The question of a literary language for Carpatho-Rusyns was most challenging for them. Over the years, members of different "linguistic schools" produced a number of language books for Carpatho-Rusyns. These different "linguistic ideas" could be traced in the collection.

The library possesses a facsimile of the first school book for Carpatho-Rusyns living in the Kingdom of Hungary - Mihail Manuil Olshavski (1700-1767), Elementa puerilis institutionis in lingua latina = nachalo pismen detem k nastavleniiu na latinskom iazyke [Begining of Writings for Children, According to Latin Language], Guadiopili [Trnava], Northern Slovakia, 1746.

Michael Luczkai (1789-1843) in his: Grammatica Slavo-Ruthena [Slaveno-Rusyn Grammar], Budae [Budapest], 1830, argued for the use of Subcarpathian recension of Old Church Slavonic in the cultural life of Carpatho-Rusyns.

Iosyf Hanulya (1874-1962) was a conscious Rusynophile and foresaw the possibility of creating of a Rusyn literary standard. His ideas were expressed in: Hrammatyka dlia amerykanskykh Rusynov, [Grammar for American Rusyns], McKeesport, PA, 1918, and also his: Chytanka dliia amer.[sic!]-rus'koi molodezhy, [Reader for American-Rusyn Youth], McKeesport, PA, 1935.

Avhustyn Voloshyn (1874-1945) was Ukrainian in outlook but still in the transition from Subcarpathian dialectical archaisms to the Ukrainian literary standard. See his: Mala Chytanka dlia II i III klasy narodnykh shkol [Small Reader for the Second and Third Class of Primary Schools], Uzhhorod, 1930.

Stefan Telep (1885-1965), a native of the Lemko Region, was a Russophile. His: Russkii bukvar dlia tserkovno-prikhodskikh shkol [Russian Primer for Parish Schools], Mayfield, PA, 1938 was written in pure Russian.

A small group of Rusyns, which moved in the eighteenth century to Bachka (present day Serbia), first managed to develop their literary standard. Its rules are given in:

Evfemiia Varga, Moia persha knizhka. Chytanka za I klasu osnovnei shkoly [My First Book. Reader for the First Class of Primary School], Ruski Kerestur, 1965 and

Mykola Kochysh (1928-1973), Pravopys ruskoho iazyka, [Orthography of Rusyn Language], Novy Sad, 1971.

There is also the collection of 43 publications (11 primers, 13 grammars, 8 readers, 3 phrase books and 8 dictionaries written for Carpatho-Rusyns), which have been recently microfilmed for the library. The originals are kept in the Episcopal and Heritage Institute Museum of the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Passaic, West Paterson, NJ. Their microfilm copies have been made available to the public as a gift from Bishop Michael J. Dudick (b.1915), D.D. The description of this collection was done by the author of this article: Byzantine Catholic (Ruthenian) Language Books, [New York, 1995].