National Library of Russia

    The National Library of Russia keeps and maintains a collection of many materials pertaining to the culture and heritage of the nation. The library’s Literary Landmarks of the NLR digital collection contains six sub-collections: European Books, Printed Music, Publications on National Literature, Prints, and Russian Books. 17^th and 18^th century books and book fragments make up the rare books collection while the Rossica collection contains foreign works published in West European languages pertaining to Russia and European language translations of Russian writers. The maps collection contains foreign and Russian maps and atlases of the cities and provinces of Russia, Siberia, the Far East, Alaska, and various cartographic materials. Some of the collection dates as far back as the 16^th century. The Russian Advance-guard collection showcases illustrated books containing the experimental works of Russian Advance-guard poets and artists from the first third of the 20^th century. To build their collections, the NLR worked in cooperation with Russian and foreign libraries around the world. For the “Meeting of Frontiers” project, the NLR worked with the United States’ Library of Congress to gather materials to explore the connection between the Russian expansion eastward and the American expansion westward, and the meeting of the two frontiers in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. 

    One major area the National Library of Russia experiences problems is with the accessibility of their preserved materials. When describing the issues surrounding the preservation of cartographic materials, one of the issues presented is that readers do not like working with microfilm. Furthermore, rendering atlases onto microfilm results in a loss of quality and legibility. Often, this is handled with facsimile editions, but this is not always possible. Digital accessibility of Russian cartography is paramount and plans for the conversion of old catalogues include scanning the card catalogue so images of the cards will also be available for viewing. Digitizing cartographic collections requires significant funds, though the Russian government does financially support portions of the National Program of Preservation of the Library Collections of the Russian Federation.

    Though it was restricted access to endangered collections that refurbished preservation as a core function of the library, much of the collections are in “very critical condition.” To help restore material important to Russia, the NLR pioneered a technique to repair complex damages caused by green paint. Unfortunately, the techniques used are laborious and time-consuming thus contributing to the accessibility problems. Along with innovative restoration techniques, the NLR began addressing accessibility problem by restoring historic buildings to house various collections to increase space for materials. Russia plans to “recreate the historical design of the Rare books department and restore the historical appearance of the Russian books department.” The restoration will upgrade storage facilities for endangered collections, but more buildings mean more space for more materials. The NLR takes great pains to preserve the nation’s culture and heritage by balancing the accessibility of rare book collections with its preservation.

-contributor: Melissa Moore

References

Kildushevskaya, L. (2003 March 18). Problems of preservation and accessibility of cartographic publications in the National Libraries of Russia. LIBER Quarterly, 13. Retrieved March 7, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27710863_Problems_of_preservation_and_accessibility_of_cartographic_publications_in_the_National_Libraries_of_Russia

Kislovskaya, G. (2013). Preservation in Russian libraries: current situation, tendencies, aspirations for the future. In J. Whiffin & J. Havermans (Ed.), Library Preservation and Conservation in the '90s (pp. 156-162). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110954128.156

The National Library of Russia. (2021). Digital library. http://nlr.ru/eng/RA2403/digital-library

The National Library of Russia. (2021). Photographs of the National Library of Russia. http://nlr.ru/eng/RA3158/nlr-photos

Verschinin, A. (2018). The National Library of Russia. Alexandria, 28(3), 197–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/0955749019878366

Zaitsev, V. (2001). National Library of Russia: annual report 2001. https://www.cenl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/russia01-02.pdf