24 – 25 April 2018 the Russian State Library (RSL) hosted the annual International research and practical conference  “Rumiantsevskiye Chteniya 2018” (“Rumiantsev Readings 2018”). The theme of the conference was “Libraries and museums as cultural and research centres – historical retrospective and view for the future. To the 190^th anniversary of the Rumiantsev Museum being founded”.

 

The event was organized by Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Library and the Library Assembly of Eurasia.

 

The conference was given a start by Vladimir Gnezdilov’s greeting speech. Acting as the director general of the RSL, Mr Gnezdilov, candidate of Philosophy, pointed out that for decades that event had been gathering a considerable number of specialists not only of the library sphere, but of other branches of culture and science. The conference of 2018 witnessed over 400 participants to enroll. Long before that the Russian State Library had emerged from the Rumiantsev Museum, and for the time of speaking its work was basing on its status of a national library. Still the roots were in the Rumiantsev Museum, and that was a fact. The exhibitions organized by the library would always have rare specimens. Symbiosis of classical traditional library and of a modern one gave an opportunity to join physical and electronic collections, to make them augment. Rare and priceless books would become more and more valuable over time, and people ought to take care of them. Meanwhile, the development of the digital, virtual part of the library had to be somewhat aggressive. The RSL was an operator of the National Digital Library and it was taking part in developing the Common Digital Knowledge Space. New forms of library work were connected with libraries’ being cultural and leisure centres. Thus, “Biblionoch” (“Library Night”) had been attended by over 4,000 people that year.  All the events carried out by the RSL were targeted at opening its collections and telling the public about them. In the year of 2018, the library had got a state assignment to study six themes reflecting diverse aspects of library work. The RSL staff published their research works in national and international editions. The library would also remain a publishing centre. The “BBK Table” became a real bestseller. The educational centre of the RSL was implementing most progressive methods and it was carrying out distance learning as well. To conclude, Mr Gnezdilov emphasized that the work of libraries and museums was diverse and important, and he wished the participants of the conference to enjoy their time within the library walls.

 

To continue the plenary meeting, Elena Ivanova, its compere, read out the greeting letter by Vladimir Aristarkhov, first deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. The letter pointed out that the “Rumiantsevskiye Chteniya” conference remained a largest library forum marked not only by high professionalism of its participants, but also by topicality of the subjects dealt with, especially of such as preservation of and studying world cultural heritage and national values. That was consonant with most important national documents, in particular with the “Basics of National Cultural Policy”. Mr Aristarkhov wished the conference to be a success and its results to be applied in practice, he also expressed his hope for the establishments of culture, education and science to broaden their cooperation. In conclusion he wished the participants of the event to have a nice talk over it.

 

The greeting letter to follow was from Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble of the Republic of Belarus. Nikolay Rumiantsev’s life was linked inextricably with the history of the city of Gomel, which was founded, developed and turned into the city of a European type due to that very statesman. During three decades Earl Rumiantsev had been realizing his ideas in the spheres of city building, economics and education. Then, his last will was to be buried in Gomel. The authors of the letter expressed their certainty that the readings dedicated to Rumiantsev in the year of 2018 would bring a new impulse of a close international cooperation into the spheres of culture, science and education. The staff of the Gomel Ensemble wished the participants of the conference to work successfully, as well as to obtain happiness and welfare. 

 

Alexander Visly, candidate of Physics and Mathematics, the director general of the National Library of Russia (NLR) and academic supervisor of the National Digital Library, presented his speech “National Digital Library – state of affairs and prospects”. The NDL project emerged as a kind of arrangement between the RSL and the NLR at the time when digital copies of documents had just come. Readers of one library had to be able to get acquainted with the documents stored at the other one. Later on the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology  (RNPLS&T) would join the project. The basic aim of the project launched was dissertation theses in their electronic versions, and their accessibility. In parallel, the RSL was developing a network of Virtual Reading Rooms. In the year of 2012 the President’s social decrees had to induce no less than 10% of all the books published to enter the library collections as legal deposits. To look through the documents, readers had to be inside the library, they had no rights to copy them, and all the editions were available free of charge. However, for the moment of speaking the NDL could boast of approximately 6,000 libraries connected to the project. In order to manage all that there arouse a need for a proper software. The number of digital book – deliveries had to be relevant to the expenses of the national money granted for book acquisition for the NDL project. The book selection for the NDL would also need distinct grounds. Then, there came a question why readers could not buy electronic versions of books on the NDL. The amendment to regulation “About library work”, clause 18, contained a lot of information concerning the order the National Digital Library had to function. But it’s impossible to reflect all the possible aspects in one law. “Regulation on the National Digital Library” had had to be prepared, still it was not. By the speaker’s view, that was caused by three main problems. The first one was that not all the publishers were transferring legal deposits of printed editions in the electronic form. They were hesitating for nobody knew how those legal deposits could be used in future. The current NDL law stated that the electronic copy became a library item having being selected by the expert board. And that was not clear enough who and how had to supervise the activity of such boards. That was the second problem. Still the third problem was an opportunity to obtain a paid form of access to the NDL resources. Did the library have to provide such access? The library had to get rights for editions, and only after that it would be able to sell them. There were quite a lot of right – holders for the moment of speaking, and thus the paid – access problem remained unsolved. The RSL was the operator of the National Digital Library. In compliance with the directive received from the Administration of the President, knowledge had to be organized over the NDL based on the encyclopaedia principle. Besides, the NDL ought to receive 100% of legal deposit copies of printed editions in the electronic form. Right – holders were to be paid in accordance with the statistics of usage of each very entry. Those regulations were turning approach towards the NDL upside down, and that was actively discussed over the publishers’ milieu. The regulations were extremely hard to be realized, and one of the causes was the large amount of right – holders to be considered. “Encyclopaedia” principle, meanwhile, signified that a user had to look for an article on the topic they are interested in, and in case of lack of information, they turn to those editions which were attached to it. Here a new problem emerged. The number of documents attached to articles would be much larger than the number of the articles themselves, still if the national – library scale is concerned, those numbers could look like zero. Then, links could be made to parts of documents, not to the whole bodies of document, and those parts, in theory, could be allowed to look through as texts of low volumes, but such an approach was not expected to find any support among publishers. However the aim of development of the Common Digital Knowledge Space was to provide users with access to all the educational resources in Russian without visiting libraries. The aim of the National Digital Library was easier to be attained, but it did not happen (for the moment very few libraries cooperated under the National Digital Library project). If all the sums spent by the RSL in 2017 for the sphere of digital technologies were taken and they were divided by the number of book deliveries in the electronic form (10.5 million), we would get 45 Russian roubles. That was a rough cost of one such book delivery. If one decided to compare that with the costs of a traditional book delivery (of a paper edition), they would get 375 Russian roubles! The electronic book delivery was much cheaper for the moment, and it was very likely to turn even cheaper than that, while the traditional book delivery was likely to raise its price. And the new approaches to NDL development were to take that fact into consideration while being formed.

 

After that Victor Molchanov, doctor of History, associate professor, head of the Manuscript Department of the RSL, presented his speech “N. Rumiantsev’s Historical and Scientific and Educational Project in 19^th – 21^st  Centuries”. Upon the speaker’s view, Nikolay Rumiantsev would have been satisfied with the way his initiatives were continued for the moment of speaking. His deals had not been left aside. His heritage included huge layers of science, culture and education setting boundless prospects for researchers. Mr Molchanov attracted attention of the audience to the fact that Earl Rumiantsev had built Gomel with his own money, and that city became a historical place of interest of the epoch of Ekaterina 2^nd. Then, N. Rumiantsev organized and carried out historical and geographical research with the money of his own. Being the Minister of Commerce, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, chair of the Council of State and the State Chancellor of Russia, he dragged Russia out of the absolute isolation in the beginning of the 19^th century. Examples generated motivation, and N. Rumiantsev’s life could be an example for many other people. Earl Rumiantsev had collected every available item belonging to the world print culture. He considered manuscripts to be of not only material value, but a resource for further development of knowledge and ideas. He felt such sources would become in demand one day. In cooperation with Riga Archdiocese, the Manuscript Department of the RSL conducted a research over old documents reflecting relations of Russia and Lithuania. One such document was found in Rumiantsev’ s collection, and it was the “Latvian’s Gospel” dated by 1270. The 190^th  anniversary of the foundation of the Rumiantsev’s Museum was an event of importance for the whole of Russia, and it was destined to raise the level of its cultural and scientific development.

 

Rodion Zelenkov, chief researcher of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, candidate of Philosophy, presented his speech “Rumiantsev’s Mansion. From the Rumiantsev Museum to the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg”. Nikolay Rumiantsev had been the owner of the mansion in St. Petersburg for almost twenty – five years. At that very place his collection was gathered, there he died, and at that very place the museum was opened (which would later on move to Moscow). Sergey Rumiantsev, Nikolay’s brother, systemized the collections and arranged everything as a museum. Several parts of the mansion, for instance Neva Enfilade and Ceremonial Room, became a sort of its business card. At the mansion one could find ceremonial portraits of all the representatives of the Rumiantsev family. In 1862 the mansion was bought by Evgeniy Likhtenbergsky and after that it was owned by his daughter Darya Kochubeeva and inherited by Evgeniy Kochubeev, her son. In the year of 1916 the mansion was sold to the “Society of Insurance and Transferring Goods”. Numerous interiors remained miraculously preserved during the revolution, among which there were lobby, the owner’s study, women’s sitting room and front staircase. There were also preserved a lot of artworks which used to belong to the owners of the mansion. Some of them were transferred to the Hermitage. In 1938 the mansion was transferred to the City Museum (or Leningrad History Museum), and its first exposition was opened for the public in 1955. For the moment of speaking it was the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. In October 2018 the museum celebrated its 100^th anniversary.

 

The next speaker was Elena Ivanova, candidate of History, academic secretary of the RSL, with “The Rumiantsev Museum in its Moscow Age” (second half of 19^th  — beg. of the 20^th centuries)”. The decision to transfer the Rumiantsev Museum to Moscow had been taken in 1861. At those times its collections included manuscripts and books, coins and minerals, paintings and sculptures, as well as ethnographic items. In May 1862 the museum opened its doors for visitors in Moscow. The Rumiantsev Museum was not the first one in the city, but lack of such establishments was rather pressing. That was the reason the new museum opening its doors was met with enthusiasm by the public. At those times it was called “Moscow Public Museum and Rumiantsev Museum”. The transfer of the museum prompted numerous collectors and just interested people make generous gifts. From mid 1860s, the collections of Rumiantsev turned out to merge with the collections of Moscow Public Museum. Still Rumiantsev’s heritage remained considered to be a basis for other collections. In the year of 1869 the museum acquired the name of “Moscow Public and Rumiantsev Museums”, and after the revolution it became “State Rumiantsev Museum”. At first the structure of the museum was rather complicated (with its 8 departments), which included exhibits from diverse collections (not only Rumiantsev’s ones). The Moscow variant of the museum saw the departments which had not existed in its Peterburg’s version. The establishment started to develop, and soon it turned into a large cultural centre. After that it started to acquire exhibits of not only Russian origin, but those ones from abroad. Gradually the collections of the museum increased so much that they brought changes into its structure. In 1899 the collection of minerals was transmitted to the Moscow University. By the beginning of the 20^th century the museum only contained five departments: the library, the Manuscript Department, the Department of Fine Arts, Ethnographic Department and the Department of Antiquities. The number of exhibits in each department increased much if compared to the volumes of the original collections. Each of the departments had a library of its own. The museum could boast of unique exhibits no other museum possessed. At the Department of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery and the Etching Study were the most prominent ones. And the museum itself became one of the best known in Russia. In general the collections of the museum were replenished by private gifts, and only on the year of 1912 it obtained national grant for purchasing collections. Public organisations, such as, for instance, the Community of Art Lovers which contributed to exhibiting A.Ivanov’s masterpiece “The Appearance of Christ to the People”, would also supply the museum with money. There would also come forth the Community of Lovers of the Rumiantsev Museum. Among the first museum staff there were professors of Moscow University. The museum was reorganized in 20s of the 20^th century. Only paintings were transferred to 120 museums of the state. The exhibits of the Rumiantsev Museum moved to the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Historical Museum, etc. On the basis of the Ethnographic Department there was established an independent ethnographic museum the collections of which were transmitted to Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) after the year of 1948.

 

Zinaida Goloshchapova, the director of the Municipal State – Financed Establishment of Culture “Centralized Library System named after Andrey Bely”, presented her speech “The Rumiantsevs’ Heritage”. In the city of Pavlino (Balashikha) there was located the mansion which used to belong to Peter Rumiantsev – Zadunaysky, and for the time of speaking it was opened for the public. The Church of Life – Giving Trinity constructed by Earl Rumiantsev’s drafts was giving delight to its visitors by its elegant appearance. In 1834 the earl’s son had built a mausoleum over there, and at that place there were buried Nikolay Rumiantsev’s descendants. With that family there was also connected the history of the Church of Resurrection. The library of the Pavlino micro – district opened a Rumiantsev reading room in 2006 (with the support of the RSL). Every year there were held the “Rumiantsev Readings”. Visitors were welcome to view portraits and the coat of arms of the Rumiantsevs, as well as etchings, diplomas and other exhibits. The reading room would often host talks, demonstrations of video materials, thematic parties, excursions, literary readings and creative quests. In April 2014 Elizaveta Apkaksina, Nikolay Rumiantsev’s descendant, visited the room. Still, among the main directions the library itself was working there were studying the 18^th century as an epoch, studying Earl Rumiantsev’s contribution into the victory in Russian and Turkish war of 1877 – 1878, raising efficiency of the library’s work, forming a feeling of honour for their nation among the young.

 

Galina Varganova, the professor of the Department of Library Science and the Theory of Reading of the Library and Information Faculty of Saint Petersburg State Institute of Culture, doctor of Pedagogy, presented her speech “Historical and Library Studies as a Tool for Consolidating Integrity of National Culture”. In the conditions of globalization the national culture forming procedure turned to be on the periphery of development. That was the cause why the new tendencies in research were coming, and that was the reason we had to study our historical past. Historical and library studies were not only presenting certain universal items of culture, but they were also significant from the methodological point of view for studying both libraries and diverse stages of history. They help us see the mechanism of new knowledge generation and opportunities to use it in the practices of library life. In spite of the fact the interest towards such kind of search was rather high, too few of them were being carried out. The root of the problem was quite a low level of self – identification of librarians themselves and lack of methodology. The studies devoted to library work could be marked by interdisciplinarity and methodological synthesis, together with anthropological settings for library history (leaders were attracting the bulk of the interest) and poststructuralism (studying professional library groups). Unlike Russia, other nations would use libraries as bases for solving different problems (for instance, such ones as the problem of minorities). The second type of research was biographic research needing significant costs of time and money. Biographic research had to be combined with the prosopograhic one (creating a portrait of the generation as a whole), and the result of the both had to be database creation. For the time of speaking, the research of that kind had not been realized yet. While a kind of a theme in trend was describing one or another research school. Biographic research helped to understand better profound processes which used to take place in libraries and influence of certain people on them. Naming (giving people’s names to events and libraries) was a technology of branding used, as it was given in a specialized literature, for raising reliability of librarians and the quality of service inside libraries as well. Strengthening the integrity of a national culture was as well realizable by highlighting input of these or those people into its development.

 

Vladimir Firsov, doctor of Pedagogy, deputy director general in research work of the National Library of Russia, presented his speech “Forming the Future and Actualizing History. About the Concept of Development of the National Library of Russia”. 9 February 2018, there had taken place the meeting of the offsite commission of the Ministry of Culture which ratified the Concept of Development of the National Library of Russia. The implementation of the concept had to lay the foundation for its development in the new conditions, for the acquisition of a new building by the NLR had made it a largest library if the total area of premises was concerned. The new building would be occupied by the collections which were stored in four remote repositories for the moment, together with the Departments of acquisition and processing. They would take 45% of the total area, while 55% would be left free for placing newly acquired items for the nearest 15 years. If the level of IT implemented was concerned, the NLR was one of the world leaders. The historical complex of the main building became an object of a close attention, for it was a unique ensemble with valuable interiors and needed complete overhaul and restoration badly. There was also need in enlarging the inside areas of the library by way of flooring the inside – yard territory. In full accordance with the principle of ‘indivisibility’ and attachment to the historical milieu, the main building would preserve all the major departments. All the works to be completed had a distinct legal organization. There was raised a question about access to digital copies of printed editions received by the RSL and Rossiyskaya Knizhnaya Palata (the Book Chamber of Russia). The printed editions would be available in the new building in general, and at the main building there would be accessed their electronic versions. The restored rooms were planned to increase the public areas for potential exhibitions with placement of items inside specialized showcases. The commissioning of the new building could turn to be a factor of new stage of quality development of the NLR.

 

Mikhail Nenashev, captain of the first rank of the reserve, head of the All – Russian Movement of Navy Support, presented his speech “Role of a Personality in Preserving and Augmenting Cultural Heritage”. Library business was a success in Russia not only due to librarians’ commitment to their work, but also due to the public and their special attitude towards it. According to the statistics data, the previous year museums had seen much more youngsters among their visitors than cinemas had. Upon the speaker’s view, records became trendy again, and that was a kind of a sign that interest towards book was coming, too. The reality as viewed by Mr Nenashev, was that it was impossible to have a thinking nation without libraries. A person who was not reading and who was not thinking would not be able to fight for the interests of their own country consisting of 150 million of such people. A lot of items collected by Nikolay Rumiantsev were connected with the history of the navy in Russia. The navy and the army would help us to preserve our vast territories. Due to his strong personality, Valentin Pikul had made studying fashionable. His monument was erected in Murmansk. Library collections would be enlarged, but it was not so easy to find people who could promote library business. The speaker offered the staff of the RSL to organize bright events devoted to V.Pikul’s works at their premises. Another outstanding personality worth mentioning was Mikhail Menshikov. His journal rubric “Letters to the Dearest” used to be in a great demand.  Mr Nenashev persuaded the audience to hold and support event organized to honour M.Menshikov and then he invited everyone to the All – Russian Meeting of Marine Painters. 

The plenary meeting over, sections “Libraries and Publishing Houses – Ways of Cooperation”, “Library Classification Systems” and “Archeographic and Source – Exploring Aspects of Studying Manuscripts”  began their work. There was organized roundtable “PCLI of Libraries as Centres of Formation of Citizens’ Information and Legal Culture: to 20^th Anniversary of Organizing Public Centres of Legal Information in Russia”. There was also held seminar from the cycle of “Role of Science in Library Development” entitled “Science in Library – Contents, Organization, Result Arrangement”.

 

Section “Libraries and Publishers – Ways of Cooperation” was started with the greeting speech by Elena Ivanova, the academic secretary of the RSL, who then passed the microphone to its second compere Nina Avdeeva, head of the Administrative Department of Management and Monitoring Service for Clients (UFKS) of the RSL. Nina Avdeeva greeted the audience and reminded them that the 22^nd of April there had been V.Lenin’s 148^th anniversary. For long years the Russian State Library had had the name of the first in the world history creator of a socialist nation in its title, and for the moment of speaking numerous people would continue to call it “Leninka”.  Then Ms Avdeeva congratulated the audience on the World Book and Copyright Day (established in 1995 by UNESCO and celebrated 23^rd April annually). Thus the name of the section (Libraries and Publishers – Ways of Cooperation) seemed to be harmonious continuation of the celebrations.  After that, the speaker announced the 3 – volume collection of theses of the International Research and Practical Conference “Rumiantsev Readings 2018” book and invited everyone to participate in the International Research and Practical Conference “Obnaruzheniye Zaimstvovaniy 2018” (“Revealing Plagiarisms 2018”) 25-26 October 2018 at the RSL (Moscow) (details on the coming conference were available on http://oz2018.ru/).

 

Anton Yerpuliov, head of the Department of Organization and Management of the Collections of the Digital Library of the RSL, presented his speech “System of Acquisition of Electronic Legal Deposits at the Russian State Library”. The requirements towards the format, quality and organization of the documents used to be described and regulated by temporal provisions. Still for the moment of speaking there was in force a new official document which was Order by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation �2227 “About regulating the order of delivery, storage and accounting electronic legal deposits, means of protection while delivering eLDs, order of data processing of electronic legal deposits so that they could be classified and systemized, as well as requirements to the format of the delivered files of eLDs” dated by 26.12.2017. The system of personal accounts worked out at the RSL would contribute to more efficient relationship of libraries and document producers. At the first stage of work within that system users had to form an application for personal account to be created. The second stage consisted of downloading the electronic document itself, at the first stage the downloaded document was checked by the software for coherence, chromaticity and clearance, and for the presence of a text layer. The fourth stage was a stage of a ‘hand’ check for those files which had already been checked by the software. The software tools let minimize the volume of the data concerning the document input by the user. Since the beginning of 2018, there had appeared a capability of downloading dissertation theses in the electronic form. And the interest towards the resource would raise with the time. Still the total volume of items downloaded remained comparatively low, and that fact was indicating the necessity for libraries and publishing houses cooperate more productively.

 

Valery Kornev, head of the Department of Management of National Digital Library of the RSL, presented his speech “Statistics of the NDL – Aims, Tasks and Problems”. The development of the NDL supposed raising statistics data reflecting the contents of the library, the number of the participant libraries, the number of electronic reading rooms and document suppliers, as well as the data concerning site traffic and number of addresses to its documents. For the moment of speaking the NDL project was not covering all the libraries of Russia. And the efficient management of such a resource had to include the activity on harvesting and analyzing data about common user’s portrait, their actions across the system, that including kinds of search queries. The data concerning users stored by the software turned into basis for planning its upgrading and NDL collection developing. For the aims of web – statistics there was used the software of “Yandex.Metrica”. Over 72% addresses to the site were being realized by way of transitions from search systems, and only 16% were direct transitions. Studying the addresses to the NDL presupposed the analysis of all the component parts for each item of the statistics data. As a rule, users would access the NDL from personal computers, still the part of accesses realized from mobile devices would also raise. That meant that there appeared the necessity to improve statistic tools in order to collect more data about those types of devices. The inclusion of 2.38 million patent documents into the NDL collections provoked a significant website traffic growth. Personal accounts of the NDL participants provided data concerning readers’ authorizations, their queries, viewing cards of objects, accesses and downloads. The NDL participants were welcome to mail their offers concerning potential improvements for those tools (for the new version of the software was being developed).

 

Yevgeny Strukov, the director of Nikolay Lobachevsky Scientific Library and the director of the Publishing Agency of Kazan Federal University, presented his speech “Library + Publishing House – is that a New Trend of Russian Universities?”. Upon the speaker’s view, library and publishing activities were closely connected at numerous higher education institutions. The library would turn into an informational centre of the university, and it acquired a lot of documents of diverse types. Library repositories of open access would also be replenished with publications by authors themselves through personal account system. The mailed works were being checked by the library experts. For the moment of speaking scientific articles were dominating among the repositories. Software presupposed self – cataloguing tools for users of personal accounts, and they input data concerning their works together with works themselves being uploaded. After that the library experts got it and carried out expertise. Along with that, the electronic collections acquired new entries through digitalization of the archives. The university library realized printing on demand and it cooperated with publishers in additional printing or printing the necessary editions. The library would also take part in preparation and edition of reprinted books. The year of 2017 witnessed Kazan Federal University edit 611 books of a total number of copies being 46,337.

 

Ivan Zasursky, president of the Association of Web Publishers, presented his speech “How to help the publisher – why making access free turns publishing business profitable”. Upon the speaker’s view, knowledge in open access was a key stimulus for innovation development. Innovations were generated by synergy of different elements, thus the open information exchange was contributing to their creation. The modern information environment could be marked by  superconductivity – information was spread without impedance. In order to realize that there was needed a range of conditions, such as open access to texts, usage of open licences, machine – readability, indexing by search engines and easiness of quotation through social media. The modern society was not ready to transit to that new level of communication. Re – editing without considering rights of right – holders made publishers obtain profit. The idea of leaving aside Copyright rules was not supported by many large publishers, still the future of publishing houses was connected with manipulating bulks of texts which had not been taken into consideration before, and that manipulation did not suppose royalty paying. For the moment of speaking Copyright laws helped to get royalty comparative to the subsistence level only to one thousand authors, while there existed much more document producers than that. Thus, some other motives had to guide all the rest while preparing works. Mr Zasursky offered several ways of reforming Copyright legislation: the principle of free usage of works could be broadened; there could be broadened possibilities while dealing with ‘orphan’ works; there could be invented immunity for information mediators; all the existing sources could be digitized; access to the Soviet heritage could be made free; all the works created with state financing and which were not state secret could be published in open access; open licences could be accepted as legal standards for scientific communication. For the moment of speaking the Association of Web Publishers promoted project “Scientific Correspondent” the website of which was presentingshing qualification works in open access. Such type of publication contributed to revealing new names in science, to realization of scientific communication in the real time mode and to creation of a platform for innovations. The project of creation of a Federal Reserve System presupposed consolidation of knowledge banks in order to prevent any of the texts ever published from being lost. Project “Noosphere.Launching” had allowed to start the register of information concerning legal statuses of works of diverse types, be that scientific or belletristic literature, educational or research works, and concerning data massives. Such kinds of information resources allowing learning the current or presumed statues of a document could turn out to be of much use for libraries. And especially for libraries there was being worked out resource “Open Library” which would make it possible for those organizations to get connected to Wikimedia. The considered above ways of organization of open access to works could motivate authors create their oeuvres for other people and for future generations, too.

 

Vladimir Entin, the director of the Centre of Legal Protection of Intellectual Property, presented his speech “Libraries and Publishers – Legal Framework of Cooperation in the Conditions of Internet”. He reminded the audience that the Copyright objects were not knowledge and cultural heritage as such, but works embodied into one or another form, and those forms were created by publishers. The lawyers of the USA and of Great Britain had worked out a legal way of leaving Copyright regulations aside. That was connected with usage of the so – called ‘orphan’ works in the age of digital technologies when the access to the author for obtaining permission for their works to be digitized and published was in this or that manner hindered. In those cases the initiators of digitization could get a permission for the aforementioned actions without author’s consent if they proved fair motives of those actions. Meanwhile such an approach made specialists supporting traditional Copyright views indignant and furious. Upon the speaker’s view, preservation and publishing works had to be carried out in full accord with right – holders.

 

Vladimir Dvorianov, head of the Public Relation Service of the Inter – Regional Agency of Subscription, presented his speech “Libraries, Publishers and Mass Media Distributors – Possibility of Cooperation”. Unlike the book market, the mass media market abounded with publishing houses. Over 10,000 mass media establishments were registered in Russia, the active auditory of which exceeded 52% of the population, still their total number remained even more than that. Between the publisher and the information consumer there was standing information distributor, and a lot of publishers were ready to act as distributors themselves. Distributors, be they what may, were organizing the process of information transfer to its final consumer. Among the problems of the modern mass media there could be named drops in circulation, lowering advertisement financing, lack of real income over the Internet and of State support, too. The problems of the same kind could be viewed in library system as well, where the attendance level decreased and state financing needed much to be desired. As a result, libraries and mass media organizations had to look for new formats of works and reader attraction. In the past people used to visit libraries in order to get acquainted with the new issues of newspapers and journals, and for the moment of speaking that was the state of affairs for those regions which had problems with home Internet. The auditories of libraries and mass media were alike in Russia, and at library platforms there could be found new forms for their cooperation. For example, there could be organized a convenient system of subscription to mass media for libraries and for organizations and individuals on the library basis, there could be introduced programmes for raising media awareness among the local people; finally, there had to be implemented common pr�jects in moral and patriotic education. Such measures would allow libraries to obtain new visitors, save money for printed editions, get profit from advertisements in mass media and also develop new forms of work with readers. While cooperating with libraries, publisher distributors, in their turn, could find new readers of their own ready to pay for access to printed and electronic editions, and they could also acquire opportunities to promote themselves and receive public appreciation at library platforms.

 

Victor Monakhov, head researcher of the Scientific and Methodology Centre “Department of UNESCO in Copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights” of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, presented his speech “Library’s hay and publisher’s straw – Is it possible to harness the both of them into one and the same cart of cooperation on the way of forming information environment of knowledge?”. There could be distinguished several approaches towards the problem of cooperation of libraries and publishers, among which one could outline a doctrinal one, normative and pragmatic. One of the basic obstacles for their cooperation meanwhile was the lack of a common language. There existed differences in legal systems, for libraries were under the jurisdiction of the public law, while publishers’ field was private law. To find a new language (to form a common doctrine) the above mentioned spheres could organize meetings of each other’s representatives and educational events, too. If normative aspect was concerned, the modern information environment could be characterized by broadening the open access sphere, it turned to be a characteristic manifestation of the time. The necessity of such access became evident for numerous people, and the project of the Information Code of the Russian Federation was coming. In that regulation there would be identified key phenomena, subjects and objects of informational activity. The code had to contribute to finding solutions for the problem of lack of a common language for libraries and publishers. Upon the speaker’s view, open access to works had to prevail and it ought to become a mainstream. Mr Monakhov appealed to the representatives of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries who were present at the section to issue a petition compiled on the basis of the offers concerning ways of cooperation of libraries and publishers which were made at the section.

 

To conclude the work of the section, Nina Avdeeva informed the audience that the online broadcast witnessed over 670 registered connections, and she thanked all the participants of the event. She would also support Victor Monakhov’s idea concerning the creation of a petition with all the offers supporting libraries, right - holders and publishers’ cooperation to be issued.

 

24 April there was opened exhibition “N.P. Rumiantsev’s Collection as a Basis of Moscow Public and Rumiantsev Museums” (which will continue till the end of December 2018) at the Rozovy Zal (Pink Hall) of the main building of the Russian State Library.

 

25 April the conference continued its work. There was given a start to sections “Rare and Valuable Books, Book Collections”, “Bibliography and Information and Bibliography Service”, “Specialized Documents (Maps, Scores, Records, Newspapers, Dissertations, etc.) in Library Collections”, “Manuscript Sources in Library Collections”, “Efficient Library Management – Problems and Solutions (Pre – Session Meeting of 32^nd Section of Russian Library Assciation in Library Management and Marketing)”, “Digital Information Resources”, “Theory and Practice of Library Business Development at the Modern Stage”, “Collectors, Researchers, Guardians. Libraries and Museums in Historical Context”. There were also held the following roundtable discussions: “Library in Preservation and Development of a Historical and Cultural Heritage of the CIS States” and “Standardization in the Sphere of Library and Information Service – Discussing the Project of the Standard”.

 

Section “Digital Information Resources” was conducted by Milena Sukhotina, head researcher of the Centre of Studying Problems of Library Development in the Information Society of the RSL, and Vera Ledovskaya, head of the Sector of Document Study of the Department of Prospective Development of the RSL.

 

Vera Ledovskaya presented speech “Quality of Research Papers as a Problem of Efficient Knowledge Preservation in the Modern Digital Library” (by Nina Avdeeva, head of the UFKS RSL, and Galina Lobanova, head specialist of the Sector of Document Study of the UFKS RSL). The object of the principle attention of the report was work of the RSL in preservation of scientific information in digital collections and in providing access to them. The other matter of primary importance was the problem of quality of research works with the regard to the increasing demand in raising the part of publications of Russian authors in international editions. For the moment of speaking the RSL remained a largest repository of scientific information. It offered its readers a wide range of capabilities of work with it, such as search across diverse catalogues, electronic request, access to full – textual collections of the Digital Library of the RSL (that including to the Digital Dissertation Library of the Russian State Library), full – text search across the documents, �s well as access to remote network resources. The contribution the RSL was realizing for improving quality of scientific works was in forming Digital Dissertation Library of the RSL as a common database composed of a large amount of texts. Its aim was to provide completeness, relevance and availability of all the collections and at the same time to reveal plagiarisms in scientific works within the framework of the “Antiplagiat.RSL” project. Meanwhile, the report highlighted the latest trends of development of the Digital Library of the RSL, such as cooperation with authors and right — holders, with higher education institutions and research – and – development organizations, along with acquisition of electronic legal deposits, consolidation and integration of electronic resources of diverse libraries. All those aspects being realized would help the RSL to transfer to a new level of information support for research and educational activities. Then, the RSL was participating in Federal target programmes of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Russian Federation. In conclusion there was announced conference “Obnaruzheniye Zaimstvovaniy 2018” (“Revealing Plagiarisms 2018”) which was coming 25-26 October (the Russian State Library, 3/5 Vozdvizhenka St., Moscow).

 

Andrey Toropin, the specialist of the Development Department of the Central Universal Scientific Library named after N.�. Nekrasov, and Ilya Starkov, the designer of the Marketing and Communications Department of the same library, presented their speech “Electronic Library in a New Style”. Not long before that, the library had launched project “Elektronekrasovka” (“Digital Nekrasov Library”) exposing its digital collections. The project was the result of many – year work of all the departments of the Central Universal Scientific Library named after N.A.Nekrasov. The library itself was keeping a lot of universal editions of books, newspapers and magazines, and over 12 000 of items had been digitized by the moment of speaking, 1810 of which were books in English, German and French. The oldest books of the library collection were dated by 16^th century. And among the digitized documents there could be found over 3300 periodicals. The whole bulk of the digitized content had been regularized and arranged as two sections on the website. The first of them was a catalogue where one could look for the documents with the help of a convenient retrieval system which was offering full – text search alongside with its other capabilities. The second section was entitled “Periodicals”, and it had been developed with the help of the latest information technologies. One of the servers had the database being located at, the second one was for displaying visual part of the website, while the third server contained search system Elasticsearch. The complicated structure of the system was contributing to a quicker search, to using morphology of the Russian language, that including the full- text search. For section “Periodicals” there had been developed a specialized algorithm arranging documents in the alphabetical order (the alphabets used were Russian and English), as well as tools for easy navigation along the section parts. To promote the projects of the library there were used relevant forms of information representation popular in the media environment, such as chronicles, features, games, tests, stickers with quotations from well – known oeuvres (for example, a sticker from the “Slovo o Polku Igoreve”, rus. “Tale on Prince Igor’s Regiment”). The library could also boast of review projects which could begin with a simple article and grow into long – read afterwards (that had been the story with project “Azbuka Avangardnogo Kino”, “The Basics of the Avant-Guard Cinema”). Finally, N.A. Nekrasov library was using special projects in order to promote the collections of its own. To the 100^th anniversary of the revolution there had been prepared “Guide along the Revolutionary Moscow” which had interactive maps. Compilations and collaborations were also considered as significant ways of collection promoting and of cooperation with partner organizations as well. The interface of the library was targeted at a maximum interactive communication with users, however offline communication would also keep its importance – the library was used to giving small souvenirs to its readers.

 

Svetlana Dymkova, head of the Sector of Information Resources of the Department of Organization of Research and Publication Work of the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Information Science, presented her speech “Promotion Publishing Streams of Research and Educational Organizations by the Example of the Library of Moscow Technical University of Communications and Information Science”. At the Moscow Technical University of Communication and Information Science (MTUCI) there had been developed an information system the usage of which could improve quality of scientific publications, promote them and raise the rating of the higher education institution itself.   The system suggested subdivision of all the participants of research activity into several categories – students, master students and post graduates, research and pedagogical employees and researchers. Each of the aforementioned groups had the needs of their own in the field of publication activity. Thus students were unlikely to send their works to the “Science” journal (their articles would not be accepted first of all), and doctors of sciences would not make speeches for students’ conferences. The system would also distinguish between Russian level of publications and the international one. It helped each group of authors in preparing their works for publishing by setting who, how and where had to send their materials. Authors’ manuscripts were checked for plagiarism by the university specialized software. At the basis of the university there was issued scientific journal for teachers “Methodological Problems for Teaching Info – Communications at the Higher Education Institutions” (in RISC since 2012). The Department of Organization of Research Work was cooperating closely with the university library. Besides, the Educational and Advisory Centre of Academic Writing taught students and teachers of how to prepare interesting publications of quality in Russian and in English. The courses were held by the invited tutors from other large universities. Especially for students there had been started journal “Telecommunications and Information Technologies” (in RISC since 2014). There was also organized annual conference “Technologies of Information Community” the materials of which were published in the collection of the research works. In order to promote articles into Scopus, in 2018 there was organized international research and technical conference “2018 Systems of signals generating and processing in the field of on board communications”. The first year of the conference existence witnessed 84 reports and over 200 participants registered from 6 countries and 11 regions of Russia. The participants’ articles were indexed in Scopus. As a result of all the aforementioned measures, the higher education institution was increasing its rating. 

 

�ilena Sukhotina, head researcher of the Centre of Studying Problems of Library Development in the Information Society of the RSL, presented her speech “Books in Russian edited abroad, 1927–1991 as a new resource of the Russian State Library”. One of the trends of work of the RSL was development of a retrospective database of books in Russian edited abroad within the period of 1927 – 1991. The total volume of the collection of the Russian Diaspora of the RSL was counting over 700 000 entries. The specialists of the Research Department of Bibliography for many years had been collecting and reconstructing the repertoire of the Russian book edited beyond Russia, and the phenomena of particular attention were personalities of those people who participated in the edition process itself, not only authors, but illustrators, cover – designers, editors and compilers, authors of introductory articles and translators. In 1999 the “Pashkov Dom” publishing house had issued the first volume of the unique collection of obituaries printed at the Russian press of the abroad in 1917 – 1997. Its title was “Unforgettable Tombs. Russian Diaspora – Obituaries 1917-1997” (all in all 6 volumes were published). The RSL prepared edition “Book of the Russian Diaspora in the collections of the Russian State Library of 1918-1991: bibliographic index (in 3 parts)”. Since the year of 2017, there had been developed online resource of digitized editions of the Russian Diaspora Books in Russian edited abroad, 1927–1991. It had been opened for readers in the beginning of the year of speaking, and for the moment it was working in the test mode on website “Rosinformkultura” of the RSL http://infoculture.rsl.ru/RSKD/main.htm. The database was founded on the collections of the RSL and a range of other large libraries, archives, museums, research institutions of Russia and of the abroad establishments as well. The documents were arranged by themes within the database. There could be found items on such subjects as Natural Science, Art,  History, Medicine, etc. The major part still belonged to the belletristic literature followed by religious documents and historical ones. The collection represented editions from 46 countries of the world, while the total number of items counted over 20.000. The resource offered its readers search by authors’ surnames, titles, personalities, key words and publishing  years. Bibliographic records were complemented by factographic information concerning country and place of edition, publishing organization and all the people taking part in the publishing process. Search could also be realized by several fields at a time using logical operator “i" (“and”). Implementation of the project would help to provide access to valuable rare collections for a wide circle of readers.

 

 Liubov Zimina, doctor of Philology, professor of the Department of Publishing and Bibliology of the Higher School of Printing and Media Industry of Moscow Polytech University, presented her speech “Animated Digital Book Covers”. Animated book covers could be realized in either of the formats, printed or digital one. In printed editions of belletristic literature the mashup genre  (the Quirk Books publishing house) was using specialized technologies which helped to attain a visual effect of changing image in the conditions of the angle of book – viewing being changed. Digital books were using GIF animation with the same purposes. Publishers were hoping to attract contemporary readers’ interest towards their books, for the latter would tend to use diverse gadgets for reading. Digital technologies made images ‘alive’ to the degree impossible for paper versions. Among the typical animation techniques there had to be mentioned kinetic typo - graphics (“moving text” in headings or author’s name), selective presentation of weather effects (of rain, snow, etc.), imitation of movement of diverse objects (of birds, butterflies, etc.) and creation of other light – and – colour effects.  Animated digital covers demonstrated significant potential for interpretation, for they helped to present objects in a new way and to introduce a new sense for the plot. And the important fact was that not only official covers by professional designers mattered. Animated covers or their alternative versions would more and more often be made by supporters of this or that author. By the time of speaking there had appeared a new trend called UGC (from English “user generated content”), when content created by users was spread on the Internet and even publishers could take it up. Besides, motion design was no less popular. It made images ‘alive’ by way of imitation of these or those movements (that including scientific phenomena). Meanwhile for the basis of all those changes there would often be taken classical covers of printed editions, such as of novel “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. Thus, such animated covers could be used for presentation of classical literature heritage. Computer technologies made it possible to combine animation with soundtracks. That was realized in the cover for “1984” by George Orwell, for example. The techniques of the same kind were used in digital interactive books with the aim to intensify their influence upon readers.  In the conditions of the market development of book publishing activity, animated covers had aesthetic and interpretative functions, they became brands of publishing houses and they would also be used in advertising and informational campaigns as a means of attracting readers.

 

Sergey Sokolov, researcher of the Research and Development Department of Library Study of the Fundamental Library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, presented his speech “Programmes of Informatization of Germany and New Digital Policy of German Libraries”. In order to enter the digital epoch successfully, libraries had to possess a certain strategy, a social support of the reforms being carried out, of public financing and of the readiness of library community to lobby the interests of their own. New capabilities of technological development generated new problems, too. For example, there emerged a problem of printed collections’ circulation or Copyright matters. The strategic planning of the development of science and education lacked specialized aspects for library development. Official documents did not even mention libraries. The “Digital Agenda for 2014-2017” pointed out the necessity to open the net of a wideband mobile Internet, to develop national digital post services, to introduce the law on personal data protection and some other measures and steps. Libraries were attached to the information infrastructure of science. They were announced to be keepers of cultural heritage. The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) was prescribed to digitize culturally important documents, to develop new technological standards and to provide access to digital data. Document “Strategy of Internationalization of Science and Research” mentioned the international activities of the Library of the German Archaeological Institute. Meanwhile all the other documents devoted to digital development of Germany did not contain any references to libraries at all. The majority of libraries were financed by the Ministry of Education and Science, and the main bulk of the money was transferred to realize projects covering not only libraries, but museums and archives as well. German political parties raised the question of capital injection into libraries, and they published their suggestions. Thus, “Digital Pact” of the Christian and Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) offered five milliard euros for libraries, while “Educational Alliance” by the Social and Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) implied 12 milliard euros. For the parties libraries became a sort of serious social players, still their development was viewed by the representatives of the political establishment only as a part of the development of the educational system (schools, universities, etc.). The survey carried out by the German Council of Culture (Deutscher Kulturrat) in 2017 revealed the SPD to support the major measures offered by that council (lowering VAT for digital books, transition to open data policy in libraries, long – scale support of development of new services in libraries, that including the sphere of computer games. The German National Library (DNB) had conducted the survey of its own in 2016, and the overwhelming majority of respondents turned out to prefer paper books (82%) to digital ones. Thus, the German experience demonstrated that the prospective development of digital community was only realizable on condition all the opinions were taken into consideration.

 

Tatyana Savitskaya, head researcher of the Centre of Studying Problems of Library Development in the Information Society of the RSL, presented her speech “Latest Tendencies of Development of Digital Libraries in the USA”. With coming  years the USA witnessed a new information paradigm to be formed which could be characterized by co-existence and parallel development of numerous libraries.  Being completely different, they all could be distinguished by the same significant qualities, among which there had to be named operational efficiency, delivery content to user irrespective to their location or time of request, advanced text search, unlimited number of documents delivered to different users and creativity (capabilities for user’s creative work with the text, from its editing to uniting text fragments). Still the library community admitted the fact that the new forms of work did not stay in a way with the traditional ones, such as educational, social and cultural (the Google Docs Search project was a bright example demonstrating unlikeness of traditional libraries and projects of its kind). The common tendency of library development in the USA could be seen, among other things, in the fact of their cooperation getting closer and closer. The scientific publications of the USA viewed the traditional library to be a ‘book – centric’ while the electronic libraries were considered to be ‘man – centric’. As it could be viewed from many sides, digital libraries were being developed as platforms for user applications, it would take advantage of social networks, blogs and RSS channels for advertising their activities. The Digital Public Library of America offered its readers explore its virtual bookshelves, visit thematic online exhibitions, compose lists of themes they were interested in and link with the popular reference resources with the help of special applications. The companies developing library software were tough competitors towards each other, while the library branch itself was losing its distinct boarders. Besides those companies would become integrators, for while delivering one and the same product to different libraries they contributed to their consolidation.

 

All in all within the framework of the Rumiantsev Readings there were held 11 sections, 3 roundtable discussions and 1 seminar.

 

During the conference there were broadcast directly its plenary meeting and section “Libraries and Publishers – Ways of Cooperation”.

 

All the video materials of the conference are available on the official website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries http://www.aselibrary.ru.

 

Plenary Meeting: http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438314/.

 

Section “Libraries and Publishers – Ways of Cooperation”: http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438315/.

 

Section "Science in Library – Contents, Organization, Result Arrangement”: http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438323/.

 

Section “Digital Information Resources”: http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438320/.