The Eighth International Scientific and Practical Conference 'The Digital Age of Culture'

Location: Moscow, Russian State Library
Date: 5—6 October 2009

The eighth scientific and practical conference of 'The Digital Age of Culture' held in the Moscow region ended on September 11th. It was first held in 2002 and in 2009 the proceedings were attended not only by invited guests, but also watched by a half thousand spectators on the Internet.

The main topics for discussion were:

• 'Information society: the centre and the provinces';
• 'Modern technologies of accounting and the preservation of museum objects and museum collections';
• 'Information technologies in education';
• 'Digital libraries'.

There were a much larger number of participants this time around willing to make their presentations, which aroused a great interest among the conference members and Internet users from all over Russia had a chance to send in their questions.

It has demonstrated once again that the Russian provinces are already involved in computerization of cultural institutions. The corporation 'Digital Archive' and the National information library centre 'Libnet' had offered their alternatives for the development of regional library networks. Moreover, 'ELARA' is not just the corporation developing technology solutions for the creation of electronic resources, but it also attaches great importance to the social aspects of computerization programs of libraries and archives. The company is actively seeking to involve the residents from Russian regions, and creates temporary jobs and trains new employees, thereby reducing social tensions in the labor market.

The special plenary sessions were devoted to the latest technology in the museum business and education. The presentations were made by the Deputy Director of Information Technology of the State Tretyakov Gallery Sergei Khrustalev, director of the Department of Education and Science of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Oleg Neretin and other speakers.

The conference generated interest not only from museums, libraries and information centres, but there were also commercial firms in representation which could spot potential customers in today’s cultural institutions and are willing to provide them with the latest technological developments. The representatives of Herox and Konica Minolta shared the information on the possibilities of their products in relation to libraries. Also this year the company Canon became the sponsor of DAC.

The reports by the Director of Main center of information and computing Ministry of culture of Russian Federation Denis Vinogradov and the representative of Microsoft Vyacheslav Tarasov had been devoted to the various methods of library informatization. The simple and interesting solution for the creation of self-service libraries had been suggested by the Executive Director of the 'IT' firm Dmitry Nikolaev. This technology has been tested and now used in the libraries of four Moscow universities such as MICE, RSAU-MTAA, MSMU and ANE.

The last day of the conference was the most vibrant. On September 10th the creators of the RSL Digital Library shared their experiences. There were speeches by the director of RSL informatization Alexander Visliy, director of the non-profit Partnership 'Digital Libraries' Igor Gruzdev, the head of the department of support access to the digital resources of RSL Nina Avdeeva. The analysis of the use of digital library of dissertations made by the General Director of OOO 'ShoftKom' Oleg Shorin was received with great interest.

As the conference neared it’s end there was a round table discussion on the legal issues of digital libraries, which was attended by authorized representative of the RF Government of the State Duma, deputy chairman of a public committee to promote libraries, Andrei Loginov, Director General of the RSL Victor Fedorov, Director of RSL informatization Alexander Visliy. The two sides shared the view that, despite the imperfection of Russian legislation laws, the library should try to work out the mechanism of licensing agreements with the authors. The three national libraries of the country — the RSL, NRL and the Presidential Library had taken the preliminary decision to establish a legal aid centre which will develop such a mechanism. All round table participants agreed on the fact that in the modern conditions the digitization of the book funds is absolutely necessary, but it is also important to respect the interests of the right holders.

Conference participants noted that much has changed over the seven years of work. In 2002 the informatization of cultural institutions main difficulty was to find technical and financial solutions, but now the legal issues associated with digitizing and providing access to funds become paramount. But nevertheless, over the past few years Russian libraries have become much closer to their digital future, which imperceptibly and gradually becomes their digital present.

The video conference can be found on the website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries.

September, 2009