Regions of Russia: Omsk Oblast Governor visits the Presidential Library’s regional center

On the All-Russian Library Day, May 27, 2011, the Governor of Omsk Oblast Leonid Polezhaev visited the Omsk Regional Access Center to Information Resources of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. The governor was shown exhibitions staged within the celebration of the Day of Slavic Written Language and Culture. The exhibition called “Books in Cyrillic alphabet: history and the present (17th – 21st cc.)” showcased “Octoechos” (1638), “Hagiography” by Dimitry of Rostov (1698) and other rarities.

“The World of the Books of Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)” exhibition has unveiled editions originating from the library of Feodor Dostoyevsky’s father, published before 1839. Of particular interest was the first edition of “The History of the Russian State”, first translations of Homer into Russian, and also books from the library of Feodor Dostoyevsky: lifetime editions of Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Nekrasov, Lev Tolstoy, classical academic edition of Gavrila Derzhavin’s works, illustrated editions for children and many other highlights.

The governor familiarized himself with options of the electronic reading room at the Omsk Regional Access Center to Information Resources of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, and was told about the prospects of its development. Leonid Polezhaev studied electronic copies of Feodor Dostoyevsky’s lifetime editions, and digitized books from Pushkin Omsk Regional Academic Library.

The governor stressed that as a result of digitization physical editions do not lose their value, but opportunities of new information technologies enable to present the local-lore materials at the federal level.