Russia's Digital Library: Reading Books for Free from All Around the World
These digital resources are available worldwide, not only throughout Russia, but also in countries around the globe
Some lament that “fewer people are reading,” or that “books have become too expensive.” Others might think, “a modern person can hardly find time to allow himself the pleasure of leafing through a paper volume.”
Meanwhile, only lucky connoisseurs — and according to our surveys fewer than 10% of Russians are among them — know about the existence of electronic resources in Russian libraries that allow you to read any book for free at a convenient time and place, whether on a sofa in the living room or in a car stuck in a traffic jam.
The RG news correspondent spoke with the head of the reading rooms department of the Samara Regional Universal Scientific Library, Marina Yakunina, about the history of the formation of the library’s electronic resources, its capabilities and holdings.
How Gogol and Green stepped into the network
“This ‘new product’ is almost a quarter of a century old. The history of the formation of digital resources at the regional scientific library in Samara, Russia, begins in 1999, when our library was one of the first public spaces in the city to be connected to the Internet,” says Marina Aleksandrovna. “Since then, the system has been constantly improving. And today you can get access to the electronic resources of the library without coming to us. It is enough to become a reader virtually by registering in your Personal Account on our library website. Not only residents of the Samara region, but also any region of Russia, as well as the whole world, can do this if they find our resources interesting."
The content of the virtual reading room is very diverse - from sensational bestsellers to the texts of the latest dissertations, purchased by the library by subscription. When the process was just beginning, regional libraries across the country were the first to digitize publications related specifically to their region.
“We began the formation of our Electronic Library by directly digitizing our Samara pre-revolutionary publications - newspapers, magazines, books; then - publications considered to be in the public domain, i.e., not subject to copyright,” continues Marina Yakunina. “For example, We have digitized all issues of the oldest and still surviving newspaper “Volzhskaya Kommuna” up to 1981. Our immediate plans are to digitize all printed issues of this newspaper and place them in our Electronic Library.
“Unique ancient collections that ended up in state funds after the October Revolution from private noble collections have also been digitized. We are particularly proud of our collection ‘Book Monuments of the Samara Region’ - handwritten books or printed publications that have outstanding spiritual and material value and have special historical, scientific, and cultural significance. All publications are stored in the collections of the Samara Regional Universal Scientific Library. The collection includes publications digitized as part of the implementation of the Federal Project ‘Digital Culture’.”
“The virtual reading room space is an interesting service that we implemented in 2018… We tested it, finalized it… and readers went to our website. And then turning to our virtual resources became a habit for many of our readers,” explains Marina Yakunina.
Different Readers - Different Resources
Contrary to the claims of skeptics that libraries are becoming a thing of the past, unable to withstand the onslaught of the Internet, book depositories live and develop using the latest technologies. “Students, teachers, and scientists are a priori our contingent. Many parents come to find the necessary information at the request of children who are overloaded,” says Marina Aleksandrovna.
In principle, nothing changes in the composition of the readership; only a part of the population has always used the library. And those who are not used to holding paper publications in their hands do not flock to electronic ones. In response to the reasonable statement that “they used to read more,” another arises, such as: “What did they read, since a novel on a train can hardly be placed next to a serious book?” Technology has made it possible for people to read good books in a convenient format, at a convenient time and place.
Savings and Development
Electronic libraries certainly help out, because in addition to the money saved on buying new books (which today ranges from 500 rubles to infinity), purchased books require storage space, which isn’t always available in a typical apartment. And you don’t want to keep every book at home for “re-reading”; more often than not you only need to read it once. Hence the shameful bundles of literature near garbage containers... Libraries in such conditions save the wallet, the environment, and the priceless thoughts of the authors.
“We try, despite all the variety of published literature, to have it in our arsenal to satisfy any reader,” she says. “And if previously the conservative part of our team was “against” the acquisition of electronic resources, because it was necessary to choose between paper and digital… today the controversy has subsided. For example, an e-book on a particular portal which we purchase under an agreement, can be issued to readers up to 25 times — it is loaned out for 14 days. There are breakthrough situations when many readers simultaneously want to read the same book after watching a sensational TV series based on a novel, or after witnessing a heated discussion on social networks. In those cases we purchase additional copies and form a queue of those who are interested.”
New items are here too
Traditional bookstores are going through difficult times, although they retain loyal customers through various promotions, presentations, and creative meetings with writers. Publishers are trying to distribute their products across several channels, including marketplaces, where prices are always slightly lower. And the most far-sighted ones present the latest literature through electronic libraries. Platforms and authors receive their money for this under official contracts, and readers use legal resources for free.
“They always praise the electronic portal team, which is working proactively to develop its content; it is becoming more and more universal,” says Marina Yakunina. “If earlier there were mainly bestsellers and science fiction, now there are textbooks for all levels of education - from school and university to graduate school. Since we are a universal library, we gain access to electronic library systems, where there are not only monographs, but also various textbooks. Our readers can find more than 130 thousand educational publications and work with them from home thanks to virtual access to the ‘University library online.’ We went one step further - we added all the content of the online library ‘University Library Online’ to our electronic catalog. And if our reader is registered and authorized in the Personal Account on our library website, then he immediately follows the link from the electronic catalog to the full text of the required book."
When is the best time to go to a traditional library?
The Samara Regional Library has a well-equipped location — the “Open Reading Space”. It was created for those people who came to read virtual books in a traditional library, that is, to study at the computer. To the question "why?" our expert explains: “Here we provide access to absolutely all resources with which we have concluded agreements. For example, the same National Electronic Library is accessible from all home computers, but not all documents can be opened in full text due to copyright restrictions. Therefore, sometimes people, having found the book they need at home, come to get its full version from a library convenient for them. By the way, today in the library it is allowed to photograph any book or document, which was previously strictly prohibited."
The Samara Library is a virtual reading room of the Presidential Library — an electronic repository of digital copies of the most important documents on the history, theory and practice of Russian statehood, and the Russian language.
“And from home computers you can access the resources that are freely available on the Internet portal of the Presidential Library. Access to all publications of the electronic collection of the Presidential Library, protected by copyright, is carried out only in the library,” explains Marina Yakunina. “To promote your resources and services The Presidential Library annually holds Olympiads for schoolchildren, and the last stage, where it is necessary to use documents from its electronic collections, is held on the basis of regional libraries. We had an interesting case in 2020, when a Samara student of the 11th grade passed the final with excellent marks in our library and received a certificate for admission to the Higher School of Economics."
And only in the Open Reading Space (again via the Internet) can readers get full access to the Dissertation Database of the Russian State Library and work with the legal databases Consultant Plus and Garant.
How to become a reader?
You can go to the library website in the “Personal Account” section, where you can create an account. You should indicate your last name, first name, and patronymic, as well as your year of birth. Your current information is needed, so that libraries can comply with the age limits set for particular books. Children and teenagers can also become readers in the electronic library, but they will not be allowed to check out books marked as “18+”.
Source: rg.ru (Russian)