“Bibliotekovedenie” Journal Celebrates Its 70th Anniversary

On November 16—17, 2022, the Annual Meeting of the Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia was held at the National Library of Russia (St. Petersburg). The organizers of the meeting are the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the National Library of Russia and the Russian State Library. About 300 specialists attended the event in full-time mode from 76 regions of the Russian Federation, including the Donetsk Peopleʼs Republic and the Luhansk Peopleʼs Republic. During the two days of work, the participants presented 35 reports. The 2022 main topic is “Managing Changes in the Implementation of the ‘Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030ʼ”. The participants relied in their speeches on the “Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values”, approved by the No. 809 Executive Order of the President of the Russian Federation of November 9, 2022. The event became the discussion site of the following issues: the library and the formation of socially responsible individual; the formation of strategies and programs for the development of libraries; the central library of the subject of the Russian Federation as the object of modernization; the formation and preservation of library collections. Among the presented draft documents developed as part of the implementation of the “Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030” are “Quality standard for the modernization of a public municipal library”, “Unified concept of scientific and methodological support for libraries” and “Indicative regulations on the organization of research activities in libraries in Russia”. Special attention is paid to the issues of interaction with the Donetsk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after N.K. Krupskaya and Lugansk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after M. Gorky. There were summed up the results of the All-Russian competition “Librarian of the Year — 2022” and the All-Russian competition “Library Analytics”. Within the framework of the meeting, the exhibition “Library Context — 2022” was held. The Meeting of the Board of the Russian Library Association took place as a parallel event.

The history of reading by children and adolescents in the Urals at the end of the 19th century is poorly studied due to the lack of sources. One can fill in the gap by referring to the ego documents and autobiographical texts of P.P. Bazhov. The revealed facts indicate that the educational qualification of the mother of the future writer, a pupil of the Sysert orphanage, influenced his reading circle at primary school age. These facts allow determining what he read during his years of study at the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary; show how the reading circle in childhood affected the creative work of the writer. Reconstruction of the reading biography of the author of the Ural tales responds to the questions: whether his reading preferences in childhood were something unique or did he read what most children of the same age read at the end of the 19th century; whether this reading experience affect his future creative work.

In 2022, the Russian State Library (RSL) celebrates the 160th anniversary of the Rumyantsev Museum, which has changed its status and official name several times throughout its history (after the February Revolution of 1917 — the State Rumyantsev Museum). The article considers the internal processes that took place in the Museum at the beginning of the 20th century, which resulted in its disbandment in 1918—1921 and the formation of the main library of the country based on its book holdings. This determines the scientific novelty of the study, which for the first time raises questions about the causes of these events. The source base of the research is the materials of the RSL Archive. For the first time, the author introduces into scientific circulation the official notes of employees, designed to make the necessary changes to get out of the critical situation in which the largest cultural centre of Moscow turned out to be before 1917 and in the post-revolutionary period. The presented notes were written by two groups of specialists of the museum, who proposed divergent ways of its further existence. Some of the staff considered it necessary to preserve the integrity of the museum and its further development. Another group insisted on the separation of the library from the museum and on its obtaining the status of an independent institution. For the first time, the article also introduces into scientific circulation the archival documents of the “Minutes Meetings of the Scientific Council” (later the Collegium) of the State Rumyantsev Museum, covering the stages of making decision on the disbandment and further transfer of the monuments of the museum’s branches to other institutions throughout the country. The documents from the RSL Archive reflect the controversy on this issue. In the wake of social changes, the internal museum disputes have gone beyond its borders. When discussing projects, representatives of the central libraries and the new Government spoke out in support of transformation. The process of finding the way out of the crisis situation led to the disbandment of the State Rumyantsev Museum and the formation of the All-Union Public Library named after V.I. Lenin (then, the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, and nowadays the Russian State Library) based on its book collections.

The article focuses on the results of the International Video Conference “Library Services on Three Continents” organized by the National Library of Russia. The idea to hold the conference was motivated by the interest in intensifying professional contacts. Capabilities of modern Internet technologies, including the use of remote forms of cooperation, play an invaluable role there. The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the special military operation, created unfavourable conditions for Russian librarians to visit some foreign countries and for colleagues from these countries to come to Russia. The exchange of professional information becomes difficult. At the same time, maintaining a dialogue between librarians of different states is an objective need. The video conference held on November 15, 2022, provided the comprehensive overview of how libraries in different countries on three continents can contribute to the progress of society, the development of information literacy; it showed their place in the global information exchange, and impact on the development of science, culture and education. 34 expert reports analysed the further introduction of information and communication technologies into the work of libraries at different levels, demonstrated actions to attract new readers in terms of using subscriptions on demand and other ways of providing literature, organizing open access. The conference discussed the projects for children and environmental education programs, presented the interesting practices of working in the pandemic, as well as considered the other issues.

Professionals from 21 countries of Eurasia, Africa and South America have presented their experience of working with readers, interacting with the public authorities of their country and their partners all around the world and discussed the system of professional education. The reports showed that libraries are currently solving a wide range of problems, increasing the cultural level of readers and preserving their national heritage.

The 2nd International Scientific and Practical Online Conference “Information Context of Culture: Resources, Technologies, Service” was held on October 11—12, 2022. Conference organizers are the Russian State Library (RSL), the Russian State Library of Arts (RSLA) and St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture (SPSIC). The purpose of the event is to summarize scientific research and practical experience on the issues of information support in the cultural sector, demonstrate the best achievements, identify problems and ways to overcome them. The leitmotif of the forum was the topic of cooperation between libraries, archives and museums of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. During two days of the forum, more than 80 representatives of the cultural sector from the RSL, the RSLA, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, the national libraries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, public libraries of almost two dozen regions of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as from the universities of culture in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Tashkent, as well as from the South Ural State University, worked in video communication mode. During the event, more than 900 viewings of the broadcasts of the meetings were recorded on the RSL YouTube channel. Within the framework of the conference, there were held the plenary session, two sessions of the Section “Information potential of libraries for the development of the cultural sector” and two special events: The 12th Conference/Meeting of the heads and specialists of information services on culture and art “Libraries — in the Year of Cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia” and the Round table “Development of library and information space on the basis of border libraries of the CIS member states: conceptual approaches and advanced directions”. In order to improve the work on information support for representatives of the cultural and art sector, the conference participants recommended to promote digital transformation aimed at the formation of common access resources on culture and art and improvement of information services; as well as to strengthen cooperation on the formation and mutual use of information resources created by the libraries of the CIS member states.

The author analyses participation of the Russian State Library (RSL) in the International Fair of Intellectual Literature non/fictio№ 24, which took place on December 1—5, 2022. The paper presents the review of new scientific publications of the RSL “Pashkov Dom” Publishing House. The top list of the non/fictio№ 24 includes two new publications of the RSL “Pashkov Dom”: the book devoted to L.M. Koval “The Keeper of the History of Leninka” (2021) and “The Art of Valery Pokatov: Pages of Life and Creative Work” (2021).

In 2022, the Russian State Library celebrated the 160th anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum. The anniversary stand of the RSL presented publications on the history of the library, catalogues of the collections and exhibitions, issues of the journals “Observatory of Culture”, “Bibliotekovedenie” (Library Science), etc. The leaders of sales were the collection of articles “‘This very first seal was beautiful: round, dimensional, pureʼ. The book culture of the era of Peter the Great” (2022), the publication of the comedy by A.S. Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” (2022), the album-catalogue by S.P. Utva “Gifts of the Imperial House to the Moscow Public Museum and Rumyantsev Museum” (2022).

Of particular note is the monograph “Essays on the Development of Bibliographic Activity of the Russian State Library” (2022) and the second edition of the collective work “Scientific Research in Libraries: Subject Themes, Organization, Presentation of Results” (2023).

The article summarizes the publishing trends in Russia formulated by the experts on December 2, 2022 at the discussion “Digitalization of book production and the future of the industry, skills of forming a comprehensive publishing project” in the framework of non/fictio№ 24.

The significant event of 2022 was the 17th season of the “Big Book” National Literary Award, established by the Centre for the Support of Russian Literature. The solemn ceremony of awarding the prize winners took place on December 8, 2022 at the Pashkov House of the Russian State Library.

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