The Presidential Library - a participant of the All-Russian Library Congress

Nizhny Novgorod hosted the opening ceremony of the All-Russian Library Congress: the XXVI Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association (RBA).

The Congress has been organized in full-time and remote formats with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region dedicated to the topic “Libraries and Cultural Diversity”.

This city was chosen as the library capital of Russia for a reason, - RBA President Mikhail Afanasiev noted. He recalled that in any historical era, Nizhny Novgorod was famous for its libraries: from the Old Believer libraries of Trans-Volga Region and the monastic libraries of Orthodox churches to the present day, when Nizhny Novgorod Region has become one of the leaders in the modernization of libraries. Mikhail Afanasiev solemnly handed the badge "Nizhny Novgorod - the Library Capital of Russia" to the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Culture of Nizhny Novgorod Region Oleg Berkovich, who emphasized that the congress was a key event in the regional library industry. “In our region, special attention is paid to libraries, but the main thing is that the Russian word really lives here”, - he said.

In her welcoming speech, Deputy Minister of Culture of Russia Olga Yarilova emphasized: “The library industry is rapidly changing in the modern world. Libraries development issues are resolved at the highest state level”. According to her, the congress is the largest event that enjoys well-deserved authority among the library community, while it is important that the issues discussed find their real embodiment in specific documents. The Russian Library Association is actively working on the implementation of the Library Development Strategy until 2030”, - noted Olga Yarilova.

Reading a book should once again become a national idea, said Vadim Duda, Vice President of the RBA, President of the Eurasian Library Assembly, Director General of the Russian State Library. He expressed confidence that the library community came prepared for difficult times: “We have a consolidated position on many issues, our voice is heard not only within the community. A Development Strategy has appeared, we are supported by the Ministry of Culture, and this support is based on respect for our professional expertise and competencies”. Vadim Duda welcomed foreign guests, including representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

At the opening of the All-Russian Library Congress Vladimir Gronsky, director of the National Library of Russia, spoke about the special responsibility that is now assigned to libraries. One of the main tasks is to preserve and strengthen the cultural sovereignty of Russia.

The Presidential Library is also dealing in this direction with great success. Acting Director General of the institution Yuri Nosov noted: “In 2021–2022, the Presidential Library continued systematic work to preserve the country’s cultural and historical heritage and promote the Russian language. In 2022, dedicated to the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia, the institution is working on how to present this unique phenomenon in electronic libraries, considering the legal aspects of its protection. This is in good agreement with the theme of the RBA congress - “Libraries and Cultural Diversity.

Joint work with the Rosarkhiv continues on the formation of a set of documents on the Second World War. This major project aims to eliminate attempts to falsify history. Archival institutions of the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others are involved in the project.

The library does a lot of work with federal universities, scientific societies, archives of the regional and federal levels. A new major publishing project of the Presidential Library "Archival materials in library catalogs" will be presented at the conference.

At the meetings of sections and working groups of the All-Russian Library Congress, the Presidential Library will feature the main areas of work on the formation of the Russian single electronic knowledge space. In particular, the experience of preserving network documents in the Presidential Library will be summarized; the integration of library, archival and museum resources; the experience and prospects for the development of remote access centers of the Presidential Library will be considered. Specialists of the Presidential Library will attend the meeting of the working group on related data, created under the auspices of the RBA including representatives of both national and major branch scientific libraries.  

The All-Russian Library Congress - 2022 will run until May 20, 2022.

The detailed program of the All-Russian Library Congress: XXVI Annual RBA Conference is available at http://www.rba.ru/netcat_files/userfiles/conference/2022/programm.pdf.