There are presented the results of studying the autographs from the personal library of Russian agrarian scientist A. F. Fortunatov in its part which was sent over to the CSAL collection. Based on the historical biographical method and use of modern technologies and equipment the information potential of 30 editions with autographs of the pre-revolutionary period has been studied. The autographs are considered as a source of data to study the personality of the prominent scientist. The study process comprises: identifying the owners of the autographs and revealing the maximum detailed information on them; describing the autographs and clarifying the circumstances that served a reason to describe them; determining the quantitative, chronological, subject-matter, geographical and type composition of autograph editions; creating illustrative material in the form of scans of covers and front pages of the editions on which autographs are placed; representing the obtained information in the form an electronic card catalogue. As a result of the work, a new group of historical sources has been described and introduced into the scientific circulation - the autographs from the personal library of Russian agrarian scientist A. F. Fortunatov. The presentation of the obtained information in the broad information communication space will make it accessible for the user beyond the territorial and time frame, initiate an interest in books and the personality of the autograph owner himself, increase the information support of research in agriculture. This research should be considered as the first stage of further work for creating, on the basis of modern information technologies, an illustrative card catalogue of autographs of all rare and valuable editions of the CSAL collection thereby launching new themes and subject-matters for researchers of agricultural science and agricultural book.