Multimedia and archival resources are an integral part of the Presidential Library digital stock

Archival and multimedia documents have exceeded a half of the array of electronic sources in the Presidential Library stock.

Documents used in the scientific, outreach and awareness raising work highly contribute to the one whole national electronic environment of sources on the history, theory and practice of Russian statehood, and the Russian language as the state language of the Russian Federation.

The Electronic Fund of the Presidential Library now numbers to more than 500 thousand units. It includes materials from the major Russian archives, libraries, and museums of federal and regional significance. Particular attention is paid to adding the electronic fund with photo, audio and video materials.

In cooperation with the Main Scientific Research Computing Center of the Department of Presidential Affairs of the Russian Federation, archival documents from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive continue to be digitized. The documents from the private archive of a member of the Holy Synod, the rector of the Petersburg Theological Academy Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow and Kolomna, the princes Volkonsky, the Minister of Public Education and a member of the State Council of A V. Golovnin and others were digitized, described and now accessible on the Presidential Library website and its electronic reading rooms.

“Also today, according to the head of the Scanning Department of the Presidential Library Sergei Tikhonov, “we digitized 28,160 different documents from the manuscript collection of the State Russian Museum, which were recently accessible only for specialists. We also have a chance to learn more about our favorite artists - Alexander Bryullov, Ivan Shishkin, Konstantin Makovsky, Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Somov and other painters.”

For collecting sources for gathering an array on Territory of Russia, pre-revolutionary editions belonging to the Russian Geographical Society, including some series, as well as the works of outstanding Russian geographers such as K. I. Arsenyev, A. M. Shchekatov, and Y. M. Shokalsky have been digitized.

The Presidential Library was the first in Russia institution, which began work on the archives of online sources. Part of this work was on introduction a system of monitoring the demand for electronic resources with the implementation of the functions of obtaining of electronic information, related to the historical and cultural heritage according to accusation profile of the institution.

Currently, in plans are pilot projects, which will allow working out the entire process of acquiring the stock with online sources. The objective of these projects will be an assurance of work on selection and saving online sources for adding it into thematic digital collections. Having developed pilot projects for minor directly narrowed thematic collections, in the future it will be possible to provide content for the basic areas, in accordance with which the library acquires its stock. This work will allow on a practical level developing general methods and procedures for the preservation of online documents for a long-term transition to a comprehensive preservation of national cultural heritage of Russia in digital environment.