The plenary meeting was started by Elena A. Ivanova, academic secretary of the RSL. In her speech Ms Ivanova pointed out that the Russian State Library was not only the largest library of the country if the volumes of the book collections stored were concerned. It was also a most significant scientific and methodological centre. The RSL was an operator of the National Digital Library (NDL), it was a coordinator of the national “Culture” project in the part of model-library development. On site at the RSL there was functioning one of the most important restoration centres, as well as a centre of further professional training for heads and staff of library and information sphere. The specialists of the Russian State Library would always be glad to meet colleagues at the library, and the Open House was a particular day for it. The RSL offered their guests an opportunity to get acquainted with diverse spheres of its activities and to be consulted by leading specialists. They could also view the achievements of the library and discuss urgent matters of library development, with all possible problems and prospects to be touched upon. 

The Open House at the RSL would become a tradition for the last Tuesday of May to be held. And if the first events used to gather librarians from Moscow and Moscow region only, the years to follow enabled a considerably wider circle of professionals from different establishments of science, culture and education of other regions to join in. Elena Alexandrovna expressed her hope that the online broadcast could not only add the number of participants but also broaden the geographical frames of the event. 

After that she read out the greeting letter from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation addressed to the organizers, participants and guests of the RSL Open House. The director of the Department of Information and Digital Development of the Ministry of Culture Vadim V. Vankov would point out that “a day full of discoveries is waiting for you. Leading specialists of the national library will speak about their achievements, will hold trainings, consultations and lectures, they will present books of the RSL. An open house format is an excellent opportunity to communicate with high level professionals and to discuss hot problems of library activities. I’m sure the day to be fruitful and constructive. I would also like to take this opportunity and to congratulate all of you on the All – Russian Library Day! I wish you to enjoy interesting communication and efficient work.”

Ekaterina L. Kudrina, doctor of Pedagogy, professor, an honoured person of culture of the Russian Federation, head of centre “Corporate University LENINKA”, presented her speech “RSL as a centre of advanced education and of the development of Russian digital knowledge space within the sphere of library and information business”. Ms Kudrina started her speech congratulating colleagues on the All – Russian Library Day. That day, upon the speaker’s view, witnessed the correctness of the way chosen by the professional community. Ekaterina Leonidovna supposed the guests to have followed the events and speeches by Vladimir R. Medinsky who was the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. In Novosibirsk at the coordination meeting Mr Medinsky had emphasized the significant targets libraries had to achieve. Libraries were called positive centres of education, and they could evidently influence lots of important processes in Russia. Ms Kudrina would also remind the audience that at his press conference at the RSL the minister had also framed the positive role of libraries in the development of library and information environment.

Still, a point of the speaker’s particular attention was the corporate university and its work at the RSL. The centre of further education together with centre “Corporate University LENINKA” was re-training specialists with the “Distant” programme, and it would also deal with refresher courses for library staff. Thirty – three educational programmes were functioning at the centre. Still time was imposing new tasks. The professionals of the Russian State Library represented certain potential carrying out educational activities within the RSL environment. Being an NDL operator, the library was at the same time a project office in model library development, it participated actively in realization of the national project of “Culture”. The targets set by the national project demanded specialized programmes. Those  minimum programmes were in need for the moment of speaking in order to solve the problems the establishments and organizations aspiring to become model libraries were facing. The contest of that year revealed 385 libraries claiming to the 110 places designated. Meanwhile a new contest would bring new trends, and there still was too much to learn. Corporate university “LENINKA” offered a complex of programmes of an advanced type. Among them there were programmes for those who had already become a model library, for those who would like to become a model library and also programmes for those who would choose to work as a model library. The speaker terminated her report by expressing her regret that 660 model libraries created for 38 thousand federal and municipal libraries remained a too small number.

 Olga A. Salomatina, head specialist of the Administrative department of collection preservation of the RSL, presented her speech “Conservation of library collections of the RSL – complex approach and the ongoing professional development of the staff”.  Ms Salomatina was the next person to start her speech congratulating her colleagues on their professional event. After that she gave a brief story of the Administrative department of collection preservation of the Russian State Library which had begun long before in the year of 1936. For the moment of speaking the department could boast of 74 highly competent specialists. The RSL managed to keep the unique team which was justly considered to be the most skilled and efficient in Russia. Then, Olga Anatoliyevna dove into the main directions of work of the department. There were mentioned preventive conservation, prevention of emergency situations and removal of their consequences. There were given details on examination of the condition of valuable books, on mass library stitching, on document restoration, on phase collection conservation, on producing micro-climatic containers from special archive – storage cardboard, on encapsulation, on monitoring the condition of exhibit editions, on the expertise of the exhibiting conditions, on the activities connected with micro-film production and on the research and methodological work.

Ivan M. Gapchuk, deputy head of the Department of priority and institutional projects of the RSL, and Nadezhda V. Karpova, an architect designer and the author of the projects of libraries of a new type, presented their speech “Model libraries – design as an element of success”. Mr Gapchuk started with the observation that design was an integral part of library space, while users had to become the guests to be welcome and waited for.  Ivan Mikhailovich also expressed his wish for library to become the third place after work and home where citizens of different places could tend to spend all their free time. Design project in such a case would be a document of significance. It would contain the concept of the model library, beginning with what it looked like and how much all that costed. Mr Gapchuk demonstrated photographs of libraries before and after realization of pilot projects of model libraries. Users’ positive feedback was pointed out as one of the main results achieved. After that Ms Karpova took the floor. She spoke on the approaches of developing projects of libraries of a new type, as well as on the characteristic features of the space management of contemporary libraries. The list could be used when forming technical specifications in library reorganization. It would also be of help in dealing with the designer’s ideas offered. The project had to meet all the mentioned requirements and it had to contain all the details described. The point of the speaker’s particular attention turned out to be the contemporary library space. It had to be multi – functional, adaptive and approachable. There had to be realized the principles of openness, mobility and modularity, and there had to be represented expressive solutions. 

Lyudmila N. Zaitseva, deputy head of the Department of national and priority projects, head of the Department of overall planning and reporting of the RSL, presented public report of the RSL for the year of 2018. During the previous years the Russian State Library had accumulated the experience of preparing library public reports. The year of 2018 became somewhat unusual and pivotal for it. There was chosen a new form of document presentation. The report of a new form was started by the director general of the RSL addressing readers. Ms Zaitseva pointed out that the target audience of the report did not include only the founders of the library any longer. The report of the new format was addressed to all colleagues, and that was a widest circle of readers. Lyudmila Nikolayevna concluded her speech by giving information on the exact way the results achieved by the library were being represented in its public report. 

Nina N. Golodnova, candidate of History, head of the Science and research centre of the development of Library bibliographic classification (NIC BBK) of the RSL, announced the coming 8^th edition of the BBK medium tables (inter-disciplinary knowledge, literature of universal contents, typical tables of general usage). Ms Golodnova tried to draw the guests’ attention to the fact that the “Pashkov Dom” publishing house was preparing the 8^th volume of medium tables for publication. That issue was to complete the basic part of that long-term and multi-volume project. The tables had to be released in the third quarter of 2019, and in November 2019 there had to be held the setting seminar where there would be given details on the structure, methodological peculiarities and contents of the tables. 

Eugenia N. Guseva, candidate of Pedagogy, the director of the Department of national and priority projects of the RSL, spoke on the coming 3^rd All – Russian Contest of Library Innovations (the official announcement of which however had not been performed for that moment). Initiated by the RSL, the contest had taken place twice – in the years of 2013 and 2015. It had become rather well – known and significant since then. One of its objectives was to reveal and promote the new and advanced the contemporary libraries possessed in plenty. The achievements which used to seem innovative certain years before became rather common and regular for the moment of speaking. Ms Guseva would enumerate other objectives of the contest too. The speaker pointed out that it was not the contest of projects. It was a contest of the achievements, of the things which had been realized and reached, and attained in everyday library practice. Eugenia Nikolayevna reminded the audience the characteristics to be evaluated – innovative relevance, productivity, cultural efficiency, social importance and perspectivity.

Irina P. Tikunova, candidate of Philosophy, head of the Administrative department of research and methodology, head of the Centre of studying problems of library development in the information society of the RSL, invited the guests of the RSL Open House to the All – Russian Research and Practical Conference “Information Contest of Culture – Resources, Technologies and Service”. The coming event was targeted at summing up research results and practical experiences in the field of information support of culture and art in the digital age. The conference was awaited to demonstrate the best achievements and the problems revealed, and it would strive for searching probable solutions. 

The informational function remained one of the most significant library functions. While one of the tasks of priority as seen by Ms Tikunova was to raise the level of the information activities of Russian libraries. The announced conference would be organized by the RSL, the Russian State Art Library and Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts. One of the subjects to be discussed there was going to become the analysis of the contemporary practice of promoting information resources, products and services within the digital environment. It was essential to know what exactly partners of libraries in the information field were doing and how they were working. Still, a certain part of speeches was going to be devoted to the year of theatre in Russia. Besides, the organizers intended to discuss the role of libraries and their capabilities in information support of the national project of “Culture”. The conference would be held 24 – 25 September, 2019, in Moscow, at different platforms. The speaker invited the audience to view details on the coming event on  https://www.rsl.ru/ru/events/afisha/conf/info-kontekst-kultury.

After a small break, there were given a start the discussions at roundtables and seminars. Leading specialists of the RSL divisions provided consultation in a wide circle of professional matters, lectures and trainings were held for all the willing. Within the framework of the Open House there took place the sessions of the following roundtables: 

• With the representatives of dissertation councils, Ministry of Education and Science and of the Central Scientific Medical Library of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University; 

• “Interlibrary service within the modern information and library environment”; 

• “Search of new directions of socially oriented library activities (by the example of the Public Centres of Legal Information work)”; 

• “Service at the reading rooms of the Departments of Library and Information Service and modern reader – problems of cooperation”; 

• “Public report as a tool of library advocacy”.

The event of a particular interest turned out to be the roundtable with the representatives of dissertation councils, Ministry of Education and Science and of the Central Scientific Medical Library of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University organized by the Department of dissertations of the RSL and devoted to the matters of providing legal deposit copies of dissertation in the printed form and in the electronic form. Irina L. Sakirko (Administrative department “Subdivision Khimki Complex”), head of the Department of dissertations of the RSL, was the moderator. 

Ms Sakirko introduced the participants of the discussion – assistant of the head scientific secretary of the Higher Attestation Committee under the Ministry of Education and Science Gocha A. Shengelia, deputy director general of the RSL Alexander I. Visly (supervisor of the directions related to dissertation researches), deputy directors of the Central Scientific Medical Library Liubov A. Matiushenkova and Alexey S. Starkov. 

Deputy director general of the RSL Alesander I.Visly was the first to speak. He reported on the publication of dissertation before the defence procedure. He also described the state of affairs of legal deposit copies of dissertation in the printed and in the electronic forms, of how they were provided to the RSL, of their being identical, and on the plagiarism test. 

Irina L. Sakirko presented her speech “Order of presenting legal deposit copies of dissertations (in the original and in the electronic form) after defence together with its accompanying document sets to the Russian State Library”. Ms Sakirko pointed out that there still remained ambiguity in the work of libraries recipients of legal deposit and of document producers too. Speaking about legal deposit presenting, Irina Lvovna would quote Federal Law dated by 29.12.1994 N 77-FZ (amend. 03.07.2016) "About legal deposit copies of documents” (FZ-77). Several aspects made her pause to explain. First, who was responsible for legal deposit delivery? As it was stated by the law, a document producer was considered to be the organization on the basis of which there had been created the council for dissertation defence. Thus it became clear that dissertation councils were responsible for the quality and terms of legal deposit copy transfers to the RSL (of both, the printed copy and the electronic one), as well as for their authenticity. Secondly, terms and format of legal deposit presenting needed explanations as well. Again and again, the speaker summoned everyone to refer to clause 10 of FZ-77 which demanded legal deposits in the electronic form to be transmitted to CITIS and the RSL within a 30-day term (currently in force since January 1, 2017). The printed copy had to be transferred to the RSL within 30 days, and that had to be a dissertation in either of the subjects. Dissertation theses in Medicine and Pharmacy (the printed copies) had to be transferred within a 30-day term to the Central Scientific Medical Library. Further on Ms Sakirko spoke on the main problems of legal deposit copies in the electronic form to be acquired at the RSL. The printed and the electronic copies would often differ, text layer would be absent or damaged throughout the dissertation thesis, the column of the form with “the number of pages” would also be filled in incorrectly (authors forgot about pages with appendices, acts or illustrative materials). Then the speaker reminded the audience that the electronic digital signature of the dissertation thesis had to be authorized by the organization. 

Svetlana V. Prosolova, a specialist of the Sector of monitoring legal deposit copies of the RSL, presented her speech “Monitoring of defence procedures and acquisitions of legal deposit copies of dissertation theses by the RSL”. The review contained the statistics data on the dissertation theses defended within the period of January – March 2019. According to the statistics available, approximately 1,600 defence procedures had taken place and only 1,150 dissertation theses had been transferred to the RSL in the printed form, while about 800 works had entered the RSL collections in the electronic form. Still, if the statistics of the 2018 was compared, in the year of 2019, the RSL acquired approximately 50% of legal deposits in the electronic form while the acquisition of printed copies remained the same (about  70% of all the works defended).

Kirill O. Rumiantsev, head of the Administrative department of electronic resources and head of the Department of the development of information systems of the RSL, introduced the “System of acquisition of legal deposit copies in the electronic form” of the Russian State Library https://oek.rsl.ru. In his speech Mr Rumiantsev described the basic targets for the System creation, the main principles of its work, the way it functioned and the possible prospects of its further development.

Irina V. Sus, candidate of Technical Sciences, head of the Sector of document studying of the Department of prospective development of the RSL, spoke on “How to evaluate authenticity of research texts – from the experience of the Russian State Library”. Ms Sus gave details on the methodology of plagiarism tests carried out at the RSL which were based on the test performed by the “Antiplagiat” software. Still the core principles remained the following ones:

• Usage of text fragments of earlier publications without references properly arranged was incorrect (and plagiaristic) irrespectively to the total volume of the borrowed part;

• A text could be announced plagiaristic only after receiving fair proofs.

Ms Sus explained why one could not rely on the authenticity percentage established by the software. She also commented the scientific quotation rules which were taken as a basis by experts analyzing research texts. 

The report turned out to be interesting for the participants of the roundtable. It provoked a lot of questions to be discussed in the final part of the event.

To conclude the roundtable discussions, Ms Sakirko summoned the audience address to the specialists of the Russian State Library in case they had any questions not solved. She would also thank everyone for their participation and concern.

After that, the guests were offered a rich excursion agenda. They were invited to the tour around the RSL, they were proposed to see the Pashkov House with visits to specialized departments. There was also an excursion to the Central Subsidiary Fund, an excursion to the Ivanovsky Room, etc.

The Russian Association of Digital Libraries organized and held the Internet broadcast of the plenary meeting on website www.aselibrary.ru. It would also make videos of other events of the open house. Some of them are available on the official website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries:

• You are welcome to access the video of the plenary meeting over here http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438688/;

• The roundtable with the representatives of dissertation councils, Ministry of Education and Science and of the Central Scientific Medical Library of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is over here http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438688/_video/8691/; 

• Seminar “Information and methodological support of development and implementation of national standards” is available on this link http://www.aselibrary.ru/video/conference43/conference438688/_video/8699/. 

The Open House of the Russian State Library was attended by more than 380 guests while approximately 200 users were following the event on the Internet.