Presidential library: Third session of the russian-american Working group kicked off in the United States

On October 21-22 2010 the Russian delegation presided over by V.I. Kozhin, Presidential Management and Administration Department head, participated in the work of the third session of the russian-amercian Working group on library cooperation.  

Within the framework of the session Director-General of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library professor A. P. Vershinin and the Librarian of the Library of Congress Dr. James H. Billington signed the Agreement on transfer of digitally preserved copies of films produced in the United States. After that was held a solemn ceremony during which V.I. Kozhin presented Dr. James H. Billington digitally preserved copies of 10 silent films that previously had been thought to be lost forever.

As the result of the session was adopted a joint statement of the russian-american Working group co-chairmen. It reads that the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library and the Library of Congress have already undertaken a lot of actions aimed at cooperation. Special focus is brought to the contribution of the Library of Congress in enlargement of virtual collections of the Presidential library, namely “Memory of the Great Victory” and “Territory of Russia”. There has been reached a settlement concerning further expertise exchange in the field of engineering and technology.

Besides, both sides expressed willingness to enlarge the circle of organizations, participating in cooperation. Pursuing this goal the second day of the session brought together heads of ten libraries and archives of the USA, which contained Slavic collections.

As to the Presidential library, it started to develop cooperation and in June 2010 joined the work of the World Digital Library.

On July 2 2007 Presidents of the Russian Federation and the USA reached an agreement on library cooperation: was adopted a decision on foundation of the russian-american Working group on library cooperation.

The second session of the russian-american Working group on library cooperation took place on October 15 2009 at the Presidential library.