The Cooperation Council of National Libraries summed up the results of the year and outlined the prospects for joint work

The XXVI Cooperation Council meeting of National Libraries of Russia was held on December 22, 2022. It was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Administrative Directorate of the President of Russia and three national libraries - the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia and the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. This year the event was held at the Russian State Library.

The meeting was attended by Director General of the Russian State Library Vadim Duda, Director General of the National Library of Russia Vladimir Gronsky, Director General of the Presidential Library Yuri Nosov, members of the Council as well as experts invited from national libraries.

Lidia Fedyakina, Deputy Director of the Department of Regional Policy, Education and Project Management of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, welcomed the Cooperation Council participants.

Sergei Grinevich, Head of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, in his speech emphasized: “The Cooperation Council of National Libraries is a vivid example of effective interdepartmental cooperation and it contributes to the implementation of strategic national priorities and state cultural policy. National libraries perform the most important tasks aimed at the development of domestic and world culture, science and education, carry out their activities in the interests of all the peoples of our country”.

According to Sergei Grinevich, the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, being the founder of the youngest national library in the country, which joined the Cooperation Council in 2009, highly appreciates the interaction of the Presidential Library with its most important partners.

At the plenary session the heads of national libraries made presentations on the activities of the libraries they lead in 2022 and priority areas for development.

Director General of the Presidential Library Yuri Nosov in his speech emphasized that “one of the key events of the institution was the preparation of the “Strategy for the Development of the Presidential Library until 2030”. This document was approved by the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. The strategy outlined the ways of library development in four major areas - increasing the demand for and ensuring the availability of the collections; improving manufacturability through the development of tools that ensure the availability of the collections and products based on the collections through Internet portal, electronic reading room, mobile applications. Another area of development of the library is educational activities. To date, active work is underway in all four areas, road maps are being developed, the organizational and staffing structure of the institution is being changed, and new functionality is emerging”.

In order to implement the Strategy, the Presidential Library is expanding a circle of partner organizations. For this, a variety of venues including for holding significant state events, are used. For example, in June, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a number of agreements were signed: with the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Urals Federal District, with the participation of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Central Federal District; with the Higher School of Economics, the National Research Institute for the Development of Communications and others. In September, within the framework of the VII Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Presidential Library signed several cooperation agreements at once, including with the Ministry of Culture and Archives, the Ministry of Education of Primorye Territory. Within the framework of the agreements, it is planned to create and develop remote access centers to the resources of the Presidential Library of Primorye Territory.  

The Presidential Library implements active international activities, participates in all events of the Eurasia Library Assembly, closely cooperates with Rossotrudnichestvo, participates in scientific and practical conferences. Significant events in the field of international activities were the library events held in Syria in June and October. The result was the signing of memorandums with the Al-Assad National Library and Damascus University. The Ministry of Culture of Syria was given a tablet exhibition of the Presidential Library dedicated to the World Heritage in Russia. Library specialists also attended the conference "Russia - Syria: cultural and educational foundations of cooperation", which was organized by the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. In early December, the Presidential Library hosted an online ceremony of signing a cooperation agreement between the Presidential Library and the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University (PRC).

On December 12 a protocol of intent to create an Association of Presidential Libraries was signed at the Presidential Library. Such an organization is being created for the first time and will have an international status. The association will include the presidential libraries of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. One of the important goals of the Association is to provide wide access to world cultural values. This will become possible thanks to the interaction between the countries which presidential libraries will be included in the Association. It is planned to exchange resources in the field of history, law, economics, holding joint conferences, round tables, cultural events. The Association is being created with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation.

This year, the development of cultural and educational activities of the Presidential Library is underway. Thus, a cycle of events dedicated to the anniversary of Peter the Great such as, a Knowledge Forum, Arctic Day, Cosmonautics Day, Cadet Day, the Olympiad for schoolchildren "Russia in the Electronic World", a contest of students’ works, numerous video lectures, cinema screenings and exhibitions were held. One of the latest expositions is "The Hero's Wife", which features photographs of women whose spouses have devoted their lives to serving the Motherland. This patriotic project, which originated in Samara, was highly appreciated by the President of the Russian Federation.   

The library deals much with federal universities, scientific organizations, archives of the regional and federal levels.

In 2022, the 13th specialized scientific and practical conference "Cultural Heritage: Integration of Resources in the Digital Space" was held in Kemerovo. As usual, the conference was supported by the Federal Archival Agency, the Union of Russian Museums, and the Russian Library Association.

Joint work with Federal Archives continues to form a set of digitized documents on the Second World War. This major project aims to eliminate attempts to falsify history. The project involves 14 Russian archival institutions (Ministries of Defence, Foreign Intelligence Services, Ministries of Foreign Affairs and others) and 2 foreign archives (the Federal Archives of Germany and the National Archives of Republic of Belarus). The array of documents has been formed since 2020 and by the end of December 2022 the total volume of documents will be about 10 thousand. The collection, in addition to text documents, includes photographs and newsreels, as well as little-known maps.

The volume of total collections of the Presidential Library as a whole exceeds one million depository items. Digital collections are being formed on an ongoing basis, among which new ones can be noted: “The Year of the Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Russia”, “The Russian State and the Economy” (updated marking the anniversary St. Petersburg International Economic Forum), “Far East: Point of Attraction” (created for the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok) and many others.

This year, the research and publishing activities of the library developed. The preparation and publication of scientific collections of the institution in four series - "Historical Jurisprudence", "Electronic Archive", "Electronic Library", "Electronic Legislation" continued. A major publishing project of the Presidential Library "Archival materials in library catalogs", which is intended for library specialists, has been completed.  

The Presidential Library successfully implements additional professional advanced training programs in various areas of library and information services.

It is also important to note such an innovation as the launch of a round-the-clock TV-channel. Since September 1, the Internet broadcasting network has been expanded on the Presidential Library’s portal. Films and video lectures prepared by the Presidential Library, as well as the country's leading film studios, are broadcast around the clock. This means that users from any region of Russia have an opportunity to learn about them - from Kaliningrad to the Far East, as well as from any country. The screening of films and video lectures is timed to coincide with memorable and significant dates, as well as major events in the Presidential Library.   

The Presidential Library actively cooperates with the media, holds joint exhibitions and events with them. In November, together with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a front-line photo exhibition Donbass-2022 was opened. Its author is the military photojournalist of Rossiyskaya Gazeta Vladimir Anosov. And in December, in a solemn atmosphere, the winners and laureates of the essay contest “My Peter I” were awarded. This is a joint project of the library, the Kostyor All-Russian magazine for schoolchildren and the World Club of Petersburgers. About a thousand schoolchildren wrote creative works about Peter the Great during 2022 based on the Presidential Library’s collections. And this means that the institution’s collections are in demand, including the youngest users.  

On November 9, 2022 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation № 809 approved the Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values. In order to implement these foundations, the Presidential Library plans to create new popular information products and services, including new digital collections dedicated to traditional Russian spiritual and moral values (including the digital collection "The Traditional Family Institute as the Basis of Russian Statehood"), as well as new educational projects (for example, "Primary sources to help the history teacher").

After the plenary session, the work continued in three working groups in the areas of "Organization of scientific and publishing activities", "Assembly and system of collections", "International cooperation".

By tradition, Cooperation Council meetings are held in turn in each of the national libraries. Next year, 2023, the Council meeting will be held in St. Petersburg at the Presidential Library.

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The Council was established in 1996 in order to coordinate and cooperate for the effective implementation of the main functions of national libraries, the formation, preservation and accessibility of the national library collections, the creation of a distributed library and information system of national libraries, which allows organizing prompt, free access to information resources for domestic and foreign users. The first agreement on partnership and cooperation between the national libraries of Russia (RSL and NRL) was approved by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation in 1996, the next agreement between the three national libraries was approved by the Ministry of Culture of Russia in 2011.