Annual Integration Forum held at Presidential Library

On September 25, 2024, the 15th Annual Integration Forum took place at the Presidential Library of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. This year, the library celebrates its 15th anniversary. The conference focused on the topic Cultural Heritage: Integrating Resources in the Digital Space.

Representatives from various organizations attended the conference, including the Federal Archival Agency, Russian State Historical Archive, Russian State Library, Russian National Library, Rudomino All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature and regional libraries from Russia, including those from the reunited regions. Additionally, representatives from the museum community also was present.

The Integration Forum, organized by the Presidential Library for the fifteenth time, has become a well-known platform in the Russian cultural community. Experts from all over the country gather here to discuss important issues related to the digital integration of libraries, archives, and museums.

The event is supported by the Russian Library Association and is considered one of the major events of the organization. In her welcoming speech, Olga Lyakina, Deputy Managing Director of the Presidential Administration, emphasized the importance of this year's theme: the support and development of cultural institutions in reunified territories. This is a strategic priority for the state, she stressed.

Zhanna Alekseeva, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, expressed her confidence that the Annual Integration Forum makes an important contribution to solving the challenges of maintaining a unified cultural space, strengthening the cohesion of Russian society, and providing access to knowledge and information.

In her welcoming speech, Vadim Duda, President of the Russian Library Association and General Director of the Russian State Library, emphasized the role of libraries in the implementation of government objectives. He stressed that libraries are involved in integrating new territories into the country's cultural space and that the results of their work are already evident.

Yuri Nosov, the Director General of the Presidential Library, said: "This year, representatives from libraries from the reunited territories have joined the Integration Forum. The forum will include presentations from experts from Donetsk, Lugansk and Mariupol. This is the first time that colleagues from the Scientific Library of Kuindzhi Mariupol State University have participated in the forum."

In May 2023, an agreement on cooperation between the Presidential Library and two other libraries was signed. These libraries are the Krupskaya Donetsk Republican Universal Scientific Library and the Gorky Lugansk Republican Universal Scientific Library. The Director General of the Presidential Library commented that "the library community of Russia is working hard to integrate the reunited territories into the Russian cultural space."

The signing ceremony took place as part of the scientific and practical conference Cultural Heritage: Integration of Resources in the Digital Space. The agreement was signed by Yuri Nosov, the Director General of the Presidential Library, and Margarita Mudrak, the Chairman of the Board at the Interregional Association for International Cooperation.

The Forum discussed the work of libraries, archives, and museums in integrating cultural institutions from reunited territories into the cultural space of the Russian Federation. The conference also focuses on projects for preserving and presenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the digital transformation of libraries in reunited regions, challenges in training and retraining library professionals. Among the topics of discussion are priorities for the regional network of the Presidential Library and the experiences of national libraries, particularly those of CIS member states, in supporting and facilitating research in libraries across the country.

Within the framework of the scientific and practical conference was presented the digital project of the Presidential Library, Personal Libraries of Russia, and to officially open the section, Memorial Library of Count M. Vorontsov, which was prepared in collaboration with the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve.

On September 24th the XI Annual Meeting of the Heads of Regional Centers of the Presidential Library took place.

During the Integration Forum on September 26th, 2024, a round table National Library - Scientific and Methodological Center of the Country's Libraries is planned to hold at the Russian National Library. 

The events of the Integration Forum in the Presidential Library will be broadcasted on the Presidential Library’s RuTube channel.