Naval rarities to be added to the Presidential Library’s holdings

April 9, 2013, the Presidential Library signed a cooperation agreement with the Naval Academy n. a. Admiral of the Soviet Navy N. G. Kuznetsov. According to the document, the students and staff of the Academy will be provided access to the whole scope of the holdings of the first national digital library of Russia. The Academy, in turn, will assist in the development and enrichment of the national repository.

An important part of the cooperation should be the digitization of printed editions and manuscripts of photographs, audio-visual materials provided by the academy. According to the Academy’s head, Nikolai Maximov, many of those documents that have been gradually declassified, are also added to the holdings of the Presidential Library. During the ceremony of signing the agreement, the Academy provided for digitization albums and marine atlases of the 18th – 20th centuries. The earliest edition is the "General and various special maps of the entire Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia and Finland ..." of the Swedish knight commander, Nils Kron. They are, as stated in the preface, "published in St. Petersburg at the Naval Academy" in 1750. Work will begin in the near future. Totally, according to experts, will be digitized more than 4500 pages of rare editions. Then, the digital copies will be available both in regional centers of the Presidential Library and anywhere in the world where there is Internet connection.

Head of the Naval Academy, Admiral Nikolai Maksimov, appreciated the attention given by the Presidential Library since its very creation, to the history of the Russian Navy. Its collections include books and papers covering the period of formation and development of the domestic fleet from Peter the Great to the present. Nikolai Maksimov notd that the Presidential Library’s digital resources are of great value to both experienced scientists and students. First of all, because there are mostly primary sources, which allow to explore this or that phenomenon on one’s own, to draw your own conclusions, make discoveries. Original materials are often not available for a wide range of readers, but digital copies will solve this problem. As stressed Nikolai Maksimov, access to the holdings of the Presidential Library in the Academy should be organized not only in the electronic reading room, but also in the workplaces of its employees so that they could apply them any time in educational and research activities.

The signed agreement is the continuation of cooperation that began back in 2010. The project, that marked the beginning of the interaction between the Presidential Library and the Naval Academy, was the Day of Naval Knowledge, which is traditionally held in September. Heads and teachers of naval universities of St. Petersburg, along with representatives of regional administrations, meet at the Presidential Library and make presentations of their research works on prominent figures of history and modern achievements of the Russian Navy.