The Presidential Library is strengthening cooperation with the leading libraries of Ukraine

June 5, 2013, in Kiev, the reading room of the Presidential Library, located in St. Petersburg, opened at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (NBUV). Now the unique resources of the national digital library of Russia - copies of archival and museum documents, rare editions, documentary newsreel on the history of Russian statehood, on the whole, more than 250,000 materials became available to the residents of Kiev in full.

The opening ceremony of the electronic reading room was attended by representatives of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the country's leading library institutions. The head of Rossotrudnichestvo in Ukraine, Konstantin Vorobyov and Director General of the NBUV, Vladimir Popik addressed the guests with their welcoming speeches. They stressed the importance of strengthening cultural ties between Russia and Ukraine.

As it was noted at the ceremony, the cooperation of the Presidential Library and the National Library of Ukraine is aimed at establishing links in the field of dissemination of information, science and culture, exchange of experience and information support in the implementation of joint scientific and cultural projects. This is emphasized in the agreement on cooperation between the Presidential Library and the National Library of Ukraine, signed in December 2011.

On the same day the Presidential Library exchanged the signed agreements on cooperation with the National Historical Library of Ukraine and the Cyril and Methodius Scientific Library of Dnepropetrovsk. The parties agreed to develop joint projects in order to create a single informational and cultural space, to hold joint conferences, training events. The main point of the cooperation is the exchange of digital copies of rare documents from the collections of the libraries of the two countries.

The exchange has already begun. The collection of the Presidential Library, "Russia - Ukraine: From the History of Relationship", published on the website on the eve of the opening of the reading room, included the publication not only from Russian archives and libraries, but also from the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine. The collection, which will be of interest to Russian and Ukrainian researchers, contains essays, archival documents and materials from the time of Kievan Rus' to the period when the Ukrainian provinces joined the Russian Empire.

Providing access to its collections for the widest range of users while preserving historical documents is an important activity of the Presidential Library. For this purpose, regional representative offices of the first national digital library of Russia are created; and the centers of access to resources are opening around the world for the compatriots living abroad. To date, 14 reading rooms have been opened in Madrid, Helsinki, London, Rome, Astana, including the one in Ukraine. Foreign centers of the Presidential Library are the venue for cultural and educational activities on the issues related to Russian history and culture.