27 – 30 October, within the framework of the 20^th annual exhibition of information and communication technologies Softool, there was functioning a new Virtual Reading Room of the Digital Dissertation Library of the Russian State Library, organized by the RSL.

The Virtual Reading Room consisting of seven workstations, gave the visitors of the exhibition an opportunity to get access to the full texts of the Digital Library of the Russian State Library, and to get acquainted with the rules and conditions of access to the resources the people were interested in.

The Virtual Reading Room was open during the whole period of the Softool’s functioning. Anyone of the exhibition visitors could look through the full texts of the RSL dissertations and abstracts which would remain the basis and source of inspiration for all the contemporary and future research.

The specialists of the RSL gave thorough consultations on the subject of search capability and work with full - text documents.

The representatives of the Higher Education Institutions and public libraries who were interested in creating VRRs at the territories of their organizations received detailed information on all the necessary documents.

The Russian State Library is a unique repository of originals of candidate’s and doctor’s dissertations defended in the country from 1944 on all the subjects and specializations except Medicine and Pharmacy. To store such a huge collection and to provide a wide access for readers, the directors of the RSL started the Digital Dissertation Library of the Russian State Library.

In 2003 a pilot pack of dissertations was digitized. It consisted of the dissertations on the most demanded subjects: Economics, Law, Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy – all in all about 20,000 full texts. From 2004, the collection of the DDL RSL receives dissertations on all subjects and specializations including Medicine and Pharmacy, which comprise approximately 30,000 texts annually (20,000 candidate’s dissertations and 10,000 doctor’s dissertations). Within the framework of project Retroconversion in 2006, there were digitized all the dissertations defended in 1985.

Nowadays the collections of the Digital Dissertation Library of the Russian State Library contain more than 380,000 full texts of dissertations and abstracts.

As for the "Softool" exhibition, it plays a leading part in promoting the cutting – edge products of the ICT to Russian and world market. It’s the most influencial forum of information and communication technologies in Russia, and it also remains the event of national importance. Softool offers its participants and visitors maximum possible comfort and all the necessary conditions for business. The Softool exhibition is carried out under the aegis of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Federal Agency for Information Technology. The exhibition is supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Government of Moscow. 

The Russian State Library is grateful to the organizers of exhibition Softool for the given opportunity to take part in an event of such importance and interest.