Cooperation of national libraries to continue

14 December 2012

One of the main objectives of cooperation between national libraries of Russia is the joint development of information technology and the popularization of electronic collections.

This was announced December 14, 2012 at the XVI meeting of the Cooperation Council of the national libraries of Russia, held in St. Petersburg. It was attended by the heads and delegations of the National Library of Russia, the Russian State Library and the Presidential Library.

As pointed out in his address the Director of the National Library of Russia, Anton Likhomanov, the transition to new technologies is more than urgent. "There is a growing number of visitors who come to the web site and prefer to use e-books, but the online forms of work still need to be developed," he said. As one of the possibilities for improvement of modern technology in traditional libraries was proposed co-operation with the Presidential Library. "With the support of the Presidential Library we have presented the Laurentian Chronicle - the most important document of the Russian history", added Anton Likhomanov. In addition, the Presidential Library, as part of production of its own videos and digitization of historical documents has converted into electronic form the exhibition "From the Soviet Union - to the new Russia", held in the National Library of Russia in October 2012. Together with colleagues from the National Library of Russia has also been held the conference "The natives of Germany and their Russian descendants"; common approaches to the legal regulation of activities in electronic environment are elaborated at traditional conferences with the participation of the legal community. From 2013 the Presidential Library plans to start digitizing the newspaper holdings of the National Library of Russia.

"We continue to develop the nation-wide repository of documents on the history of Russian statehood," pointed out Director General of the Presidential Library, Alexander Vershinin. According to him, this work is being done in cooperation with all national libraries, and nothing should interfere with it, not even different subordination of the institutions (the RNL and RSL are subordinated to the Ministry of Culture while the Presidential Library is subject to the Presidential Property Management Department of Russia). "May 27, 2011 the three national libraries concluded an agreement. At the level of the Ministry of Culture and the Presidential Property Management Department it is also important to agree on the maximum development of interaction in information work, enrichment of electronic collections in all aspects of activities of national libraries," added Alexander Vershinin.

Director General of the Russian State Library, Alexander Visly presented in detail the development of libraries in view of changes in the Russian legislation. He also actively supported the joint implementation of modern technologies.

According to the results of the meeting attended by the heads of national libraries and round table discussions the Cooperation Council will issue proposals for further joint work. Coordinators of the Cooperation Council informed that a comprehensive cooperation plan for 2012 had been implemented.