8 July 2010, in Tver there took place a field meeting of the Council of Development of Information Society. At the meeting RF President Dmitry Medvedev emphasized the necessity of creation of a single internet database of dissertations.

"All dissertations, all author’s abstracts must be published in the digital form in order to make prominent those who really practise science, and also to make visible those dissertations which are only worth to be ashamed of”, President said.

"One is more likely to get acquainted with such texts via the Internet. It’s impossible to imagine someone sitting inside a library over a folio written by an unknown fellow for a well-known sum”, said President thus concluding explanation of the necessity of remote access to research works.

The directors of the Russian State Library had realized the necessity to create such a database in 2020, when they started the Digital Dissertation Library of the RSL. According to the data from 12 July 2010, its collection counts 555,099 full texts of dissertations and author’s abstracts defended in Russia from the year of 2000 on, in all subjects and specializations.

Meanwhile, open access on the Internet turns out not so easy a thing to be realized as it may seem. “Access to the resource is provided in accordance with Part 4 of the Civil Code RF ‘free of charge, inside the libraries so that any opportunity to create a digital copy of the material must be excluded.’ The same Part 4 of the Civil Code RF, however, does not permit placing the Digital Dissertation Library in open access on the Internet because without special agreements with right-owners performed in writing such a placement shall be considered illegal”, says Alexander Visly, director general of the Russian State Library. “We shall provide our readers with access to the collections of the Digital Dissertation Library of the Russian State Library immediately after the problem with Copyright is effectively - and, what is more important, legitimately – solved”.