ANNIVERSARY OF MIKHAIL DMITRIEVICH AFANASYEV
On August 17, the library community warmly congratulated Mikhail Dmitrievich Afanasyev on his 60th birthday.
Mikhail Dmitrievich, having graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Culture in 1969, began his career in the main library of the country at that time, “Leninka”, in a young structural unit of the department of library science and bibliography, sector of the sociology of librarianship. Having fulfilled his military duty and served in the Army, he returned here, where he thoroughly mastered the methodology of sociological research. He is a participant in a number of concrete sociological works in the sector, but the leading role belongs to him in studying the reading habits of workers in the 70s.
Mikhail Dmitrievich proved himself to be an independent specialist, a talented scientist, and a good organizer. This allowed the staff of the State Public Historical Library of the Russian Federation to choose him as their director. And from 1989 to this day, he remains the head of Istorichka, gaining more and more professionalism and authority over the years.
Name M.D. Afanasyev is well known in wide library circles, since it is difficult to name a major all-Russian event at which his position on fundamental issues would not be heard. He is one of the developers of the 1994 Federal Law “On Librarianship” and is now part of the group that is preparing the new text of the Law. M.D. Afanasyev member of the Public Committee for Assistance to the Development of Russian Libraries, headed by B.V. Gryzlov, Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Since 1990 he has been a member of the standing committee of the IFLA Library History Round Table.
His opinion, a candidate of pedagogical sciences since 1979, a full member of the International Academy of Informatization at the United Nations, an expert in the history of librarianship, the sociology of reading, the genealogy of book collections, is always reasoned and balanced, and is taken into account when resolving many pressing issues that confront librarianship in the modern world. stage.
Mikhail Dmitrievich is well known by specialists in historical science in Russia and other countries due to the breadth of his views and erudition; they consult with him and resort to his help.
The first scientific work was written by M.D. Afanasyev while still a student, since then no less than fifty of his publications of a theoretical and scientific-practical nature have appeared, devoted to the role of the library in society, the relationship between the reader and the library, the history of the development of libraries, etc.
Over the past almost 20 years, the State Public Historical Library of Russia has undergone major transformations, the level of its technological and technical equipment has increased, and buildings are being reconstructed.
The system of serving readers and popularizing historical knowledge is being improved. The fact that “Istorichka” enjoys a stable good reputation among federal libraries is due in no small part to Mikhail Dmitrievich Afanasyev and his team.
We are confident that the hero of the day will have even greater achievements related to his historical library, which has become his native one, and to the development of librarianship in general, which has become his life’s field.
This section presents the electronic version of the “Book of Memory of the Vologda Region”. Last updated date: May 2019. In each municipal district and urban district, a lot of work has been done to verify the accuracy and supplement the data about our fellow countrymen who died during the Great Patriotic War.
The basis for the Electronic Book of Memory database was the electronic version of the printed edition of the Book of Memory of the Vologda Region, published in 32 volumes in Vologda from 1989 to 1995. Creators of the printed Book:
· Government of the Vologda region
Northern branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences
· Vologda Institute for Advanced Training and Retraining of Pedagogical Personnel
· Vologda Regional Committee for Peace and Reconciliation and the regional branch of the Russian Peace Foundation
· Vologda regional military commissariat
Vologda Regional Council of War and Labor Veterans
· Regional district administrations
Public editorial board of the publication: V.V. Sudakov (chief scientific editor), G.A. Akinkhov, N.I. Balandin (deputy editor), T.V. Zamaraeva, P.A. Kolesnikov (scientific consultant), O.A. Naumova, V.G. Nechepa, E.A. Poromonov, A.N. Presnukhin, A.A. Romanov, G.V. Sudakov, V.P. Sumarokov, G.V. Shirikov.
The updated version of the e-book includes the names of Vologda residents who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War, who became known after the publication of the printed Book of Memory. The electronic database has been supplemented with fields that were missing previously: the warrior’s place of birth, RVK and date of enlistment, military unit, position, links to the source of information and an addition field.
Please send all comments and suggestions to:
160035, Vologda, Torgovaya Ploshchad, 3, VOMOOO “Vologda Search Squad”, tel. 72-01-31, [email protected]
The curator of the project “Electronic Book of Memory of the Vologda Region” at the Vologda Search Squad VOMOO is Yulia Vladimirovna Shchekotova, tel. 89114415803, e-mail: [email protected].
Fields “Full name”: Last name, first name and patronymic can be enclosed in brackets if it was not possible to determine the correct spelling.
Field “Year of Birth”: the same
Field “Place of birth”: the book contains data about people who are not natives of the Vologda region, but were called up by the Vologda military commissariats, or who are not natives of the Vologda region, but had relatives living in the territory of our region.
Field “RVK and date of conscription”: information about which military commissariat and when the soldier was mobilized
Field “Military unit”: in which unit: regiment, brigade, division, army, etc. was serving at the time of his death. Conventional abbreviations for military units are given in the Appendix.
Field “Position”: position held in the military unit.
Field “Cause of death”: died, killed, missing, other reason.
Field “Date of death”: date of death or missing person, if this data is known.
Field “Place of death”: place of death according to the administrative-territorial division during the Great Patriotic War.
Field “Address of relatives”: the residence address of relatives at the time of death and according to the administrative-territorial division during the Great Patriotic War.
Field “Source”: link to the source of information: TsAMO - Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, TSVMA - Central Naval Archive.
Field “Fund”: number or name of the military unit’s fund in the Archives.
Field "Inventory": inventory number of the division's fund.
Field “Case”: case number in the inventory of the division’s fund.
Field “Sheet”: numbers of sheets in the file are indicated. The number marked “about” indicates the reverse side of the sheet in the file
Field “Addition”: all additional information that helps determine the fate of the soldier, as well as contradictions that arose during the collection of information about the person.
Explanation of abbreviations
MILITARY UNITS:
2 beats A – 2nd Shock Army, 2 U Army, 2 UA
a – army
Guards A - Guards Army
26 A – 26 Army
air division - air division
air regiment - air regiment
adp - breakthrough artillery division
AZSP - army reserve rifle regiment
AGSD - army mountain rifle division
ap – artillery regiment
ap RGK - artillery regiment of the Reserve of the High Command, artillery regiment RGK
ap PTO – artillery regiment PTO, anti-tank regiment (1941-half of 1942)
apabr - army cannon artillery brigade
bad - bomber air division, bombs. HELL
bad DD – also long-range
bap - bomber regiment
bap DD – also long-range
VA - air army
Guards Airborne Division - Guards airborne division
Guards vdp - guards airborne regiment, guards. vdsp, vdp
Guards vdap – gv. airborne artillery regiment, vdap
Guards MD - Guards Mortar Division
Guards sk. - Guards Rifle Corps
gap - howitzer artillery regiment
gabr - howitzer artillery brigade
GSBR - mountain rifle brigade
dvl – divisional veterinary hospital
zap – anti-aircraft artillery division
Zenad - anti-aircraft artillery division
zenap - anti-aircraft artillery regiment
zsbr - reserve rifle brigade
zsp - reserve rifle regiment
IAD - fighter air division
IAP - fighter aviation regiment
IBR - fighter brigade
iptap - anti-tank artillery regiment
iptabr - anti-tank brigade
iminbr - engineering mine brigade
IBRSN - special purpose engineering brigade
Isbr - engineer-sapper brigade
cap - corps artillery regiment
kp - cavalry regiment
lap - light artillery regiment
labr - light artillery brigade
MD - motorized division
MP - motorized regiment
mcp - motorcycle. regiment
MK - mechanized corps (1941)
mechk - mechanized corps (from 1942 onwards)
mib - motorized engineering battalion
MIND - mortar division
minp - mortar regiment
mibr - mortar brigade
MSB - motorized rifle battalion
ompob - separate motorized anti-tank flamethrower battalion
MSBR - motorized rifle brigade
MSD - motorized rifle division
MSP - motorized rifle regiment
MSPB - motorized rifle and machine gun battalion
mshisbr - motorized assault engineer. – sapper brigade
OAESB - separate aerosled battalion
obrmp - separate marine brigade
obmp - dept. Marine Battalion
obro - separate battalion of backpack flamethrowers
obs - separate communications battalion
ozad - separate anti-aircraft artillery division
oiptd - dept. anti-tank fighter division (and variants)
oib - dep. Eng. battalion
okursbr - dept. cadet rifle brigade
okshr - dept. cable-pole company
olb - separate ski battalion
olbr - separate ski team
olbs - separate linear communications battalion
omorsbr - separate naval rifle brigade
OMPMB - separate motorized pontoon-bridge battalion
omsb - separate medical battalion
opab - separate machine gun and artillery battalion
opulb - separate machine gun battalion
orb - separate reconnaissance battalion
orvb - separate repair and restoration battalion
ORR - separate reconnaissance company
orro - dep. Backpack flamethrower company
ors - separate communications company
orkhz - separate chemical defense company
siege is a separate self-propelled artillery piece. division
OSBR - separate rifle brigade
dept. uch. TP - separate training tank regiment
otr – separate telegraph company
otsr – separate telegraph construction company
OTER – separate telegraph operational company
educational institution - dept. training rifle battalion
pad - cannon and artillery division
dad - cannon artillery regiment
pabr - cannon artillery brigade
mpmb - motorized pontoon-bridge battalion
pabr - cannon artillery brigade
ponmbre – pontoon-bridge brigade
garden - mixed air division
SAP - self-propelled artillery regiment
funny air regiment - mixed air regiment
sapb - sapper battalion
sd - rifle division
sk - rifle corps
sp - rifle regiment
TA - tank army (Guards TA - for Guards TA)
tk - tank corps
shad - attack air division
shap - assault air regiment
shisbr - assault engineer brigade
HOSPITALS:
EG – evacuation hospital
PPG – mobile field hospital
TPPG - therapeutic field mobile hospital
KhPG – surgical field mobile hospital
IG – infectious diseases hospital
KPG - corps mobile hospital
GLR – hospital for the lightly wounded
AGLR - Army Hospital for the Lightly Wounded
VG – military hospital
VMG - naval hospital
EP – evacuation point
UGPEP with EP – control of the head evacuation receiver with evacuation point
FEP – front evacuation receiver
REP – distribution evacuation receiver
SEG – triage evacuation hospital
KarF – Karelian Front
LenF - Leningradsky
VolkhF - Volkhovsky
NWF – North-West
KalF - Kalininsky
ZapF - Western
BryanF - Bryansk
WorF - Voronezh
StalF - Stalingradsky
SWF – South-West
UVF – South-Eastern
YuF - Yuzhny
SCF – North Caucasus
ZakF - Transcaucasian
KrymF - Crimean
3rd PribF - 3rd Baltic
2 PribF – 2nd Baltic
1 PribF – 1st Baltic
3 BelF – 3rd Belorussian
2 BelF – 2nd Belorussian
1 BelF – 1st Belorussian
1 UkrF – 1st Ukrainian
2 UkrF - 2nd Ukrainian
3 UkrF - 3rd Ukrainian
4 UkrF - 4th Ukrainian
1 Far Eastern Fleet – 1st Far Eastern
2 Far Eastern Fleet – 2nd Far Eastern
ArchVO - Arkhangelsk Military District.
Leningrad Military District - Leningradsky
MVO - Moscow
ORVO - Orlovsky
HVO - Kharkovsky
SKVO - North Caucasus
PribOVO – Baltic Special
ZAPOVO – Western Special
KOVO – Kyiv Special
ODVO - Odessa
ZakVO - Transcaucasian
SAVO – Central Asian
Siberian Military District - Siberian
UrVO - Ural
ZabVO - Transbaikal
DalVO - Far Eastern
StalVO - Stalingradsky
YuzhUrVo – Yuzhno-Uralsky
PriVO - Privolzhsky
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When quoting, refer to the printed version: Afanasyev M.D. In 2017, we will arrange a magnificent housewarming party in a renovated building // Historical examination. 2016. No. 2. P. 230-234.
Mikhail Dmitrievich Afanasyev - candidate of pedagogical sciences, director of the State Public Historical Library. Interviewed by S.E. Ehrlich .
- Tell us about your scientific career.
I graduated from the library department of the Institute of Culture. When I was choosing which university to go to, I had doubts: to enter the history department or go to the library department. I chose the library one, although my soul still remained the soul of a historian. The library faculty provided knowledge in the field of information retrieval. This is a good basis for a researcher in any field. After graduating from the institute, I was invited to the library named after. Lenin in the Sector of the Sociology of Books and Reading, who studied the readership in cities, villages, among workers, etc. For 20 years I was a professional sociologist and defended my dissertation on a topic related to the sociology of reading. It was not only an extremely interesting experience, but also a basis for further research. A sociologist is distinguished by the fact that he develops a certain view of a fact. A sociologist cannot limit himself to stating something. He must definitely understand what place this fact occupies in the social processes of the past and present. I often see that this “sociological” view is lacking in many historians. A person has collected a huge amount of facts and does not know what to do with it. He gives the impression of a man stuffed with information. He does not see those stories in his piggy bank that allow him to build an original model and see interesting patterns.
When I became the director of the GPIB more than 20 years ago, I limited myself to historical research, although only to the extent that an administrator manages to engage in scientific work. As a scientist, I try to combine sociological and historical knowledge and act as a library historian, cultural historian, while trying to apply sociological methods. Therefore, all my publications are a little sociological, regardless of whether I write about libraries of the 18th century or the 20th. This one is about my professional research career. 90% of the time and effort is, of course, the actual administration and management of the process. Here I am trying to ensure that the library not only has the image of a reader-friendly library, but also maintains its function as a research center in the areas available to it.
- Tell us about the history of the library.
We consider our history in two ways. We have two founding dates. 1938, when we were created by the Soviet government to solve completely Soviet problems. Then, by decision of the Politburo, the existing Historical Library was separated from the State Historical Museum. It became the State Public Historical Library of the RSFSR. And our current branch arose earlier, 95 years ago, when the Marx and Engels Institute was created and a library began to be formed in it. But no library can be created completely from scratch. It certainly has its predecessor. For the GPIB, this predecessor was the State Historical Museum and its library, and for the State Historical Historical Library, the predecessor was the library of Alexander Dmitrievich Chertkov. His portrait hangs behind me. At the beginning of the 19th century, Chertkov set himself the task of collecting everything that had been written on the history of Russia and the Slavs. The Chertkovo collection of Western European books on the history of Russia and the Slavs and rare books in general, as part of the library of the Historical Museum, was replenished with extensive book collections on topics ranging from antiquity to philological problems (then there was no strict division into historians and philologists). In addition, the library was formed from the book collections of Moscow professors, who donated, sold, and bequeathed their home collections to the museum library. When in 1938 the created Historical Library was given the task of promoting the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks,” propaganda literature lay in a thin layer on the rich scientific fund. And then it remained a place for serious research, for that part of the scientific intelligentsia who went into what is called internal emigration, studying the Middle Ages and other topics far from everyday life. It was still necessary to quote the classics of Marxism-Leninism and the party leaders of the time, but it was still possible to work in an area that was not as tightly controlled as in the studies of the Soviet period. Thus, Academician Krachkovsky was the initiator of the creation of our office of the East, and Oriental studies found its refuge here.
At the same time, there was a Library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. This is the heiress of the Institute of Marx and Engels, then the Institute of Marx, Engels, Lenin, which was formed in exactly the same way in two ways. On the one hand, the library’s task is quite definite - the study of the history and theory of Marxism. But the people who stood at the origins of that library understood that in general Marxism was nourished by “all the wealth that humanity has produced” (a well-known quote from Lenin, but now it needs to be pointed out). The founders of the library saw their task as studying the history of all social movements, the history of the relationship between government and people in all countries. If Savonarola opposed the church of that time and created some kind of social conflict, then materials on Savonarola should be here. And the Fronde is a conflict within the state. Accordingly, Mazarinade - leaflets criticizing Mazarin - should be in this collection. Thus, they collected an absolutely wonderful library, far beyond the narrow party goals that were initially set when creating the library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism.
Until 2014, the two libraries existed in parallel. Our State Public Historical Library of Russia and the Library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, which after 1992 became the State Social and Political Library. In 2014, our libraries merged. Now it's one meeting. This created not only difficulties for us, but also a qualitatively new situation in using existing resources and developing areas of activity. The study of Marxist history and Marxism as a historical phenomenon today is becoming quite an interesting and relevant direction. In this sense, the unification within the framework of the GPIB is logical. The first thing we had to do (now we have basically solved this problem) is to create a single space for readers of the main library, which is located here on Starosadsky Lane, and the branch, which is located on Wilhelm Pieck Street and which represents the collections and information resources of the former Libraries of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. It was necessary to make sure that a person, if he has a question about whether this information is in the library, could enter our catalog, common for two spaces, with one entrance, find out about it and choose the most convenient strategy for himself. So that he wouldn't be sent from one building to another. We will bring this book, if you need it, to the place where you are used to working. A unified information space is a rather complex thing, much remains to be done, but the problem is being solved. And today there is already a single entrance to our numerous catalogs and a single electronic library. We are also trying to combine those collections that developed in parallel. For example, two collections that turned out to be complementary: the first is ephemeris, a collection of leaflets, temporary documents, which become an extremely important source on the history of social movements. When I came here as director in 1989, we immediately created a group that then, during the era of perestroika, began collecting various leaflets: materials from popular fronts, new political parties, election programs, etc. Understanding the significance of this material, we continue to do this. The Library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism also has an amazing collection of this kind of leaflets from earlier times: the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary events of 1905-1907, Duma materials, revolutions of 1917, elections to the Constituent Assembly, propaganda material of the 30s, 40s, 50s 's, etc. Thanks to these documents, the history of our society appears in the “sounds of time.” If we also remember that we have collections of Western European leaflets, ranging from the already mentioned Mazarinade to the Paris Commune, then this is a source around which we can work and with which to work.
Secondly, we had two parallel, very interesting collections of emigrant literature in the branch - starting with Herzen and beyond. Until recently, the Historical Library had a Department of Russian Abroad, to which we brought emigrant books from California, Argentina, and Western Europe. And before that there was a wonderful gift from one Russian emigrant, Colonel of the White Army Ya.M. Lisovoy, who lived in Chicago. In 1945, in a wave of patriotism, he donated his collection on the history of the white movement and emigration. We are connecting it all now. It turns out to be an absolutely wonderful resource on the history of Russian emigration.
All this together gives us the opportunity to think about purposefully attracting readers for specific collections. As one of these audiences, we, for example, see foreign Slavists, people studying the Soviet period. We are ready to organize internships and act as assistants in the selection of literature for research. Previously, Western foundations provided assistance to Western researchers to work in Russia. Today the number and circle of these assistants has sharply decreased. Therefore, we can act as a “Russian agent” here.
The renovation of our building on Starosadsky Lane is now being completed. The library continues to operate, but the number of halls and places has been reduced. After the renovation, we want to develop areas here that would meet today's learning needs. For example, we are creating a biography office. This will be a center where one could go with questions when searching for information about small people. This is one of the areas of bibliographic work itself. But this is not even genealogy, but a search in all available sources: in genealogical research, in memory books, in martyrologies. It is important that our specialists accumulate this information. Already now we actually carry out this work through our help desk. But by creating such an office, we will announce to the whole world that this is the place to come for this. It seems to me that this will be a great help to researchers. Now that the history of everyday life is being actively studied, when a person’s biography turns out to be an important element of the historical narrative, this will be interesting.
If we talk about the branch, then the study of the Soviet period should become its profile. God Himself ordered the former Library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism to tell about how people lived in Soviet times. There is everything for this: information resources, a database, and book collections.
- Is the entire collection already represented in the electronic catalog of your library?
In relation to the funds of the old State Public Institution, almost all of them are reflected in electronic form. As for the branch, what was in the Library of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, there is literature from about the last 20 years presented in the electronic catalog. There are still problems with the old literature. The electronic catalog will be replenished with old Western European literature; leaf material is also not yet fully reflected. We are actively working on this.
- You said that you scan books. How much of the fund has already been scanned?
We do not set a task to scan a significant part of our fund at all. Mass scanning, from my point of view, is not the job of libraries. This is a matter for both commercial structures like Google and the state. In Russia there is a project of the National Electronic Library. In France - Gallica. These projects require a lot of money. We are not competitors here. Our task is different. We must select those things in our fund that we want to pay attention to. So people come to us who are interested in the same biographies. Why waste time coming here? We take genealogical literature and all the main sources in the field of genealogy, digitize them and display them. A related thing is that military history relies on such reference books as lists of officers by seniority. There are also reference books that are needed for local historians. Address calendars are needed. There are a huge number of address calendars. We digitized, first of all, those that are only in our library. If this calendar address is in dozens of other libraries, it will wait. Therefore, we will never have even 5% of our six million fund digitized. We make the most important books available online for our readers. We strive to ensure that the digitized literature is thematically focused on certain topics, so that it doesn’t end up being a little bit of everything, but to no avail. In addition, we cooperate with other organizations in the matter of scanning. For example, we have a cooperation agreement with the Presidential Library. B.N. Yeltsin, which is formed only from digital copies. Since the history of statehood is their profile, they contact us, and together we digitize the books. The count is already in the thousands. These digital copies are available in both libraries. Thus, there is a fairly large replenishment of the electronic resources of the Historical Library. But I would say that joint activities in the field of forming electronic library collections should be coordinated nationwide. The National Electronic Library project eliminates the problem of duplication.
I am close to the model that was implemented in France. I really love working with Gallica, the online library of the National Library of France. From the library catalog you find out that yes, there is an electronic copy of this book, but, unfortunately, in this case it is protected by copyright law. At the same time, there is often no complete ban - legislators seem to influence your conscience: read and even copy if you do it for yourself, for scientific or educational purposes, but if you want to later use the copy for publication or for commercial purposes, then here , please, email address, contact there and negotiate rights. It's such an open system. This is amazing.
It is very important for our country to create such a system. Now it is difficult to come to Moscow or St. Petersburg to work in libraries.
The National Electronic Library is currently being created. Her idea is to open access, including modern literature. Books published 100 years ago or more (that is, no longer covered by the Copyright Act) are those that we and other major libraries have digitized in previous years. I believe that, like for the Gallica project, it was necessary to rely on cultural heritage when choosing copying priorities. But this is already a matter of cultural policy.
You have already said that you have unique collections, which are actually archival materials, since they exist in a single copy. What other interesting collections are there that attract historians?
Our predecessors received book collections from scholars and collectors who dealt with certain topics. Therefore, we often have better quality of material selection, its completeness and, most importantly, the availability of rare publications than in national libraries. The National Library receives a legal deposit. Everything that came out in the 19th and early 20th centuries is there. But let’s take, in particular, materials on the history of the zemstvo. But in Vladimir there lived a collector who also collected materials on the history of the zemstvo, primarily Vladimir and neighboring provinces: some reports, protocols that were printed, but did not reach legal deposit, and if they did, there was not always the strength to process them there there was enough, and they were put in boxes, because this was not the most important literature. I know of a case where a decade later in 1910, when the boxes of brochures were opened (according to preliminary estimates there were about 150 thousand of them), almost half of the brochures and books turned into “garbage”, or they were considered unnecessary. This is a documented case from the history of the Rumyantsev Museum Library - now the Russian State Library. In this situation, the personal collection that ended up in our library brought materials that were not available anywhere else. In addition, collectors kept not only individual publications, but also reprints of articles. We process prints like books. Therefore, what is usually lost somewhere, you will find this article nowhere, here in the catalog you have information about this article. It happened that they published a book of 20 copies for loved ones “Not for sale.” We have a collection of L.M. Savelov, where the books have notes in the margins of this famous genealogist: here is an error, here is the date of death. There are also handwritten collections, for example, about illegitimate descendants of famous families. Many researchers told me with surprise that they worked with two national libraries and believed that they had identified everything on their topic. But when they came to Istorichka, they understood that they had to start all over again on a topic on which, it seemed, all the literature was collected. I like to tell the story about the collection of censor A.I. Ostroglazova. Andrei Ivanovich was a bibliophile. Of all the books that were banned by censorship and destroyed, he kept one copy for himself and wrote on it: “There are three copies - one in the Imperial Public Library, one in the censorship, one in mine.” Sometimes he wrote: “All copies were destroyed. Only I have it." When we started checking books from our catalog before digitizing, we found 2-3 copies from completely destroyed editions of books. Apparently, when there was a rumor about the destruction of the book, collectors secretly obtained copies from the printing house. Then the collections of these bibliophiles were combined into our fund.
- Tell me, what is stopping you from working?
The main problem is the lack of space. We, like a small public library, cannot buy one book and write off another in order to find a place to put the new book. Our funds are growing all the time. The branch was already full when we received it. The main building is also full. This is a colossal problem and there is no easy way out of it. You can digitize, say, the St. Petersburg Gazette of the 18th century, but is it really possible to “get rid of” them? Today they usually complain about wages, but now everything is more or less normal in the library. There is a personnel problem - there are not enough historians who could combine practical work with readers and funds, with research work.
How has library use changed over time? Is there any data on which historical subjects are more in demand?
Before 2000, library visits grew very quickly. There were just queues on the street. Then it began to decrease quite quickly due to the development of the Internet. Today the situation has stabilized. A permanent group of readers has formed. Some are serious students, some are professional researchers, some are amateur historians. Despite the fact that we have a limited number of places due to renovations, today 300-400 people a day come to the library. As for preferences, I would not be able to single out any specific topics right now; quite the opposite - there has been a segmentation of interests. Mass demand went online, and students came here to buy individual items. Thematic fragmentation also occurred in the research audience in comparison with the Soviet period. It can be noted that scientists are becoming less and less confined to studying one country. More and more comparative studies. Even when studying a “national” topic, international material is increasingly being used. Therefore, we will no longer have such a strict division - a hall for historians of Russia and a hall for historians from abroad. A person can choose for himself: here is a fund on foreign history, here on the history of Russia. And he will decide for himself where he will study today.
- What are the volumes of new arrivals of foreign literature?
We purchase foreign literature at the rate of two to three thousand titles a year. We get something through book exchange with foreign universities. We subscribe to magazines. Today there is a very large electronic subscription. The selection of literature is very strict with a focus on our reader. We have agreements with academic institutions. They ask us to write something out. Recently, the Institute of Oriental Studies signed up for a large database on the history of the Kurdish movement.
- How do you see the future of libraries and your library in particular?
Small libraries today are being rebuilt. Now they are more focused on creating platforms for communication. Fewer and fewer are a source of information. For large scientific libraries this is not so relevant, although for us the problem of creating an environment for communication is always important. Due to renovations, for several years now we have not held any public events within our walls; we have not invited scientists and students to our premises. We will revive this and even develop it in the near future, because the need for communication exists. They ask us: is it possible to hold a presentation at your place, to meet like-minded people. But this will never be the main thing for us. We will exist in three spheres. The first is traditional book service. Come, we have books that are not available anywhere. The second sphere is information. We offer you everything we can on the Internet, primarily catalogs. The next opportunity is to order remotely, put aside literature, that is, work in absentia as a reader and, finally, provide the books themselves via electronic delivery from our electronic library. And the third area is a place for communication. Do you have a need to communicate about history? Come. These three areas are our future.
- When does the renovation finish?
I hope that this year we will begin to develop the renovated building. We will now gradually be rented out premises starting from April. We must supply furniture, arrange books, expand the staff, which has been reduced due to renovations. I think that in 2017 we will have a magnificent housewarming party in the renovated building.
