference books.
The art literature fund (2767 items) has its special place in the separate funds and contains rich literature in Armenian, Russian, and English languages representing the world culture, books and albums reflecting different branches of art from ancient times to the modern period.
Donations of Armenian and foreign individuals and organizations, which are rich in valuable literature in foreign languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Polish, Arabic, Persian, etc.), including many books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias of scientific value, hold a special place in the funds. The collections "Works of Famous People of the World" (54 volumes), "Collection des universites de France" (50 volumes) and others are particularly noteworthy.
A separate hall is dedicated to the donations of Galust Gulbenkian (3377 items, founded in 1965) and a separate room to Helen Takesian (2468 items, founded in 1991).
The literature is provided with the right of use on the spot.
The department also carries out library-bibliographic and publishing works, which, by providing general and analytical information, help the reader to get oriented towards searching for material.
