The Presidential Library’s Academic Council spotlighted key areas of the institution’s development strategy until 2025

The Presidential Library hosted the regular, eighteenth, meeting of the Academic Council on October 10, 2019. The main issue on the agenda was the discussion of key areas of the Presidential Library development strategy up to 2025.

It was noted that the strategic development of the Presidential Library in terms of library and bibliographic activities was associated with the continuation of the course to grow the collections and maintain theme diversity. In addition to adding four basic collections - “State Authority”, “Territory”, “People”, “Russian Language”, and other already formed ones devoted to historical events, memorable dates, statesmen and public figures, special attention will be paid to the most popular among users themed areas. One of the priorities will remain the systematic updating of collections which spotlight the history of Russian regions, the current state of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the context of the overall development of Russian statehood. In this regard, the cooperation of the Presidential Library with the leading cultural institutions of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation - central libraries, archives, local history and art museums, historical and architectural reserves and others will receive a new impetus. With the participation of these fund holders at the regional centers of access to the resources of the Presidential Library, it is planned to hold a creative contest for the best representation of the region in the collections of the Presidential Library. It is expected that this will allow combining digital copies of unique documents and material objects in one collection. It was also noted that collaboration with museums to create films dedicated to the revival of cultural and historical monuments, which began with projects implemented by the Presidential Library in Novgorod and Pskov Regions and other regions of Russia will be continued.

It is also planned to actively develop cooperation with libraries, archives and museums in foreign countries.

At the meeting of the Academic Council, it was emphasized that the strategic development of the Presidential Library in terms of information and scientific information activities will be provided, first of all, by a deeper scientific examination of documents selected for digitalization, wide involvement of experts to develop concepts for electronic collections, scientific annotation and commenting on the documents contained in them. In this regard, cooperation of the Presidential Library with leading federal universities and institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences will gain a new impetus.

Participants of the meeting paid special attention to the role of scientific, educational and cultural lines of activity in achieving the strategic development goals of the Presidential Library. The key approach here will be updating traditional and testing new promising projects. Thus, Russia in the Electronic World Olympiad for schoolchildren will be added with a new discipline: since October 1, 2019 - “Russian as a foreign language” (for foreign citizens over 14 years of age studying Russian), from September 1, 2020 - “Informatics”. The project "Multimedia Lessons" will also be developed. It is planned to increase their interactivity and manufacturability. Undergraduate students of pedagogical universities will be invited to participate in the development of lessons (the first partner of the Presidential Library will be the Herzen State University of Russia). Updating formats and contents will also affect “Knowledge of Russia” video lecture, the Presidential Library’s Cinema Club and other projects. It was also noted that materials from the Presidential Library’s collections, due to cooperation with the Prosveshcheniye Educating Holding will be included in textbooks developed in a number of disciplines.    

One of the topics of discussion at the Academic Council meeting was the provision and regulations on the contest of student works (projects) using the information resources of the Presidential Library. The purpose of the contest is to promote historical knowledge about Russia, to promote the electronic collections and electronic resources of the Presidential Library on the history, theory and practice of Russian statehood, on issues of the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation, to create conditions for revealing the creative abilities of students, and to develop partnerships with universities. Among the nominations - the best course or final qualification / diploma work using the electronic collections and resources of the Presidential Library, the best project on the methodological development of a multimedia lesson for students of secondary educational institutions, the best work in the field of “historical journalism”. The contest is open, students can participate in it, regardless of citizenship, place of residence and course of study.

The experience gained by the Presidential Library’s specialists and the license for educational activities received in 2019 will allow to start implementing new projects for training citizens on advanced training programs and professional retraining in the field of library science, information technology and others using their own and attracted resources.

Members of the Academic Council were presented several new historical and cultural projects planned for the implementation in the coming years. It is expected that one of them will combine systematic electronic documents on unique monuments of Russian architecture and history - kremlins and fortresses - as symbols embodied in stone for the consolidation of Russian statehood over a vast territory for many centuries. The project is planned to be implemented in collaboration with museums and museum reserves in Astrakhan, Zaraysk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Pskov, Ryazan, Tobolsk, Tula and several other cities. The project is designed for a long time, it also includes video lectures, multimedia lessons, conferences, the publication of scientific and information materials, the creation of virtual tours and popular science films as well as other types of activities. Another project is “The Year of Memory and Glory: Victory. 75”, which is supposed to be developed with the help of volunteers and with the active participation of the regional network of the Presidential Library. It is aimed at collecting, systematizing, describing, storing and presenting digital copies of materials about the events of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 from personal archives of citizens, archives of regional media and other sources mainly from the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The Academic Council scheduled to discuss next the development of the Presidential Library's branch network; prospects for growing the collections, systematization and use of electronic resources of historical and legal subjects from the collections of libraries, archives, museums; new partnership projects in the field of culture, science and education.

More information about the activities of the Academic Council is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.