The Presidential Library through the eyes of young journalists

The 7th annual Journalistic Marathon contest of representatives of the editorial boards of urban school media has been completed in St. Petersburg. It was organized by the Presidential Library together with the House of Children's Art "Yunost". It became the site of the main stage of the contest for the first time.

The marathon was attended by more than a hundred schoolchildren. At the Presidential Library, they took part in a press conference, went on excursions around the building, looked at how employees worked, and, of course, the most important thing was collecting materials for a problematic article on the origin, development and metamorphosis of the Russian language from ancient times to the present day. We reported on this in detail earlier. In addition, the cadets issued an outside broadcast. Based on them, we publish a digest of school media in St. Petersburg.  

The tasks of the participants of the contest, which they had to perform in the Presidential Library, was formulated by Yaroslava Nikitina in detail (“Secondary School № 135”): “The participants of the marathon were asked to collect material for reporting on the library’s everyday life and to optimize the work into three small groups from which she executed her set task: two people stayed in the hall to attend a press conference, one person went to the electronic reading room and two people went on a tour of the library”.

“The Presidential Library greeted us with a majestic light hall, where the participants of the seventh journalistic marathon gathered. Everyone was in anticipation, and the multitude of cameras and screens only heightened interest and emphasized the significance of the event, setting everyone up for work. Yes, we are in the conference room of the Presidential Library, where various meetings are held daily, as well as educational lectures and meetings with important and interesting people. Today there was a lecture on Old Russian written language especially for a group of young journalists. I got familiar with the library, found out about its everyday life, about the technologies that are used here, and about the information stored here”, - writes Alexandra Rodicheva from the secondary medical school “Secondary School № 518”.

Her colleague Mikhail Kasatkin (Epigraph newspaper, № 309) emphasized that everything he saw at the Presidential Library of young journalists was pleasantly surprised: “Silent reading rooms, dusty shelves of books, some of which are older than us by a couple of decades, an old woman in a knitted cape which goes through the library card reader - such associations often come at the mention of the word "library". However, the Presidential Library is infinitely far from these stereotypes. Filled with technological innovations, it is close to being called the library of the future”.

The first point of the tour of the building was the Constitution Hall. Alexandera Rodicheva shares her impressions (“Secondary School № 518”, newspaper Nota bene): “The main exhibit is the gift of the President - an absolute copy of the inaugural Constitution of the Russian Federation. I was surprised by the facility: the pages on the screen can be turned over just by running your hand through the air. It is so convenient”.  

The guys were impressed by the presence of Orthodox church in the Presidential Library. Ksenia Zaburdaeva (School № 352) tells about this in her article “The Presidential Library and what it is perceived with ...”: “Then they showed us something that I definitely didn’t expect to see in the library. We were shown the temple of the holy fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. As it turned out, the church runs from 1835 to 1918, on May 27, 2009, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia made a small consecration of the restored home church”.

At the same time, Alina Bazilevich and Natalia Yelfimova (gymnasium № 61, “Newton”) were especially interested in the exhibition hall of the Presidential Library. Here is what they write: “From the first minutes of being in the room, we were amazed by the beauty of the exhibition hall, which harmoniously combines the past and the present. Here we could observe the usual museum showcases in combination with modern plasma screens, on which we could see both newsreel footage of past years, and modern videos with information about the recent history of Russia”.

“Next, the participants in electronic form demonstrated a book dated 1710 year. The cover clearly shows the handwritten title “The Alphabet is a civilian with moral teachings”. On the pages, albeit electronic ones, there are clearly visible changes in the typeface of the font, letters, that is, a gradual transformation of the alphabet to the species we are used to now”, - says Anna Tsibulskaya (Gymnasium №92, “Rakurs”).

This multifunctional hall, built on the site of the former courtyard surprised young correspondents. There, the Presidential Library now holds various events: discussions, webinars, teleconferences, etc. This is written by Anna Tsatsulina (State Budgetary Institution for the Central Public Administration of Kirovsky District, Paradox Studio): “I can’t imagine how many reconstruction works needed so that a modern and multifunctional hall was created on the site of the courtyard. In my opinion, the Presidential Library is a library of the future, I hope that soon many libraries will become equally advanced”.

Anita Lashinu (“Na Lenskoy”, the “Bloknot” studio) was impressed by the “neighborhood” of eras - in the entire building of the Presidential Library and in the electronic reading room in particular: “Passing through the corridors, you feel the patronizing look of the emperors from the paintings. Feeling as if you are drifting along a current between two worlds - ours and the past. We enter the electronic reading room. And here, too, as if two epochs mixed. Antique decoration and modern computers – what a combination! ... As if you travel on a time machine. Here, high-tech and sophisticated beauty of the old years. In this library, you can walk for centuries in one day”.  

With particular interest, students studied the Central Control Room of the Presidential Library. “Here are the directors and engineers who lead the live broadcast from the conference hall. The work of these people is very difficult, requiring a lot of knowledge, experience, special attention and constant monitoring”, - says in her report Alena Rykantseva (Shtrikh newspaper). “The central broadcasting apparatus, the oracle of the technological book paradise, is the center of coordination and collection of data flows. There are at least a dozen monitors that display the image from a variety of library rooms, a special console for controlling sound on the broadcast, joysticks for controlling and moving cameras, a matrix showing general information about the entire network. Powerful technical equipment allows to hold esters, going out not only in Russia, but also in London, New York, Tokyo”, - adds Mikhail Kasatkin (Epigraph newspaper, School № 309).

“It turned out that very important work in the library takes place in rooms where there is no luxurious decoration, where ordinary visitors do not get. But we managed to! Here, too, the work of professionals is in full swing, they videotaped what is happening and provide the library with all the digital benefits that are needed for lectures, seminars and other events. It turns out that all the events taking place here are recorded and forever remain in the library information repository. Well, we have already become a little feather in the wing of the history bird”, - notes Alisa Polyakova (“Secondary School №. 482 ”, “ШК.V.АЛ”).

The awarding of the winners of the VII annual city contest of the editorial boards of school media Journalistic Marathon was held in the research library of the North-West Institute of Management of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation. Among the laureates are young journalists and publications presented in our digest: Alisa Polyakova, Mikhail Kasatkin, newspapers “ШК.V.АЛ” and “Epigraph”.