The future of the Russian National Library and the Russian State Library: together or apart? “Everything is on the Internet.” The director of the National Library denies the need to store different editions of “Eugene Onegin Against the Destruction of the Russian National Library”

The heads of the largest Russian libraries - the Russian State Library (RSL) and the Russian National Library (RNL) - spoke about plans for the upcoming merger. Information about a possible merger appeared in early January, but details became known only during a press conference on Wednesday. At it, the heads of libraries admitted that the merger is being discussed, but it is not yet known how it will take place, and there is no talk of “mass layoffs as a result of optimization.”

In January, the media reported the existence of a letter on behalf of the leadership of the Russian State Library and the National Library of Russia addressed to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, containing a request to merge these libraries. The letter itself was not publicly available. In early February, the acting general director of the Russian State Library, Vladimir Gnezdilov, told TASS that the Russian government had created a working group that would study the possibility of unification and “make recommendations.” At the same time, he stated that there was “no decision on merging libraries at any level.”

Information about the merger caused a great public outcry. Thus, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in mid-February appealed to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Medinsky, with a request “to prevent a hasty decision on the issues of the structural and administrative unification of the RSL and the National Library without discussing and taking into account the opinions of leading experts and the library community.” The appeal was supported by 49 out of 50 deputies of the Legislative Assembly, who expressed concern about the “preservation of the library system.” A petition was posted on the Change.org website on behalf of “employees of scientific, cultural and educational institutions of St. Petersburg, as well as everyone who cares about the fate of the National Library,” who expressed the opinion that it is necessary to “preserve the independence of the Russian National Library as the oldest public library in Russia, having the status of a particularly valuable cultural object.”

On January 30, the president of the St. Petersburg Library Society, Zoya Chalova, said that, according to unofficial data from the library community, about 400 people could lose their jobs when libraries are merged. This was reported by the online newspaper Fontanka.ru. The chief bibliographer of the Russian National Library, Tatyana Shumilova, who has worked at this institution since 1985, also criticized the association on January 30. In early February, she received a dismissal order due to a four-hour absence during a press conference.

"Let's make the letter public"

On Wednesday, Mr. Gnezdilov and the General Director of the Russian National Library, Alexander Visly, gave a press conference, at which, in particular, they stated that public discussion of the merger project “according to plan, begins today.” Mr. Visly also promised that a letter with the initiative of the heads of the Russian State Library and National Library of Russia on the merger will be published on the websites of the institutions. After the event, journalists received releases stating that “the merger of the RSL and the NLR is long overdue and is due to both the rapid development of information technology and the difficult financial and economic situation.” To manage the unification process, it is proposed to form a board of trustees headed by the chairman of the Russian Book Union, Sergei Stepashin.

During the press conference, Mr. Visly said that the result of modernizing the library system should be a situation where a person who comes to the reading rooms “will have the opportunity to access all modern knowledge in electronic form.” From his point of view, such an opportunity should eventually appear among readers of all 40 thousand Russian public libraries: “Vladimir Ivanovich (Gnezdilov) and I “Kommersant”) we believe that we need to start with a number of steps regarding the two national libraries.” Thus, a unified electronic catalog should be created, and “a person who has registered with the Russian State Library with an electronic library card will be able to order a book from the Russian National Library.” He also explained that together the RSL and the NLR will be able to reduce the cost of subscription to foreign electronic resources. “There is an ancient wisdom: do not rush to see the bad, try to see the good first,” Vladimir Gnezdilov told reporters. “It is for this purpose that we came out: to talk about the good that awaits, in principle, the library community, readers, and users , and researchers, and scientists - everyone who uses the information resources of libraries."

President of the Russian Library Association Vladimir Firsov recalled that a new building for the National Library has already been completed on Moskovsky Prospekt (near Pulkovo). “Readers, both in the city center and on Moskovsky Prospekt, will have equal access opportunities, only one will hold a paper copy in their hands, and the other will sit at the monitor and get acquainted with the same book. We in St. Petersburg will be able to provide access to the electronic copy, which is located within the walls of Leninka.” In his opinion, “it is impossible to resolve this issue without developing some form of unification.”

At the same time, when asked when the merger of libraries could be completed, Alexander Visly said that “it will take many years.” He also explained that the form of the association has not yet been determined: “Different administrative and organizational options are possible. Moreover, these options do not always depend on us; we have a founder - the government of the Russian Federation.” According to him, options are possible when “everything remains as it is now - two legal entities, two libraries,” either a single legal entity will be created, or a third structure will arise in addition to the existing ones. “I think that we can also name a fourth and a fifth option. But achieving goals is important; how to do this is a secondary question,” says Mr. Visly.

“The premises need to be maintained, they need to be cleaned eventually”

There are no plans to reduce staff to achieve the set goals, the head of the National Library of Russia assured. “I also read the press, somewhere they wrote about 400 people who are waiting for dismissal,” Mr. Visly recalled. “This year we are putting into operation the second phase of the building on Moskovsky Prospekt, this is 42 thousand square meters. m, now we have 115 thousand sq. m. m - this is a huge number of premises.” He stated that “people must work” in these premises: “The premises need to be maintained, they must, ultimately, be cleaned. We have no options for staff reductions. No way. We can only recruit people this year and next.” Answering a question about the circumstances of the dismissal of RNL bibliographer Tatyana Shumilova, Alexander Visly noted that mostly women work in the library - “mothers and grandmothers” who regularly ask for time off, bringing him statements and warnings. Ms. Shumilova did not personally inform him about the circumstances of her absence from the workplace, violating labor discipline, he said, without ruling out the possibility that she could be reinstated in her position.

Vladimir Gnezdilov also recalled that the RSL is “on the eve of the construction of a new building”: “On the other hand, the processes of optimization, improvement of the organizational structure, organization of technological library cycles require a certain release of workers. I don't see anything wrong with this. This is normal life, a normal procedure when optimization occurs.” However, he noted that “mass layoffs are out of the question.”

" dated March 27, 1992 No. 313, is a particularly valuable object of national heritage and constitutes the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation. The Russian National Library is one of the largest libraries in the world, the second largest in Russia. It has long become a national symbol of culture and enlightenment. Therefore, the threat of turning “Publichka” into a provincial institution caused a great response in the cultural community of St. Petersburg.

Why does the problem deserve public attention?

The media reported that Minister of Culture Medinsky turned to Dmitry Medvedev with a request to support the proposal of the Russian State Library (V. I. Gnezdilov) and the Russian National Library (A. I. Visly) to merge.

Director of the Russian National Library Alexander Visly Photo: tass.ru

3. Put under control the process of completing the construction of storage facilities for the new building of the National Library on Moskovsky Prospect (second stage) and timely repairs of other library buildings.”

open letter to President V. Putin.

I joined their opinion

single pickets. With a poster “To Shumilov - Public! Public - St. Petersburg! historian and publicist Daniil Kotsyubinsky came out. He was followed by the director of the Center for Independent Sociological Research, Viktor Voronkov, and the leading researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Boris Kolonitsky, and then the senior researcher at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Dmitry Kalugin.

Daniil Kotsyubinsky, photo Fontanka.ru

distributed books, illustrating their protest with a poster: “People of St. Petersburg! Take the books! Moscow will take them away too!”

Deputies immediately

Committee

Already following 1

A little earlier, RBA President V. Firsov, making the library community worried because of the long silence, said that “merging libraries as one legal entity, from my point of view, is inappropriate”, after all “By and large, it is the MFN that is an integral element of Russian civilization.” Let's remember that it was this historical and cultural argument that was voiced in the very first speeches of respected professors: A. Mazuritsky, A. Sokolov, V. Leonov, Yu. Stolyarov. Two Muscovites and two Leningrad-St. Petersburg residents, whose total experience in library service is almost equal to the age of the National Library! It was they who were the first to point out the very absurdity of raising the question of unifying national libraries. Everyone who decided to publish their opinion in the media expressed their position unequivocally: “We are against the merger!” 310 employees of the National Library sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation with a request to understand the current situation and protect the National Libraries from incompetent administrative interference.

From the point of view of the law, it is possible to unite the RSL and the RNL through a merger (creating a new legal entity) or annexation. In reality, another metropolitan “takeover” may occur. St. Petersburg will get the “tail” of the new organization. The National Library will cease to exist in its status, and its 200-year history as the national library of our country will end. Many readers and scientists do not want to admit this. The petition “Against the destruction of the Russian National Library” received about 7,000 signatures on the Internet. There have not yet been any specialists ready to publicly support the idea of ​​merging the RNL and the RSL.

In a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the process of “optimization” by joining children's, youth and libraries for the blind to central universal libraries has been actively going on in recent years. Without any involvement of the scientific and library community in the discussion. After all, the law does not require justification for decisions made by founders within their competence. Social standards prepared by the Ministry of Culture for the regions make it possible to reduce the network of municipal libraries in the country by 30–40%. Who needs a library policy like this?

So, can we be sure that making a “closed” decision has become impossible?

Alexander Visly in his interview with Ekho Moskvy radio said directly: “...what is being discussed by the public is also very good. This prepares the ground for some sensible, correct decisions that will be made at the highest level.” What kind of correct decisions can be discussed at the government level? If we talk about combining electronic resources, using common technological solutions and coordinating scientific activities, then these issues are within the competence of the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia and the Ministry of Culture, which performs the functions and powers of the founder, enshrined in the statutes of the Libraries by the Government. “Whether an administrative unification is necessary is not a matter of my competence, it is a matter of the competence of the Government itself, not even the Ministry of Culture. So let it decide,”- says A. Visly. But there is still no answer to a simple question: what proposal did the leaders of the RSL and the NRL initially approach the Chairman of the Government with, what proposal did V. Medinsky ask the Prime Minister to support? Alas, this “reference point” for the entire problematic situation has not been presented to society.

20:58 — REGNUM

© Evgeniy Gnatenko

A proposal to merge the Russian State Library (Moscow) and the Russian National Library (St. Petersburg), with which the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation V.R. On the eve of the New Year, Medinsky addressed the Chairman of the Government D.A. Medvedev, was met with a sharp protest reaction from the library community. Professionals emphasize that the implementation of the project will lead to the virtual destruction of the National Library - the largest national book depository, a library not just of an all-Russian, but of a global scale. Three leading representatives of Russian library science: scientific adviser Libraries of the Academy of Sciences V.P. Leonov, professor A.V. Sokolov and Yu.N. Stolyarov - turned to the President of the Russian Federation V.V. To Putin with an open letter.

To the President of the Russian Federation

V.V. Putin

Subject: Ministry of Culture against libraries

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

In our country, there has been a long-term and consistent destruction of the library system. The network of municipal libraries is annually reduced by 700 - 900 institutions, and there is an outflow of qualified personnel. Library school and library science are in crisis. The library policy of the Russian Ministry of Culture contradicts the “Fundamentals of State Cultural Policy,” which provide for the preservation of libraries as a public institution for distributing books and introducing reading. Particularly alarming is the intention to merge the two largest national libraries - the Russian State Library (RSL, the former State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin in Moscow) and the Russian National Library (RNL, the former State Public Library of the RSFSR named after M. E. Saltykov- Shchedrin in St. Petersburg). As we learned, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation received an appeal from Minister V.R. Medinsky with a request to support the joint proposal of the current general directors of the RSL (V.I. Gnezdilov) and the Russian National Library (A.I. Visly) about the merger. This most important national-cultural action is being prepared privately, in bureaucratic offices, secretly from the employees of the Russian State Library and National Library, not to mention the Russian librarians who are vitally interested in the normal development of the leading organizations of the industry. The interests of the Ministry of Culture can be judged by the arguments set out in the appeal to the Government of the Russian Federation.

It turns out that the leadership of national culture is not concerned about the crisis state of the library industry and the reasonable use of its cultural, educational and scientific information potential, but about saving costs on the maintenance of the Russian State Library and National Library. In the case of merging libraries, the sources of savings are supposedly obvious: there is no need to duplicate collections, it is enough to receive one “legal deposit” instead of two; the problem of space shortage will be solved and the costs of processing literature and maintaining electronic catalogs will be halved; thanks to the reduction of the management staff (at the same time, let us add, production personnel), wage savings of about 250 million rubles per year will be obtained; finally, the status of the united Russian library in the international arena will increase and the costs of international activities (membership fees, etc.) will be reduced. Such argumentation does not resemble an economically and culturally-politically sound elaboration of the proposed reform. Of course, the meager finances allocated to the Ministry of Culture must be spent carefully, and why not, for reasons of economy, not merge the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum?!

As for readers, the initiators of the union of national libraries promise them that it “will allow the unification of services and services for access to full-text electronic publications and will give a new impetus to the development of the federal state information system National Electronic Library (NEL).” It is not clear why “new impetus” cannot be given to the NEB through business cooperation, without administrative unification.

It remains a mystery to us why the Ministry of Culture is interested in creating a “centaur library” with its head in Moscow and its tail in St. Petersburg? Or vice versa. Until now, librarianship has not known such monsters throughout its thousand-year history. To give birth to this miracle, at the beginning of 2016 it was necessary to turn the general director of the RSL A.I. Visly to General Director of the Russian National Library. Since the director sent from Moscow perceives the Russian National Library as a place of business travel, it is not surprising that less than a year had passed before he had the idea to unite both libraries where he happened to be director, and he willingly signed a letter to the Ministry of Culture. Generally speaking, General Director Visly does not have the moral right to speak on behalf of the Russian National Library, in which he ended up due to bureaucratic arbitrariness, and not because of his business ties with the St. Petersburg library. In addition, neither Gnezdilov nor Visly have a library education and do not know the history and traditions of the institutions they head. However, Minister V.R. Medinsky did not pay attention to these ethical nuances.

We find it absurd and regrettable that the fate of Russian libraries is decided by outsiders without the participation of library professionals, that library functionaries and ministerial officials dictate what kind of national libraries we need. One thing is clear. Overcoming the crisis state of libraries as a public institution for distributing books and introducing reading is impossible on the path to building a single and only electronic library. The main thing we lack is subject-subject communication between readers and librarians in the hospitable interiors of rural, school, public, scientific and national libraries. There are many problems here, and the most important of them is defining the humanistic mission of Russian libraries in the information society.

The proposal put forward by the two directors needs to be discussed by the professional library community, and the rest of the country’s population, because its implementation directly affects all actual and potential readers of national libraries and requires changes to the articles of the Law on Librarianship. The issue cannot be resolved by administrative command. To consider the current cultural and political situation, it is advisable to convene All-Russian Library Congress And entrust its organization to the Russian Library Association and the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

We ask you to prevent the upcoming anti-library, anti-cultural action.

Leonov Valery Pavlovich, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, awarded the Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree

Sokolov Arkady Vasilievich, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, Knight of the Order of the Badge of Honor

Stolyarov Yuri Nikolaevich, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of the Higher School of the Russian Federation, awarded the Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree

Against the backdrop of fierce controversy surrounding the planned transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, a new scandal has broken out in St. Petersburg. The intelligentsia of the Northern capital are alarmed by rumors about the possible merger of one of the symbols of the city on the Neva - the Russian National Library - with the Moscow Leninka. According to the employees of the legendary Public Library, the initiative to unite the country’s two largest book depositories comes from library directors Alexander Visly and Vladimir Gnezdilov. The confrontation has already led to the dismissal of the chief bibliographer of the Russian National Library, Tatyana Shumilova. This happened after she criticized the idea of ​​a merger at a Rosbalt press conference and gave an interview to the news agency.

Meanwhile, the general director of the Russian National Library, A. Visly, claims that only a possible merger of funds is being discussed to optimize the work and convenience of readers; there is no talk of staff reduction and loss of legal entity. “The founder of the National Library and the Russian State Library is not even the Ministry of Culture, but the government of the Russian Federation. Few people know about this. Making decisions about whether to merge or not to merge, to merge or not to merge libraries is the competence of the government of the Russian Federation. We just addressed the issue of combining library resources. And how many legal entities there will be is up to the government to decide,” Visly said.

A. Visly does not object to the issue of unifying the RSL and the National Library being discussed at the All-Russian Library Congress. The authors of the letter to the president insist on this, among other things. According to the director of the National Library of Russia, it is necessary to make a decision only after extensive professional and public discussion. That is, not only library workers, but also readers should be involved in the discussion about the merger (rosbalt.ru).

The Ministry of Culture also tried to refute the fears of the library’s defenders. Responding to an appeal from deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, in which parliamentarians asked to stop the process of merging the RNL and the RSL, press secretary of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Irina Kaznacheeva stated that “it is impossible to stop the merger, because it is impossible to stop something that never began.”

“The initiative of some deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg is reminiscent of a fight against windmills, and even more so – against windmills that do not exist in nature,” said I. Kaznacheeva. – I can’t comment on the details, since this is the prerogative of management, but I understand the essence of the issue this way: we are talking about the initiative of the two libraries themselves to gradually combine efforts in order to optimize the work of electronic libraries, the acquisition of book collections and other areas, the result of which would be an improvement in the quality of service for readers , increasing employee salaries and modernizing these institutions.”

“Statements about the reduction of supposedly 400 employees of the National Library of Russia, and even more so about the merger of the St. Petersburg library with the Moscow one, are an absolute lie and are being spread by incompetent people,” the ministry representative emphasized. – Regarding the information about the dismissal of the chief bibliographer of the NLR and her statements, it should be noted that the position of the chief bibliographer is not the highest in the library. Above, for example, is the chief librarian (there are 132 of them in the Russian National Library), and there are 31 bibliographers, and this position is approximately the same rank as the chief specialist in the St. Petersburg Culture Committee. Thus, there is no point in talking about the supposedly collective position of bibliographers. In addition, I consider it unnecessary to comment on the attacks of an employee who, instead of working, runs to editorial offices and press conferences, in other words, a truant.”

However, the comment of the ministry representative did little to reassure anyone. St. Petersburg scientists continue to picket outside the walls of Publicchka. On February 15, 110 representatives of the scientific community of the Northern capital published an open letter addressed to Alexander Visly.

“On behalf of the St. Petersburg scientific community, we express no confidence in you as the director of the Russian National Library,” said the authors of the message. – Despite your public statements that the merger of libraries will affect only electronic resources, we understand that real actions inevitably lead to a merger of the processes of acquisition and bibliography of publications in the Russian State and Russian National Libraries. This will lead to the virtual destruction of centuries-old library systems.”

“The National Library is an integral part of the scientific and cultural world of Russia, its collections are a well-thought-out, organized base for all scientific institutes and educational institutions of St. Petersburg. The professionalism and competence of its employees is the key to the high level of science in our country, the signatories remind. – The collections of the Public Library, known all over the world, have been formed since the 19th century. many generations of scientists who glorified Russia, our teachers, ourselves and our students. What gives you the right, Mr. Visly, to destroy the cultural heritage that was not created by you, saved during the blockade?

According to the authors of the letter, the dismissal of the honored cultural figure, bibliographer Tatyana Shumilova “brings back to our lives the realities of those times when the best specialists in Russia were persecuted and destroyed for their professional opinion.”

On the night of February 16, the Public Committee for the Rescue of the Russian National Library was created in St. Petersburg, which included historians Boris Kolonitsky, Daniil Kotsyubinsky and Adrian Selin, writer Natalia Sokolovskaya, museum worker Zhanna Televitskaya, journalist Galina Artemenko and others. The public committee demands the resignation of A. Visly, as well as “a transparent and professional discussion of the plans for the development of the National Library of Russia.”

“We demand the immediate return of T.E. Shumilova to work and ending administrative pressure on N.L. Eliseev (disciplinary action may also be taken against him) and other employees,” says an open letter addressed to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

According to scientists, the library is facing “the threat of actual ruin” and “massive layoffs of qualified employees” (fontanka.ru).

On February 9, a “picket of professors” was held near the walls of the main building of the Russian National Library on Ostrovsky Square. One of the participants in the demonstration, the director of the Center for Independent Sociological Research, Viktor Voronkov, explained the position of the dissenting intellectuals: “People come out to protest not so much about the library, Isaac, or something else, but about the fact that no one takes them into account. Why is everything centralized? To make it easier to control. The whole country is being built as a vertical, and so in every region” (sanktpeterburg.bezformata.ru).