Russia (bbabo.net), - All of us - I mean, first of all, those who are over forty - grew up with a book in their hands. At first it was a primer, then exciting adventures, and someone reached out to the classics. In the life of previous generations, the library meant a lot - it was a magical, alluring world through which we went to knowledge, comprehended the past, studied the present, looked into tomorrow.

What's going on with the book today? Who comes to the library and why? Will paper editions survive under the pressure of numbers?

In search of an answer to these questions, the correspondent visited the Russian State Library (former Leninka).

Viktor Vasilyevich Fedorov was the general director of B for twelve years, and in recent years he has been its president. He is not inclined to be nostalgic for the past and looks to the future with optimism. The President has good reasons for this: as before, thousands of citizens of different ages, from schoolchildren to academics, turn to the main library of the country every day, and in terms of its funds and access to them, this institution meets high world standards.

True, in my habit of questioning everything, I doubted this, but my interlocutor was firm:

- I can say with absolute certainty that B not only meets the most stringent requirements, but we are pioneers in a number of areas. For example, scientific dissertations are not centrally stored anywhere. They are kept by those universities where the defense took place. Now let's take the position of a person who writes some kind of scientific work and who needs to familiarize himself with the works of his predecessors. Yes, modern information technologies greatly facilitate such a search. But nevertheless, only we have a single bank for storing all dissertations, except for medical ones, which are stored in the medical library.

And then the next task arose: how to provide remote access to these riches without violating domestic intellectual property law? And this is what we came up with at the turn of the century: virtual reading rooms of the Russian State Library, which are now more than two hundred throughout the country and abroad. From a legal point of view, this allows us to provide a reader who comes, say, in Jerusalem to such a reading room, to get acquainted with digital materials, including dissertations.

In the development of the theme, the so-called National Electronic Library appeared.

The number of people who come to the reading rooms is constantly decreasing. But there is a rapid growth of remote users, which is explained by the increase in the content of digital libraries ...

That is, if I understand you correctly, B now has two categories of users: some come to you with legs, while others read your books and documents at home on their computer screens? And what more?

Viktor Fedorov: At home, on a computer, you can only read what has been put into public circulation after the expiration of the terms associated with copyright. And which readers are more? Hard to say. You can register with us today, get a library card, but then never show up here. The general trend for the whole world is this: the number of people who come to reading rooms is constantly decreasing. But there is a rapid growth of remote users, which is explained both by the development of new technologies and the increase in the content of electronic libraries ...

…And the covid situation in the world.

Viktor Fedorov: Well, this is a transient, temporary factor. And libraries live forever.

Judging by your words, there are no grounds for concern about the reduction in the readership. But here I, as a layman, see a different picture: interest in the book in its traditional paper version is falling, there are fewer bookstores. Yes, and the publishers themselves complain about the drop in demand.

Viktor Fedorov: I cannot be responsible for the entire book market. But as far as libraries are concerned, I'll ask you a counter question: why do people turn to Leninka? People come here not only to read, but to work or study. Researchers work, students and graduate students study.

From the point of view of their acquisition, university libraries are experiencing an acute shortage of the necessary literature, this applies even to well-known traditional universities, not to mention those that have appeared recently and which do not have their own book collections at all. Therefore, we have a full house in September, everyone goes to sign up as readers, the need is driving.

If we take together both categories of our users, then there is growth.

How difficult is it to become your reader today? Are there any restrictions - age, education, citizenship?Viktor Fedorov: No restrictions. Any citizen of the planet Earth, having reached the age of fourteen and presenting a passport, has the right to become our reader. No closed funds for ideological reasons. If you register, you automatically get access to everything we have. There is only one exception: if it is a rare book or manuscripts, then the original will not be provided to everyone. Digitized copy, please. And the original, for example, a draft of Bulgakov's manuscripts, is only for a serious researcher if he has official letters or recommendations. This is a common global practice.

And yet, if you compare B with other well-known book repositories in the world, how will it look in such a row? Where in the ranking of the best?

Viktor Fedorov: I must say right away that it is extremely difficult to determine the largest library in the world, because everyone has a different method of counting the number of documents. But, in any case, along with the US Library of Congress and the British Library, we are recognized as one of the largest.

Our funds are more than forty-seven million units of document storage. What is meant by the term "document"? This is a book, a brochure, separately - each copy of the magazine, the annual filing of the newspaper, archival materials.

The total area of ​​all our premises is more than 130 thousand square meters. This is a whole block of buildings between Vozdvizhenka and Znamenka, a row of houses on Mokhovaya, a room on Pyatnitskaya, a repository in Khimki - there are departments of dissertations and newspapers. Many? But in fact, we are sorely lacking space to place funds. Once upon a time, a project was agreed with the authorities for the construction of a large building in the neighborhood - in Starovagankovsky Lane, design work was started, but, unfortunately, then everything got bogged down.

In addition, we are forced to rent part of the space near the Book Chamber, where literature that is not in demand is stored. This is in the Mozhaisk region.

State B is about 1,500 people. By the way, when I came here at the turn of the millennium, there were almost twice as many employees here. New information technologies and the funding gap typical for all budgetary organizations demanded to shrink.

By the way, about new technologies… Do you mean the digitization of your funds?

Viktor Fedorov: In short, the main advantage of these technologies is that they allow us to save everything that quickly disappears. Well, for example, newspapers. Take the publications of the Civil War era, when no one thought about the quality of paper. Newspapers of that time are now just physically crumbling. If you try to keep them in their original paper form, it will require a lot of money. The number wins.

A researcher who will turn to us in a hundred or two hundred years should have a complete picture of what was published, what was read, what was argued about

Can we say that today all the main book depositories of the world follow parallel paths?

Viktor Fedorov: All libraries in the world are developing in approximately the same way and interact on generally accepted principles. For example, there was such a form of cooperation as international book exchange. What did it consist of. A reader comes to "Leninka" and says: "I'm interested in the history of Texas and I know that there is a book by a certain Billy Jones on this topic in English." We are looking. Alas, we do not have such a book, but it's okay, we write a letter, conditionally, to the Library of Congress, where it is, and ask them to send the book to Moscow. Naturally, such a book exchange was associated with certain costs, but all this existed on a barter basis.

Now, with the introduction of new information technologies, it makes no sense to spend money on sending the book itself in paper form, it is easier to transfer it digitally. Moreover, postage rates have increased many times over.

Another topical question. Here I come to a large bookstore, and there my eyes run wide from the abundance of all kinds of goods. However, upon closer examination, you understand that there are a lot of books, but sometimes there is nothing to buy, because there is a huge amount of all sorts of hack work, yellowness, boulevardism. Are such "books" also stored in your funds, or is there some kind of selection, some kind of filters?

Viktor Fedorov: The specifics of any National Library is that it does not have the right to make selective acquisitions, we are obliged to store everything that is published. Now I will explain why? After all, a researcher who will turn to us, say, in a hundred or two hundred years, must have a complete idea of ​​what and how was published, what was read, what was argued about. Otherwise, there will be a distortion of historical reality.

As for that book "spam" that you are talking about, we will get over this disease. Previously, there was a naive belief that the market would judge everything and put it in the right places. Now it is clear: not the market itself, but time, the maturity of society.

Well then, the last question - I can't help but ask you, the publisher, the experienced library professional: is there a future for the paper book?Viktor Fedorov: The audience of traditional books will shrink. No matter how we feel about it, but such is the "law of the genre." But paper will remain and become the lot of the intellectual elite. Now this word "elite" is corrupted, interpreted one-sidedly and often in a negative sense. I mean those highly educated, intelligent, thinking people who move our lives forward.

As for libraries, the prospects for their survival and development depend solely on state support. There are about 45 thousand school libraries in the country - this is the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education and Science has university and academic libraries. There are libraries at the Ministry of Defense and in other departments. Today, we clearly lack an interdepartmental coordinating body headed by at least a vice-premier. This will solve both the issues of competent acquisition and financing problems.

By helping libraries, we support a domestic book publisher. We solve the problems of the printing industry. We educate young people to read. And - most importantly - we form a thinking, conscious person, without whom civil society and the future of the country are unthinkable.

By the way

In 2022, the Russian State Library will celebrate its anniversary. 160 years ago, the Museum of the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Count N. P. Rumyantsev, moved from St. Petersburg to the Pashkov House, from whose library Leninka grew.

In 2022, another significant event will also take place for the main library of the country: the functions of the Russian Book Chamber will be transferred to it.

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