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The lion's share of the Library's Slavonic collections is made up of items using the Cyrillic alphabet. The Library uses the ALA–LC transliteration scheme (the full set of transliteration tables can be accessed from the Library of Congress' website here).  While it is now standard practice to catalogue items in their original script as well as in Latin transliteration, this is only a recent change in library practices.

Below is a summary of the main Russian and Ukrainian transliteration points to be aware of, addressing letters in the original whose transliteration is not predictable. Please note that these transliterations are what should be used when searching the catalogue; they do not necessarily look the same in the records that would appear. The library's electronic system allows cataloguers to use diacritics to provide extra clarity for readers, for example to show whether the transliterated combination IU is from the single letter Ю or the combination ИУ. Soft and hard signs (ь/ъ) are shown in the catalogue with marks similar to apostrophes, but readers should disregard these letters when searching in the catalogue.

Russian Cyrillic Latin
Ё E
Ж ZH
Й I
Х KH
Ц TS
Ч CH
Ш SH
Щ SHCH
Ы Y
Э E
Ю IU
Я IA
Ukrainian Cyrillic Latin
Г H
Ґ G
Е E
Є IE
И Y
I I
Ї I
Й I
Х KH
Ц TS
Ч CH
Ш SH
Щ SHCH
Ю IU
Я IA