Annual Caucus of Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia
November 12 – 13, 2024, in Saint Petersburg, the National Library of Russia hosted the Annual caucus of heads of federal and central regional libraries of Russia organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and Russian State Library. The theme of the caucus was “Libraries and national targets of development”.
Over 300 delegates from 75 administrative territories of the Russian Federation registered to participate, and among them there were not only heads of libraries and publishing houses, but also the officials of business and authorities of different level, as well as such organizations as the Bank of Russia, St. Petersburg Writers’ Union and Association of the Development of Financial Literacy.
The caucus was given a start by the greeting letter from the Minister of Culture of Russian Federation O. Lyubimova. It was followed by the ceremony of awarding laureates of all-Russian contests of the year of 2024. The director general of the Russian State Library and the president of Russian Library Association V. Duda handed the special award of the Russian State Library “For the best librarian of the new generation”, special diplomas of the Russian Library Association and awards to the winners of the fifth all-Russia contest “Libraries. PROmovement”. Then, Vadim Valeryevich presented his report “Russian Library Association – a New Stage of Development” at the plenary meeting of the first session day. In course of the speech describing prospects of the largest professional library body of the nation, he considered the particular role of the Russian State Library too. And while speculating upon the tasks of Russian libraries on the national scale, the president of the Russian Library Association once again reminded the audience the priority of distinct and fair positioning of Russian libraries as such in the international arena.
In consequence, the report on the federal legal deposit copy was presented by O. Badekina, deputy director general of the RSL in acquisition and national bibliography. Her speech was devoted to the legal deposit copy with all the related aspects, beginning with the very concept of preservation of cultural and intellectual heritage of the nation and providing a wide access to users, and finishing with the problems and achievements the system of legal deposits was facing for the time being. What was even more important, Olga Askoldovna was speaking not only about the process of submitting legal deposit copies to the national libraries, but with its distribution as well.
The agenda of the annual caucus of the year of 2024 is available on the link.
The streams of the first and second days of the meetings can be watched over here: