The Presidential Library contributes to the All-Russian Pushkin Museum

On the threshold of the Lyceum Day, celebrated October 19, the Presidential Library has granted to the All-Russian Pushkin Museum a collection of digitized books about the life and work of the great poet.

Electronic copies of rare editions were presented October 11, 2012 at a joint press conference on the beginning of cooperation between the Presidential Library and the Museum. The meeting was attended by Director of the All-Russian Pushkin Museum, Sergei Nekrasov, and the Presidential Library Director for Information Resources, Elena Zhabko. The granted books reveal the history of relations between the poet and the authorities ("Extracts from the letters of Count Alexander H. Benkendorf to Emperor Nicholas I about Pushkin", 1903); tell of the Lyceum Fellowship ("Pushkin. His friends and mentors from the Lyceum. Several articles by Ya Groth," 1887). The unique feature of these and other materials is their documentary nature and historical accuracy of assessments.

Sergei Nekrasov, opening the meeting, spoke about the importance of cooperation between the All-Russian Pushkin Museum and the Presidential Library. According to him, the granted electronic copies of books are the first stage of interaction. Today the museum holds the collection of rare editions and documents, many of which contain unique autographs. Such documents are carefully preserved, and for the most part are not available to visitors of the museum. Therefore, he stressed, it is so important to talk about creating electronic versions of these publications in order to make them available to the general public.

As noted Elena Zhabko, the Presidential Library regards the cooperation with the All-Russian Pushkin Museum as the beginning of a strategic partnership. As part of the library’s theme for this year, "Russian People", the collection of materials of the same name is being developed. Then the building of the collections will continue with a new thematic year, "Russian Language". Digitized documents about A. S. Pushkin can be an important part of the "people’s" topic.

The Presidential Library, which first opened its doors three years ago, in a relatively short period of time, has become a world repository for digital historical documents, books, films and photos, virtual tours. Elena Zhabko stressed that one of the areas of cooperation may be the creation of a virtual exhibition, elaborated on the basis of one of the museum’s expositions.

Today the library’s holdings account for more than 190,000 items, and the objective of the near future is to make them as accessible as possible, to arise interest among schoolchildren, students, amateurs of history, bloggers and journalists for the work with documents. The Presidential Library is being developed as informational, cultural center, open institute of communications.