The museum of local lore - Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore - the oldest museum of Siberia, was founded on December 3 in 1782 and possesses invaluable monuments of historical and cultural heritage. 

The uniqueness of it is  in the collection which is based on materials of expeditions of outstanding researchers of Asia and scientists - members of the East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society (ESDRGS). IOKM funds contain about 250 thousand units of storage of fixed assets and about 160 thousand units of storage of supplementary fund. Annually there take place more than 50 exhibitions on display areas of the museum. The objects, documents, photos characterizing life, material, and spiritual culture of Siberian people, the Far East, Kamchatka, Korea, China and Mongolia present funds of the museum. Ethnographic collections of the museum focused on the people of the Central Asian continent contain about 30 thousand units of storage. 100 thousand units of storage present unique collections of archaeological monuments, including jade products of the new Stone Age. The museum has photofund containing 40 thousand units of storage. Cult objects of the Buddhism and Shamanism are stored in IOKM funds. The museum has one of the largest historical libraries where materials of expeditions and researches of scientists of VSORGO are collected. Book collection includes 80 thousand books, newspapers and magazines. Rolls of the 17th century, Cathedral Codes of Alexey Mikhaylovich, textbooks and atlases of Peter the Great’s century, old printing editions of the 18th century are especially valuable. The collection of the Chinese books of the 18-19th centuries numbering 440 units of is stored in library.