What problems is the director of the Russian National Library, Anton Likhomanov, hiding? Alexander Visly: There is nothing wrong with merging libraries
The magazine "University BOOK" talks with the General Director of the Russian National Library, Anton Vladimirovich LIKHOMANOV, about the priority areas of work and development, about the future of librarianship in the country in the context of legislative reform, about the prospects of the Russian Library Association.
Source: www.roedean.net
— Anton Vladimirovich, did the offer to head the library come as a surprise to you? Why do you think the management chose your candidacy?
— To be honest, it was not a surprise. Vladimir Nikolayevich Zaitsev repeatedly expressed the idea that I should replace him; I had a conversation about this at the Ministry of Culture back in September; in general, a change of leadership was planned. Another thing is that no one expected that Vladimir Nikolaevich would leave so suddenly. Why me? I think that what was taken into account, first of all, was my almost 30 years of experience in the library, including more than 20 years in various leadership positions. I know the structure of the library well, its features, problems, and people.
— On February 7, the official ceremony of introducing you as General Director took place, but it was more of a formality, because the team knows you very well. Has your attitude towards you changed? What are your colleagues asking about today?
- First of all, of course, congratulations. My purpose is also to trust the entire team of the National Library, in which I grew up. Maybe a lot of library employees would come to a new, unknown person, offer something, tell them something, bring them up to date. So far, no one has raised problematic or fundamental questions. The library works stably, but after a while these issues will arise.
— What areas of the library’s work do you consider priority today?
— It should be noted that during the 25 years that V.N. Zaitsev headed the Russian National Library, very serious changes took place in the library, as, indeed, in the entire library business. We are experiencing an information revolution and the introduction of new technologies. Today, the most important task for any library, and the National Library is no exception, is constant adaptation to work in conditions of widespread implementation and updating information technologies. We must meet the expectations of our readers, users and change with them, otherwise there will simply be no need for a library, or only those people who need some manuscripts, rare books, etc. that have not yet been digitized will come to us . Therefore, one of the main tasks is to resolve issues related to automation and improvement of our electronic catalogue. Unfortunately, it is not ideal, use it without preliminary preparation maybe not everyone.
For quite some time now, many libraries have been using electronic ordering, which we do not yet have, and there is a great need for this service. It is necessary, in the largest possible volumes, to digitize publications and make them available to local and remote users, including rare documents and documents that are in constant demand (of course, in accordance with copyright law).
Of course, one of the most important tasks is the formation of the National Welfare Fund. Our financial capabilities here are limited, discussions and disputes arise about how best to spend the money, and we must strive to ensure that the documents we buy best meet the needs of our users.
The material and technical base of the library also needs updating, which, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired. A separate topic is the completion of the second stage of construction of our new building. Big problem is the safety of our funds. The Russian National Library has a Federal Center for the Conservation of Library Collections, its activities should be expanded, because the storage of publications is our responsibility, many publications require special climatic conditions, this is also an important area of work.
In short, we can end here, not counting such an important and painful topic as the preservation of the library staff, which is getting older, and young people, even if they come to the library, do not move up the career ladder and do not gain a foothold. We are now approaching the point that in some departments we simply do not have middle-aged employees.
— Regarding the construction of a new building, when is it planned to be completed, what services will be housed there?
— Initially, a building with an area of 109 thousand square meters was designed. m, construction was divided into stages. The first stage was built from 1985 to 2002, it is about 62 thousand square meters. m, these are reading rooms and 36 storage facilities of the main fund. Now the second stage is under construction - these are 46 storage facilities and office premises with a total area of 49 thousand square meters. m. In fact, the building has been built, and now we are talking about equipping it. We have planned a very powerful data processing center that will allow us to store digitized publications in large quantities. There will be a modern automated targeted book delivery system; the building is planned to house a number of divisions of the Federal Center for Conservation. But the most important thing is the reserve of space for placing literature. Now in a number of funds it is practically exhausted. We are forced to use part of the second-stage equipped storage facilities to store our books. In the future, we will move publications here from rented premises, and our other divisions will also have the opportunity for better placement. In general, this is a very serious reserve that we have been dreaming about all these years.
As for the completion date, it is currently 2013, but funding is not being provided in the volumes that are envisaged. I want to get together, optimize all expenses and make a breakthrough - complete the construction of this building. This will, in turn, allow us to reconstruct individual rooms in our main building.
— Recently, the topic of preserving electronic content has been actively discussed; many issues are related to the use of materials on outdated media. How will you solve this problem?
— We must understand that in the future we will have even more problems associated with reproducing data in different formats, rewriting them and making them available to readers. If we are talking about saving data, then today the most reliable option is microfilming, and then you can make electronic copies from the microfilm. And as for electronic publications, created in the Russian National Library, then, basically, these are publications that are not subject to copyright. IN electronic library The National Library of Russia now has 320 thousand documents. This is, for example, a set of pre-revolutionary legislation, various materials on the history of St. Petersburg, etc. All this is very interesting and is needed by specialists, but the general reader needs publications from the last decade. IN in electronic format We cannot provide them; the law prohibits us from doing so. If we talk about the future of libraries, then the possibility of providing books in electronic form and delivering them via MBA is a very good prospect. If this does not happen, we will be left with only a paper copy and an extremely limited number of in-demand reader services.
— As far as we know, interlibrary exchange of electronic copies is excluded from the draft amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. What is your general attitude towards these amendments? How, in your opinion, can relations with copyright holders be resolved?
— There is a certain contradiction here: it is mainly representatives of fiction. While people go to large libraries, first of all, for scientific and educational literature. They come to the library not to improve their general cultural level, but to complete some educational tasks - writing essays, coursework, diplomas, dissertations... Therefore, in my opinion, it would be primarily important if it was possible to digitize these resources, and not everything in general. And the possibility of providing them to regional libraries would potentially increase the popularity of the libraries themselves and “patch the hole” associated with the fact that many publications are published in small print runs and do not reach the regions. This would be very useful, and I think we will eventually come to this, and by infringing on the rights of libraries in this matter, we are harming our education and science. Nowadays, uncontrolled copying is already gaining momentum on the Internet, regardless of library services. Piracy has an extremely negative impact on the libraries themselves, and we must find some kind of compromise. But there is still some hope: the National Library Resource has been created, the RSL has a Copyright Office, and we must also actively join this process, both from the point of view of working with authors and copyright holders, and from the point of view defending the interests of our readers.
— Are you planning to create a department for working with authors, like in the RSL?
— I think there will be a need for this, because if all major libraries get involved in working with authors, then the volume of “legalized” resources that will be available to a wide range of readers throughout Russia will increase noticeably.
— How realistic is the National Library Resource project in solving these problems?
— The project is realistic if we abstract from the details. It is important that the state still allocates money to work with authors. If the legislative option does not work, then we must go through the creation of a civilized library resource, the state must pay authors for the use of their works. And it’s good that such an opportunity has now become a reality.
On at this stage necessary for the work to begin. This is very necessary because many people prefer to receive information electronically. There is already a growing generation that simply does not psychologically perceive printed book, it is easier for them to read from the screen. I would suggest this image. St. Petersburg was once called a “window to Europe”, television - a “window to the world”, now the Internet is a “window to the world”, and a library should be a “window to the world” of real knowledge, where the user could be guaranteed to receive reliable and reliable information. Here, of course, much will depend on what kind of literature the authors’ permission will be obtained for and how this resource will be formed. And over time, readers should get used to it: if they go to the NBR website, for example, they will receive a publication that is digitized in full, without abbreviations, it is easy to use, find the necessary information, etc.
— Several months ago, the idea was voiced that perhaps national libraries should be united and the functions of the RKP clarified. What do you think about it?
- I heard about it. I think this issue requires very careful attention. The system has already developed in our country over a long period of time, including Soviet years when they were very frugal with money. Nevertheless, both in Moscow and Leningrad there were many large libraries, and no one raised the question of connecting Leninka and Saltykovka. Perhaps someone sees a contradiction in the fact that the RKP is under the jurisdiction of Rospechat, and large libraries - legal deposit recipients - are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, the Academy of Sciences, and the Presidential Administration. I think the idea should be considered administrative association. There is plenty of such experience in the history of our state, when departments and organizations were united and separated; it didn't make much sense. In this case, we can talk about combining library resources. Ultimately, this is what the reader is interested in. And it doesn’t matter to him how the libraries are administratively united. The main thing is that you can use the resource easily and conveniently electronic documents, which will increase. If this system is to work optimally, that matters more than who reports to whom.
— How can you comment on the prospects of the National Library in the context of the status that the library will acquire under Law 83?
— In January there was a round table of the Committee on Culture of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which clearly demonstrated how cultural institutions relate to Federal Law-83, what a conceptual gap there is between those institutions that are currently being reformed and the developers represented by the Ministry of Finance. Our library, of course, is preparing for the transition to new working conditions; there is a certain concern, because this concerns a very sensitive area - financing, and this includes the salaries of employees, and funds for acquisition, for the maintenance of buildings and structures. By the way, in the Russian National Library in 2010 only communal payments amounted to more than 30 million rubles. This is quite a large amount for us. The worst option for libraries and other budgetary institutions is if the volume of government assignments has to be adjusted to match the funds that will actually be allocated to us. And then the meaning of the reform is lost. There are a lot of calculations ahead, paperwork and bureaucratic work, because you need to specific service"pawn" different types works, etc.
For libraries, Law 83, in my opinion, provides fewer opportunities than, say, for theaters and museums, which have at least a theoretical chance of making money. It’s difficult for libraries because they are the only cultural institutions that work for free and are most dependent on government assignments. It should also be noted that along with the change in the financing scheme, the dependence of cultural institutions on their founders, in this case on the ministry, is increasing. That is, we are not talking about the fact that institutions become freer, but on the contrary, they actually lose their independence, coordinating their activities with it, for example, the need to perform major deal etc. Independence could also be expressed in the rights to rent out premises without prejudice to the main activity. But this process also becomes overgrown with various bureaucratic procedures. It’s difficult for me to say how much the RNB will benefit from this.
The traditional library service, through which there was an opportunity to earn money - photocopying - is now not in demand; in our library the volume of copying has decreased by 25%. We are developing scanning services, but the possibility of copying using a camera or other device also remains. These sources of income are gradually disappearing; this was obvious a few years ago, when Cell phones, and readers began to copy books themselves in reading rooms. Whether there will be something new that the consumer will be willing to pay for is a big question. All this is very worrying because it relates to the payment of wages. As for the possibility of handling expense items differently, I have no illusion that you can simply cut some item, for example, recruitment, in order to increase wages. I suspect that there will be some limits. The system that exists has worked for decades and enabled libraries to perform their functions with varying degrees of success. Generally speaking, it seems to me that the developers of Federal Law-83 are great idealists, just like those who prepared the notorious Federal Law-94 on government procurement, designed for the participation in competitions of persons with good intentions, ready to deliver quality products on time and for little money. perform work or provide services. Life has clearly shown otherwise.
However, I believe that libraries will be able to overcome existing difficulties and will continue to play an important role in the development of science, culture and education in Russia.
- What are the ways? possible earnings meant by our legislators? Perhaps the sale of electronic content, print on demand? In some countries, libraries are already competing with bookstores.
— Perhaps this will happen, although I believe that the service itself of access to digitized publications should be free for the user. I am surprised by the talk that only those services that are listed as free in Federal law“About librarianship”, and the rest must be paid. For example, allow free use of the catalog only within the library, and charge a fee for the right to use it via the Internet. But if libraries start charging for everything that is not specified in the law, then, I think, no one will go to them.
Now they write that visiting a modern hypermarket or megamall for a person is a pleasant pastime and positive emotions. You can relax, have a snack, buy yourself a gift, in general, spend money and have fun. Theater is also a holiday: a person chooses in advance which performance he wants to see and is ready to pay for a ticket. And for many modern readers, the library has become an “emergency response.” The electricity and water at home have been turned off - you need professional help. And if tomorrow you have to take an exam, write a term paper, then there is nowhere to go - the person goes to the library. And it is no longer associated with pleasant impressions, but with necessity. This is a very important psychological moment.
— How do you see the development of the library’s research activities?
— This is an interesting question, because scientific activity in the light of Federal Law 83 and the list of government services that libraries should provide appears indirectly. The approach here is strict. The library provides library and information services and carries out the function of storing literature. Therefore, it is still difficult to say how science will be financed within the framework of Federal Law-83, how it will fit into this scheme.
Scientific activity should, first of all, help fulfill the immediate statutory tasks of the library. These are studies in the field of bibliography, preservation of funds, scientific and methodological activities, the study of book monuments, reader demand, readership, etc. The latter is very relevant, since reader surveys will soon become mandatory and will be one of the indicators of our work. Whether the scientific departments will be preserved in the form in which they exist now, or something else will be proposed, life will tell.
— What are your thoughts regarding the Russian Library Association?
— Traditionally, the headquarters of the RBA is located within the walls of the RNB, this was due to the fact that V.N. Zaitsev headed the Association from the very beginning and continued to remain its leader until his last days. Of course, I would like the Association to work more actively and be more visible at the legislative level. I think it needs to be more dynamic, perhaps more aggressive in advocating for the interests of libraries. The role of the RBA should increase as a socially significant role non-profit organization. She could take over important points related to the regulation of librarianship. I would like to see the close relationship between the RBA and the National Bank continued. This is both a historical tradition and such a positive example when the headquarters of the all-Russian public organization is not located in Moscow.
We support the candidacy of V.R. for the post of President of the RBA. Firsov, who worked for a very long time at the Russian National Library and in the Association itself. This is a competent, highly qualified specialist, an honored scientist, who is well aware of the problems of libraries at all levels, but even this is not the most important thing. And the main thing is that Vladimir Rufinovich has a definite plan for the development of the Association, its implementation will be very useful for the RBA.
— In 2014 there will be a big anniversary, 200 years since the opening of the library. Any ideas for celebrating?
“Here we are in a difficult position, since we are celebrating two dates. The library was founded on May 27, 1795, and this day has been celebrated in our country since 1995 as All-Russian Library Day. On January 14, 1814, the library opened to readers; this date was celebrated in Soviet times. Now while we are thinking, making plans, assessing our strength, what we could do. A lot depends on financial capabilities. We decided for ourselves that we would celebrate; some events have already been planned, but how large-scale they will be is still difficult to say. We will try to organize a scientific conference in St. Petersburg dedicated to this date, and I would like to see a history of the NLR over the past 50 years prepared.
— At the end of the conversation, tell us a little about yourself, about your reading preferences...
— I started working at the Russian National Library, at that time at the State Public Library. Saltykov-Shchedrin, in September 1981, as an ordinary librarian in the collections and services department, which 15 years later he headed, was in Komsomol work, in particular, as secretary of the Komsomol library committee, then worked in the district committee, and in 1990, at the suggestion V.N. Zaitsev returned to his native walls.
My PhD thesis was devoted to how at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The Russian government tried to create favorable public opinion, secretly financed the press and what ultimately came of it, where the money was actually spent, and why the autocracy lost the information war with the opposition. I had to deal with almost all library issues.
As for reading, I don’t have any system in choosing books. Now, for example, I am reading the memoirs of our famous playwright Viktor Rozov, I love the memoir genre. In short, I love literature that touches on real-life issues that resonate with me.
— Thank you for the conversation, good luck to you and the library.
Anton Vladimirovich Likhomanov(b. September 16, 1964, Leningrad) - Russian library worker, from January 20, 2011 to January 19, 2016 - General Director of the Russian National Library, historian.
Biography
He began working at the Russian National Library in 1981 as a librarian. In 1987-1990 at Komsomol work. In 1990 he graduated from the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University.
Since 1990, again at the Russian National Library: Deputy Director for Administrative and Economic Work, Head of the Funds and Services Department, Deputy General Director. After the death of V.N. Zaitsev from October 2010 - and. O. General Director January 20, 2011 appointed general director RNB. On January 19, 2016, he left his post due to the expiration of his term. employment contract.
Candidate of Historical Sciences.
Major works
- Newspaper "Russia" in 1905-1906. : (History of the emergence of Stolypin officialdom) // Book business in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. - L., 1990. - P. 46-55.
- The question of foreign language publications at the Special Meeting on drawing up a new charter on the press (1905) // Book business in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. - St. Petersburg, 1992. - Issue. 6. - pp. 56-63.
- I. Ya. Gurlyand and the Jewish question in Russia // Bulletin of the Jewish University in Moscow. - M.; Jerusalem, 1993. - No. 4. - P. 142-153.
- The struggle of the autocracy for public opinion in 1905-1907. - St. Petersburg, 1997. - 133, p. - ISBN 5-7196-0982-2.
- How to ensure library security. - M., 2002. - 112 p.
- Countering the ideology of terrorism and libraries. - M., 2005. - 112 p.
- Special meeting to draw up a new charter on the press in 1905: personnel// Censorship in Russia. - St. Petersburg, 2005. - Issue. 2. - pp. 35-69.
- Dmitry Fomich Kobeko // History of the library in the biographies of its directors, 1795-2005. - St. Petersburg, 2006. - P. 194-211. - ISBN 5-8192-0263-5.
- Development of press legislation in Russia and France at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries: comparative analysis// Proceedings of the Department of History of Modern and Contemporary Times. - St. Petersburg, 2007. - No. 1. - P. 78-90.
Literature
- Who's who in the library and information world of Russia and the CIS. - 5th ed. - M., 2001. - T. 1. - P. 395. - ISBN 5-85638-019-3.
05/03/2015
49 days ago we sent a request to the General Director of the Russian National Library A.V. Likhomanov (pictured left) with a request to answer the editor’s questions. Not 7, not 30, but 49 days have passed, and there has been no response from General Director A.V. Likhomanov. was not received by the editor. And this means only one thing: there is nothing to answer not only regarding the solution of specific, long-standing problems, but also regarding the prospects for the development of the MFN.
E It can also be stated that this official violated the law of the Russian Federation “On the Mass Media” (according to Article 40 of which a response must be provided to the editorial office within 7 days) and the law of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” (according to Article 12 of this law, written appeal is considered within 30 days from the date of registration). To finish with the legal aspects, let me remind you that the National Library of Russia is a federal state budgetary institution, i.e. is subject to all of these laws. Naturally, such disregard for the law will entail consequences provided for by law.
But here are the questions I wanted to get an answer from Anton Likhomanov:
Commissioning of the second stage of the new building of the Russian National Library on Moskovsky Prospekt, prospects, timing;
Reducing the number of employees to increase the income of those left behind, facts;
Creation of a domestic Wikipedia, main parameters of the project, goal, deadlines;
Prospects and timing for electronic ordering of documents stored in the main building;
Work on the Primo electronic catalogue, problems with its performance and deadline for completing work on it, how many people are working on correcting errors and filling gaps?
I think that Anton Likhomanov understands: general words will not suit me, I know the situation in the library too well. In other words, the very first and most important problem of a library is its management. If A. Likhomanov does not even respond to a written appeal, demonstratively violating two laws of the Russian Federation at once, it means that he does not even want to admit and loudly declare the existence of problems with the National Security Service. And if problems are hidden and not made public, then they are not being solved.
This means that with the same Primo electronic catalog, things are just as bad as in the summer of 2014. The electronic catalog of the Russian Magazine Fund is poorly made, and no one is working to bring it to fruition. It is not even possible to find out when the second phase of the new building will be put into operation, which would make it possible to connect the disconnected collections of the Russian Magazine Fund in the new building, temporarily move the manuscript department in its place, and begin renovations in the manuscript department premises.
I would like to note - especially for the leadership of the National Library of Russia - that I do not invent these problems or collect them “from the outside,” but as a regular and active reader of the library, I myself encounter problems all the time.
A whole range of problems are associated with the reduction of employees, and I feel the results of this as a reader. For example, in March 2014, the Russian National Library opened an exhibition of books donated to our library by the House of Russian Abroad named after. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was a very valuable and generous gift. Personally, I urgently needed one book from this exhibition: the author is the American literary critic V. Aleksandrova, the book is called “Literature and Life: Essays on the Soviet social development until the end of World War II" (New York, 1969). I ordered it because the books were on display at the exhibition with a code, but it turned out that it had not yet been processed and was not issued to the hall, and the employees of the processing department kindly offered me to read the book in their department, for which I was grateful to them. And it won’t be issued soon, they warned me. Well, I’ll read autumn more carefully, I thought.
A year has passed - the book is listed in the Primo electronic catalog without a code and is still not issued, it has not yet been processed, just as, obviously, all the other books from this exhibition have not been processed, which means one thing: the Russian National Library has not established reasonable deadlines for processing books and There are not enough personnel to quickly process incoming books. The book is there and it is not.
And staff reductions are underway - in any case, that’s all everyone in the library is talking about. But it is impossible to find out the real situation from the management of the National Library of Russia regarding the implementation of these “publicly significant functions” (PVF).
There are persistent rumors that the deputy. General Director for Library Work Elena Tikhonova decided to lay off all employees of the information and bibliographic department and liquidate the department itself. Supposedly there will be certification soon, not everyone will be certified, and the issue will be resolved automatically.
I don’t really believe in this, but Tikhonova herself also considered it inappropriate for herself to answer my questions, so I am discussing this topic as a probable hypothesis. If this happens, then we can talk about direct sabotage. Because of all the “publicly significant functions,” the most important and most public is direct communication between the reader and the bibliographer. It's not a matter of learning how to use catalogues, it's a matter of the methodology of finding the right books and articles. No one will teach at the National Library except a bibliographer. Employees who issue books at collection points do not have the appropriate professional competence. In addition, the Russian National Library has a lot of card and electronic catalogs; you also need to know which one to look in. The existence of bibliographers who advise readers is a long-standing and unique feature of the Russian National Library, and losing it simply because it is necessary to reduce the number of employees to save wages is a crime against culture.
Talking about how “bibliographers are not needed because now there is the Internet” is nonsense. The Internet does not replace the bibliographer, if only because the National Library is an independent, complex machine for scientific research like a hadron collider. The National Library itself does not prepare instructions for using the library as a “knowledge machine”. Therefore, readers learn how to use the National Library of Russia not on the Internet, but from bibliographers.
Another example. The foreign magazine collection was almost completely moved to the new building. But the service catalog of this fund was either forgotten, or left in the old building, and the premises were locked. Whether anyone uses it or not is unknown. An incomplete reader's card catalog was installed in the new building. It was impossible to use it then, and now. There is also an electronic catalog of this fund on the RNL website, but there is never complete confidence that it fully reflects the IZhF service card catalog. Employees are afraid that the unique service catalog of IZhF will simply be burned during the renovation of the premises.
And the IJF electronic catalog works something like this. You look, for example, for Nation magazine from 1967. You can’t find it. Then you discover that you have to write The Nation, i.e. with article. I write the name with the article in the request. Judging by the responses received, after 1917 the journal was not received by the Russian National Library, but this is not so. I know, and I have been using the National Library for 38 years, that some old foreign magazines with serf codes remained in the main building. At the same time, the reader’s catalog on The Nation card has an incorrect code, and the only reliable service catalog of the Foreign Magazine Fund is buried somewhere in the main building. Well, can all this be sorted out without a team of bibliographers?
Only the lazy do not criticize the Primo electronic catalogue. Just one example. I am looking for the book by Yuz Aleshkovsky “The Book of Last Words”. In the “author” column I write the author’s surname, in the “title” column - “Book of Last Words.” The search result is zero. There is no such book in the National Library of Russia. But I know who created the catalogue. Therefore, I remove the author’s surname and immediately receive a bibliographic description and code.
Dozens of similar examples can be given. Sometimes you need to remove the title, and if a book, God forbid, has two authors, then it’s better to search only by title, because the book is registered to only one of the two authors. Etc. In fact, it is necessary to reconcile the card general alphabetical catalog and the electronic catalog with the Primo electronic catalog, because at some point - no one can name it exactly - cards stopped being poured into the card catalog, only into the electronic OPAC, and then only into Primo , and it is absolutely known that not all records from the first two GAKs were included in the third. But for such work additional employees are needed.
Now about the electronic library. Thanks to an order from Finland, the newspaper department of the National Library of Russia scanned the Literary Newspaper for the years 1929-1960 several years ago. We didn’t do any further because it wasn’t ordered. Naturally, on the NLR website only “pictures” are given, without recognition, which the NLR does not do. Why - I haven’t been able to get an answer for many years. I suspect that it was simply because the leadership of the National Library of Russia did not understand and still does not understand what it is and why researchers need it.
By the way, the Russian National Library is now purchasing a subscription remote access resource from some Moscow company, it is called East view (IVIS) and includes the full texts of a large number of Russian magazines and newspapers - in particular, “Pravda”, “Izvestia”, “Literaturnaya Gazeta” and a number of others, magazines “Questions of Literature”, “Questions of History”, etc. All texts are recognized, and there is a contextual search. This is a unique resource for which the Russian National Library now pays money (access for readers from the National Library buildings is free), but it could have received itself if it had done this, in general, simple work, having unique funds. It is no longer possible to imagine working in a library after trying this East view. About the same as losing the Internet.
And when, in the midst of all this chaos, the Russian National Library announces that it is starting to work on a “domestic Wikipedia,” and Likhomanov also explains that it is necessary because “Wikipedia is controlled from the United States,” then I want to ask: maybe before you start improving Wikipedia and start using the money allocated for this super mega-project, first making your own electronic catalogs normal? Not for the report, but for real, like an adult ?
Mikhail ZOLOTONOSOV
It seems that the Ministry of Culture, having dismissed the director from the post of RNB A. Likhomanov, and announcing the transfer to his place of A. Visly, who holds the post of director of the Russian State Library (RSL), created another problematic situation in the industry. A quick administrative decision when no one understands what exactly...
Alexander Visly: There is nothing wrong with merging libraries
Merger of the Moscow and St. Petersburg libraries Director of Leninka about his new appointment and the possible merger of the Moscow and St. Petersburg libraries. Recently, the Ministry of Culture nominated for the post of head of the Russian National Library ( RNB) Alexander Visly, currently working as director of the Russian State Library (Leninki). Labor Relations with the former director RNB Anton Likhomanov were terminated due to the expiration of his contract. In an interview with a reporter...
Director of Leninka will head the Russian National Library
Director of the Russian State Library Alexander Visly will move to St. Petersburg to head the Russian National Library: on January 19, the position of general director RNB left Anton Likhomanov, who has headed it since 2011. The duties of the general director of the RSL will be temporarily assigned to one of Visly’s deputies. After his appointment by the Russian government as general director RNB The Ministry of Culture will announce a competition for the position of General Director of the RSL, using...
The general director of the Russian National Library left his post
... Anton Likhomanov relieved of duty by order of the Russian government due to the expiration of the employment contract, the press service of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation said in a statement. General Director of the Russian National Library ( RNB) Anton Likhomanov dismissed from his post, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Culture reported on Tuesday. “Due to the expiration of the employment contract by order of the Government of the Russian Federation on January 19, A.V. Likhomanov has been relieved of his post,” the statement reads...
St. Petersburg: employees RNB stood up for their director
They didn’t sign the letter and don’t want the director to be fired. Nikita Eliseev, the leading bibliographer of the library, says: “First of all, I don’t have confidence in the Izvestia newspaper.” Secondly, apparently, the Russian budget is cracking, it needs to be patched up, but here they look - RNB huge expenses! And they are huge because the new library building has not been completed, because of this we have serious difficulties with storing and delivering books. But I doubt that the CEO is personally to blame for this Anton Likhomanov, and most importantly, that new director will be better. Likhomanov worked in the library for 30 years, God forbid he is replaced by someone who will take a long time to figure out what a library is and mess things up. But the employees who signed the letter, in general...
Head of the Russian National Library Anton Likhomanov will be retired after the New Year
Construction was stopped. In 2009, with a change in the general contractor, construction resumed. Work is progressing slowly; by 2013, the building was 90% complete. To complete the construction, planned for 2016, 950 million rubles were allocated from the budget. Anton Likhomanov born in 1964. Graduated from the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University. Work in RNB started in 1981 as a librarian, in 1990 he became deputy director for administrative and economic work, then head of the Collections and Services Department, deputy general director. On January 20, 2011, he was appointed general...
The Russian National Library turns 200 years old
Which of our beloved Publics will cross the threshold of its bicentenary? Will libraries still be as relevant and in demand as they were before the Internet became widespread? In order to get answers to these and many other questions, the VP correspondent met with the General Director of the Russian National Library, Anton Likhomanov (pictured).
Unfortunately, the conversation had to start with long-existing problems.
— How is the situation with the book depository? We know that you are currently in litigation with the contractor... Can we hope that it will be completed by the end of the anniversary year?
- The situation is actually very difficult. Moving along Moskovsky Prospekt and passing Victory Park, we see the new building of the National Library of Russia - this is only the first stage, which is 60 thousand square meters. m, and the second - 40 thousand square meters. m - being completed. Our general contractor, so to speak, has fallen into a coma and is in a state of semi-bankruptcy: he neither lives nor dies, but does not want to terminate the contract with us. It is solely for this reason that we could not spend the almost billion rubles that we were given to bring the library to fruition. Although for us the commissioning of the second stage is extremely important, because we currently do not physically have space to store newly arriving newspapers, music publications and a number of other materials. We hope that the trial will end as favorably as possible for us and, perhaps, we will put these new areas into operation.
— Last year there was a conflict related to the mass dismissal of librarians. There was information in the press that this was supposedly done in order to raise the salaries of the remaining employees...
— At the end of last year, about 200 of our employees retired. At the moment, the staff of the National Library of Russia has 1,400 employees, wages have increased by two, or even 2.5 times. At the end of 2012, the average salary of a library employee was 13,000 rubles. The final salary at the end of 2013 was 30,240 rubles, despite the fact that the main payments occurred in the second half of the year. Let me give you an example: November - 42,000 rubles, December - about 60,000 rubles. The fact is that subsidies sent from Moscow to increase wages, arrive unevenly, but mainly in the second, third and fourth quarters. If we take St. Petersburg as a whole, then the average salary of a worker in 2012 was 30,346 rubles, and in 2013 - 34,991 rubles.
— There is a stereotype that only grandmothers work in libraries. Do young people go to work in libraries?
“Now young people want to come to us, but there are certain difficulties: we have a catastrophic shortage of vacancies. Any grandmother was once a young girl, and therefore we cannot say to anyone something like: “You are already 70 years old, it’s time to leave.” It is believed that flight attendants should be young, and if we see an older flight attendant, we already begin to think that something is wrong. Something similar happens with librarians, only in reverse: if the librarian is not elderly, then this causes us bewilderment. Now we can observe an interesting transition period. The fact is that when a young person, advanced in computers, is forced to come to the library for a paper book and he meets with an elderly librarian, a certain misunderstanding arises. However, this is far from a reason to ask an elderly person to retire. But specialists are being trained to work in our field, and we have entered into an agreement with the St. Petersburg state university culture and arts: if smart guys are noticed at the library faculty, we will be introduced to them. And we, in turn, will be ready to take them on board, even if it creates additional jobs.
— What famous libraries in the world could the National Library be compared to?
— We are one of the five largest libraries in the world. Yes, the Lenin Library in Moscow is ahead of us in terms of collection size: we have 37 million copies, they have 40 million. Lenin also has another advantage - dissertations are received there, but we only have abstracts of dissertations, and this is an additional resource. If we compare the National Library of Congress with the Library of Congress, with the British Library, with the Functional Library of France, then there will be positions in which we are ahead of them: for example, we have more space for readers, we use the same software. What is the difference? The fact is that they have broader financial horizons, and this is primarily reflected in the fact that they have more opportunities to digitize funds. We cannot compare the salaries of librarians, since we live in different systems taxation and so on. Otherwise there is not much difference between us. Although I feel the difference with Chinese libraries, the halls of which are literally packed, and the bookstores are crowded. The fact is that in China there is a pronounced incentive: a person either reads, engaged in self-development, and as a result becomes someone, or stands knee-deep in water in a rice field all his life.
— How often are the RNB funds replenished?
— Let's start with the fact that we have a Legal Deposit Law, according to which all publications published in our country since 1810 come to us: the more interesting ones in two copies, the less interesting ones in one. Another source of replenishment of funds is purchase. We have the means to buy publications. Why is this being done? Sometimes regular periodicals take a very long time: there was a situation when the magazine “Ogonyok” took and sent all the issues for the past year at once! In 2013, we spent 50 million rubles on purchases, including a database and literature for subsidiary funds. Some part of the amount was spent on the purchase of valuable materials, manuscripts, rare books, and so on. IN last years we receive about four hundred thousand documents. A lot of literature is now published in Russia, more than in the Soviet Union: in 2011 alone, 120 thousand books and brochures were published. Of course, such a flow of materials raises the question of storage location: after all, only we and Lenin do not write off literature - we store it forever.
— How are things going at the National Library of Russia? high technology?
— The question is complex. We, of course, try to keep up with the times, but sometimes this turns out to be very expensive: taking the same digitization, converting one page into a digital format costs 25 rubles. Working with a newspaper is even more expensive. But still thanks to the new software we will be able to organize stable access to our funds, or more precisely, to those resources whose license agreement with suppliers allows the transfer of information through the network.
— When will the system start functioning?
— I think by summer. We are currently working on licensing agreements, and soon those materials for which permission will be obtained will become available remotely. But it is worth noting that we have a large database of digitized abstracts. In theory, since they are copyrighted, they can only be used in the library, but our system allows registered readers to receive remote access and to her. We try to do everything possible to make working with our library convenient.
— You noted that library attendance is falling...
— Yes, five years ago the attendance figure was a million, now it’s about six hundred thousand. But on the other hand, traffic to our electronic portal is growing, where most of our funds are presented for public access. As a result, the building of the National Library is visited by 600 thousand people a year, and electronic resource— 6 million. And I will say that this phenomenon is widespread. When I visited the Library of Congress last year, I contemplated the half-empty halls. If we are a pessimist, we can assume that children from 3 to 5 years old can no longer imagine themselves without a computer. But on the other hand, a lot of scientific literature continues to be published exclusively on paper, so those involved in science will still be forced to visit our reading rooms. Also, everyone should understand that very soon there will be no more free content: the movies have already been dealt with, the texts will also be dealt with. A law will appear that will prosecute the owners of sites that distribute text content, and over time they will have to pay. For example, if a French library does not have a book in its catalog, the resource automatically sends you to the publisher’s website, where you can purchase the book in electronic form. Thus, the library will remain the only free information resource.
