Presidential Library and Russian Archives unify their information resources

For centuries libraries and archives had been collecting and preserving the accumulated knowledge in a form of books and documentary evidences. The modern technology enables to convert this information into digital form in order to provide a broad access to it for a wide range of users. For the first time in Russia the Presidential Library is developing the holding of electronic forms of documents which includes in equal proportions library, archival and official normative documents.

Provision of a full-fledged information search for such diverse resources, presented in a single digitized collection, is the unique object for the nation. With that end in view, on the initiative of the Presidential Library and the National Library Center LIBNET was organized a working group meant to elaborate the principles and approaches to combining the presentation and access to library, archival and museum resources in accordance with the international standards. Among the working group members are the leadings experts of the Presidential Library, RSHA, GARF (the State Archives of the RF), RNB (the National Library of Russia), RGB (the Russian State Library), the National Library Center LIBNET.

On June 17, 2010 the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library housed the first meeting of the joint working group. The meeting was attended by the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library Director General A. P. Vershinin, National Library Center LIBNET Director General B. R. Loginov, the Russian State Historical Archives (RSHA) Director A. R. Sokolov. During the meeting were considered the issues of archival documents description in electronic environment, international standards for presentation of archival information in web environment, models of information arrangement in electronic catalogues of libraries and archives.