Heads of St. Petersburg libraries gathered at the Presidential Library

The Presidential Library hosted a round table of directors of public libraries of St. Petersburg on January 22, 2021.

The main topics that were discussed at the event related to new methods in the work of libraries, providing users with the necessary information and services in a difficult epidemiological situation.

Director of the Presidential Library for Information Resources Elena Zhabko, opening the meeting of representatives of the professional community, noted: “The Presidential Library is a digital library focused on working with remote users through regional centers and remote electronic reading rooms. Therefore, cardinal changes in terms of providing access to resources in activities institution did not happen". As for the main statutory activity, namely the formation of digital collections of the national electronic repository, the replenishment of resources, in addition to the fact that the library collections increased by 35,000 storage depository itemsю A promising project has begun, co-organized by Rosarkhiv and the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation - a year marking the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory, a unique information resource was opened on the library's portal, representing the first part of the complex of digitized archival documents, film and photographic materials “The Second World War in Archival Documents”.

The participants of the event also learned about the creation of the documentary film Library Front: 1941-1945, prepared by the Presidential Library in cooperation with the Eurasian Library Assembly. The films spotlights the activities of the republican libraries of the Soviet republics (now - the national libraries of the CIS countries) in the period from 1941 to 1945 in the occupied territories, on the front line and in the rear. The premiere of the film took place on May 27, 2020, on the All-Russian Day of Libraries, and became an event in the library world.

At the meeting of directors of public libraries of St. Petersburg they also discussed such an up-to-date electronic collection of the Presidential Library as Prevention and Fight against Epidemics in Russia. In archival materials, essays, modern studies, epidemics, measures to combat them are described, the creation of a system for the prevention of infectious diseases is traced. One of the sections includes official documents on the prevention of epidemics and on modern sanitary and epidemiological requirements and rules in force in the Russian Federation.

The event participants were interested in the information about the webinars of the Presidential Library as a form of information and methodological support for the activities of the centers for remote access to the resources of the institution under the conditions of the restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Today, traditional projects of the Presidential Library for schoolchildren have been organized in a new format. Thus, in 2020, a format for online tours of the building and exhibitions in the halls of the institution was tested using virtual 3D tours posted on the library's portal. The new format allows expanding the geography of the participants and the thematic direction of excursions. The expositions of the Presidential Library, which were opened in the exhibition halls several years ago, are now available for visiting.

The form of holding multimedia lessons on history and social studies has also undergone changes - they were held for students from different regions of Russia using technologies from the Zoom and Skype platforms.