6 – 14 June 2015, the city of Sudak (Crimea, Russia) hosted 22^nd International conference “Crimea 2015 – Libraries and Information Resources in the Modern World of Science, Culture, Education and Business”. For the first time the conference was held within the framework of the International Professional Forum “Book. Culture. Education. Innovations” which was a somewhat inevitable successor of the international library conference which had achieved great popularity and significance marks in the world cultural and educational space. Henceforth librarians would organize the events of their own neighboured by representatives of museums and higher education institutions carrying out their meetings, with publishers, book – spreaders and archivists waiting for their turn.

 

 The “Crimea 2015” conference gathered over 960 participants, this including those ones from abroad: from Belarus, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Kazakhstan and many others. Traditionally, the most representative was the delegation of the Russian Federation.

 

The main theme of the conference of 2015 was “Book and Library – Habitat”.

 

Still the following matters were also discussed: national libraries and national information resources; digital libraries and online resources in the modern library and information environment; automated and corporate library systems and technologies, etc.

 

Within the five working days of the conference, 8 – 12 June 2015, there were successfully organized 45 specialized events: meetings of thematic sections, roundtables, discussion platforms, seminars, master classes, trainings, creative meetings, etc. All in all there were presented over 400 speeches.

 

9 – 10 June 2015 there was held section of the Russian State Library (RSL) “Digital Libraries and Online Resources in the Modern Library and Information Environment”. The section had been organized by the specialists of the RSL and of the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology (RNPLS&T). It was presided by the director general of the RSL Alexander Ivanovich Visly, IT director of the RSL, director of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries (NPP “ELBY”) Igor Alexandrovich Gruzdev, head of the Administrative department of management and monitoring service for clients of the RSL, IT director of NPP “ELBY” Nina Vladimirovna Avdeeva and the director of the Centre of development and support of Internet technologies of the RNPLS&T Mikhail Vladimirovich Goncharov.

 

The section opened discussions devoted to basic questions of development and support of digital libraries with experience of different organizations, to latest technologies for electronic libraries and collections. Apart from that there were demonstrated modern systems and services, as well as Internet technologies for libraries, also with the experience of their usage. The themes of key speeches flowed into hot discussions. As the brightest ones there could be marked the speech by N.V.Avdeeva (RSL) “Digital Library of the RSL as Realizing Positive Content” and that one by A.I.Visly (RSL) “National Electronic Library” which turned out to be the most interesting, too. Besides, the plenary meeting touched upon general questions of development of the National Electronic Library, of the efficiency of usage of digital libraries, of integration of automated processes of libraries into the common information space and of prospects of development of digital resources in the library environment.

 

Within the framework of the section there took place discussion platform “National Electronic Libraries – Myths and Reality” where the delegates of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation presented the results of the largest library project. Certain aspects of realization of the National Electronic Library (NEB) in the sphere of library information were reflected in the speeches of the majority of the participants. The main report by Secretary of State, deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Grigory Petrovich Ivliyev was devoted to the stages of the NEB project, to the achievements and to plans for the future. The number of users of the resource was marked as the growing one by the speaker, still there was a certain volume of misunderstanding concerning the essence of the NEB. In its basis, the concept of the NEB was seen as that one of an instrument for national cultural policy, the practical aim of which was to secure a maximally broad access to information and knowledge. 

 

The NEB theme was continued in the speeches of other participants of the section: president of the “Electronic Archives” corporation Sergey Vassiliyevich Balandiuk reported on “National Electronic Library. Technological Realization of the Project”, while acting as rector of the Academy of Retraining of Specialists of Arts, Culture and Tourism Vadim Valeriyevich Duda spoke on “NEB in the Innovative Library Project”.

 

Within the framework of the section there was also held “Discussion with Answers for Ambiguous Questions”. The unpleased part of the society was represented by professor of the Department of Informatization of Culture and of Digital Libraries of Moscow State Institute of Culture Vadim Konstantinovich Stepanov, while the officials were represented by deputy director of the Department of Science and Education, head of the Department of Libraries and Archives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Evgenia Nikolayevna Guseva. The two opponents’ hot argument attracted genuine interest of the participants of the section.

 

In course of the second day of the plenary meeting, section “Digital Libraries and Online Resources in the Modern Library and Information Environment” introduced speeches concerning the new capabilities and prospects of digital libraries, digital collections of libraries, etc. 

 

The section was conducted by I.A.Gruzdev (RSL), N.V.Avdeeva (RSL) and M.V.Goncharov (RNPLS&T). Among the speeches presented there had to be mentioned “Forming Digital Library of Novosibirsk Region – Approach, Results and Prospects” by Viacheslav Victorovich Daschenko, “New Search Capabilities of the RNPLS&T Portal with Usage of Service Summon ProQuest” by Kirill Anatoliyevich Kolossov, “Projects of the RNPLS&T in the Sphere of Digital Libraries” by Mikhail Vladimirovich Goncharov, “Digital Library Valuable and Rare Books of Siberia – Results of the Sixteen – Year Work” and many, many others.

 

Section “Digital Libraries and Online Resources in the Modern Library and Information Environment” turned out to be rich with interesting discussions devoted to international cooperation and experience exchange. Among the participants there had to be mentioned specialists from “ProQuest” (Cambridge, Great Britain), "EBSCO Information Services" (Minsk, Belarus), “Futurel Ltd.” (Sofia, Bulgaria), “Bibliotheca RFID Library Systems AG” (Rotkreuz, Switzerland), etc.

 

You are welcome to look through the agenda of the “Crimea 2015” conference on the official website of the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology www.gpntb.ru/win/inter-events/crimea2015/predprog.php.

 

Video materials of the section are available on the official website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries www.aselibrary.ru.