Summing up the results of the 15th International Research and Practical Conference “Digital Age of Culture” 13.10.2016
19 – 23 September 2016 there took place 15th jubilee International research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture” on board a ferryboat “Princess Anastasia”.
 
The ferryboat cruised from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, then Stockholm, then Tallinn, then back to St. Petersburg. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia and the Russian Association of Digital Libraries (NPP “ELBI”) supported by the general sponsor the Samsung Electronics Rus company. The scientific agenda of the conference included a plenary meeting, two round – table discussions, one of which was “National Digital Library” and the other one was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Besides, there took place the regular session of the annual research and practical conference of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries (NPP “ELBI”). The “Digital Age of Culture” was started 20 September 2016 by the plenary meeting where the head of the Administrative department of management and monitoring service for clients of the RSL N.V.Avdeeva read to the audience a greeting letter by the minister of culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Rostislavovich Medinsky.
 
Sergey Kirichenko
The first speeches to tune the conference were "Welcome to the world of digital culture, or 25 – year – service for Russian society” by a representative of the general sponsor of the conference the Samsung Electronics Rus company, head of the project group Sergey Anatoliyevich Kirichenko and “Unifying Electronic Resources of Russian Libraries” by the director general of the National Library of Russia, supervisor of the “National Digital Library” project at the Russian State Library Alexander Ivanovich Visly. In his speech Sergey Anatoliyevich gave details on the projects carried out by the Samsung Electronics Rus company in collaboration with different establishments of culture and arts, science and education of the Russian Federation, and also touched upon their financial and technical support for the programmes. The speaker marked that by contributing to the development of culture, science and education the Samsung Electronics Rus company were trying to create in Russia a solid base for the development of the society in the new digital world.
 
Alexander Visly
Alexander Ivanovich Visly in his speech highlighted the changes taking place in the library sphere which had been prompted by two legal acts: “About changes in Federal Law “About libraries” concerning creation of a federal state information system ‘National Digital Library’” and “About legal deposits of documents” and problems arising with their application. Apart of that, the speech dealt with the following aspects of work of the NDL resource: support of work of the NDL distributed system for the participant libraries and questions of establishing volume and contents of the documents transferred to the NDL for libraries of the “obligatory participant” category. The plenary meeting was continued by the following speakers: Tatyana Alexandrovna Blinova (Russian State Library) with "Modern reader – needs and demands, and what it means for library’s client’s service”; Natalia Fedorovna Afanasyeva (Moscow Kremlin Museums) with “Digital collections in Moscow Kremlin Museums”; Ekaterina Leonidovna Kudrina (Corporate University of Autonomous Non – Profit Organization of Further Education “CDIC – educational programmes”) with “Centre of Development of Interpersonal Communication and Education Programmes in the Age of Electronic Technologies”; Natalia Arkadiyevan Timofeeva (The Perm State Krai Universal Library named after A. M. Gorky) with “Formation of electronic resources of the Perm region (Perm digital library): a current status, problems and prospects”; Andrey Valentinovich Kuzmin (ALANIS Software Co. Ltd) with “Automatic library stock scan processing. A case study of creation of a software solution in cooperation with the Russian State Library” and others.
 
 
Natalia Afanasyeva
Vladimir  Dmitriyev
Andrey Kuzmin
All in all the first day of the conference included 17 speeches.  
 
Tatyana Dmitrieva
Within the framework of the plenary meeting there was held a specialized event of the Second All – Russian Contest of Library Innovations “Innovations in Libraries – Best Experiences of 2015”. The final report "Library Innovations: Promotion and Partnership (by Results of the Second All-Russian Contest)” was presented by Tatyana Yevgeniyevna Dmitrieva, head of the Financial and Economic Department of the Russian State Library. She gave details on the aim of the contest, on the results of the 2015 event and on the prospects. Each of the winners also presented their projects. Inna Victorovna Yurik, deputy library director of Belarusian National Technical University, spoke on “ ProBNTU as a System of Promoting Scientific and Creative Potential of University”. Elena Nailevna Kovalenko, chief librarian of the Centralized Library System of Norilsk, reported her “Scientific and Technical Creativity of Youth in the Library”. Elena Grigoriyevna Smutneva, head of Coordination and Methodology Division of Novosibirsk Regional Library for Children, presented “Project "WikiSibiriaDa": Our response to the challenges of the times”.
 
 
Inna Yurik
Awardees of the 2nd All – Russian Contest of Library Innovations
Elena Kovalenko
Continuing the work of the conference, 21 September 2016 there was organized a round –
Mikhail Rodionov
table discussion “National Digital Library”. The compere of the discussion was deputy director general on the National Digital Library of the Russian State Library Mikhail Davidovich Rodionov. The speeches were presented by the following participants: Mikhail Davidovich Rodionov (Russian State Library) – “National Electronic Library as the Foundation for the Knowledge Space”; Oleg Nikolayevich Shorin (National Library of Russia) – “Statistics of NDL work at NLR”; Ruslan Valeriyevich Bobrik (Russian State Library) – “Building up the direction of NEL development from the operator’s point”; Diana Vassiliyevna Ivanova (Russian State Library) – “Legal aspects of works’ usage for the National Digital Library”.
 
 
Oleg Shorin
Ruslan Bobrik
Diana Ivanova
The themes chosen for the discussion turned out to be interesting for the participants. The discussion was marked as hot, with numerous urgent questions and extensive answers.
Nina Avdeeva, compere
The second day of the conference witnessed the round – table discussion organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Its compere was the head of the Administrative department of management and monitoring service for clients of the RSL Nina Vladimirovna Avdeeva. There were presented the results of the work on the joint project by the Russian State Library, the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology, CC “Antiplagiat” and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
 
Tatyana Blinova
They were reflected in the following speeches: “Verifying results of the computer – aided evaluation of documents when forming referent collection Scientific Archives” by deputy head of the Department of support of access to digital resources, head of the Department of prospective development of the Russian State Library Tatyana Alexandrovna Blinova, “Studying Structure of Plagiarisms in Russian Dissertations” by the executive director of CC “Antiplagiat” Yuri Victorovich Chekhovich. 
 
Traditionally, the event was crowned by live discussions.
 
The 15th International research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture” was closed by the speech of the IT director of the Russian State Library, the director of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries Igor Alexandrovich Gruzdev. He congratulated the participants on the termination of the working part of the conference, summed up its results, then marked its active participants and urgent themes. In conclusion, the IT director of the RSL expressed his hope to prolong cooperation and to see all of the present ones at “Digital Age of Culture 2017”. 
 
 
Yuri Chekhovich
Participants of the conference
Igor Gruzdev
At the National
Library of Finland 
The cultural programme of the conference was no less interesting and deep than the scientific one. The participants could get acquainted with the capital cities of Finland, Sweden and Estonia. They learned a lot from the specially prepared tours around the cities. They walked around Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn, viewed their old parts, tried their national food, their eyes feasted on picturesque nature and admirable views. The participants of the conference visited national libraries of Finland, Sweden and Estonia where they got to know how their foreign colleagues worked.  
 
A reading room of the
National Library of Finland
20 September 2016 the delegation of the 15th International research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture” was met by professor Kai Ekholm, the director of the National Library of Finland.
 
Halls of the National
Library of Finland
In order to initiate the acquaintance, Dr. Ekholm prepared two presentations: about modern organization of the library, its collections and main directions of work with readers, and about the process of constructing the building of the library and its restoration. The representatives of the National Library of Finland made an excursion around the central halls of the library and demonstrated work of the Slavonic Library for the delegates. 
 
Website of the National Library of Finland: www.kansalliskirjasto.fi.
 
National Library of Sweden
21 September 2016 the participants of the 15th International research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture” visited the National Library of Sweden. 
    
Visit to the National Library of Sweden
The participants’ delegation was met by the deputy director general on science Mr Lars Ilshammar. Together with his colleague Lars Bjork they spoke on the history of the library, the structure of the library and its collections, also about work with readers in the modern times, plans for the future and about the realization of the main mission of the library, i.e. preservation of cultural heritage. 
 
A reading room of the
National Library of Sweden
Apart of all that the audience were told about the digital collections of the library. In conclusion of the delegation’s visit there was held an excursion around the National Library of Sweden.
 
The website of the National Library of Sweden: http://www.kb.se/english/.
 
 
National Library of Estonia
The official visit to the National Library of Estonia was paid 22 September 2016. The representatives of the national library organized for the delegates of the 15th Research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture” an excursion around this temple of culture, for that was the impression produced by the interiors of the library. 
 
At the “Rare Book Collection”
department of the National Library of Estonia
The participants of the conference walked around spacious halls, cozy reading rooms and expositions. They also saw the “Rare Book Collection” department.
 
Reading room of the National
Library of Estonia
Afterwards Mz Tatyana Palav demonstrated and commented upon Christine Rodd’s presentation “National Library of Estonia – Digital Collections and Services”. She spoke on the functions performed by the National Library of Estonia and the work carried out in organizing readers’ service.  
 
At the national library the director general of the National Library of Russia Alexander Ivanovich Visly met the director general of the National Library of Estonia Yanne Andresso. 
 
Website of the National Library of Estonia: http://www.nlib.ee/en.
 
As souvenirs, the national libraries of the three foreign countries were gifted with the albums on the Russian State Library, the editions by V.V.Nazarevsky “History of Moscow” and the information materials of the 15th Research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture”.
 
The experience of the “Digital Age of Culture” conference and the achieved results inspire hopes that the electronic future of the Russian science and culture should remain at the same high and respectable level due to close and fruitful collaboration of different establishments of culture, science and education with leading IT companies. And for the Russian society, cultural heritage would be preserved and augmented, and would become broadly and objectively accessible.
 
 
Handing gift editions at the National Library of Finland
Handing gift editions at the National Library of Sweden
Handing gift editions at the National Library of Estonia
 
The scientific agenda of the conference is here http://www.elvek.ru/programma_konferencii/.
 
The video and information materials of the conference are available on the official website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries http://www.aselibrary.ru.
 
While on this link you are welcome to access the full report of the 15th International research and practical conference “Digital Age of Culture”.