Russian National Library turns 200 years old
Which of our favorite public will cross the threshold of its bicentennial? Will libraries still be as relevant and in demand as they were before the ubiquity of the Internet? In order to get answers to these and many other questions, the VP correspondent met with the Director General of the National Library of Russia Anton Likhomanov (pictured).
Unfortunately, the conversation had to start with long-standing problems.
- How is the situation with the book depository? We know that you are currently in a state of litigation with the contractor... Can we hope that by the end of the anniversary year it will be over?
“The situation is really very difficult. Moving along Moskovsky Prospekt and passing Pobeda Park, we see the new building of the National Library of Russia - this is only the first stage, which is 60 thousand square meters. m, and the second - by 40 thousand square meters. m - being completed. Our general contractor, so to speak, fell into a coma and is in a state of semi-bankruptcy: he does not live and does not die, but he does not want to terminate the contract with us. It is solely for this reason that almost a billion rubles that we were given, we could not spend on bringing the library to perfection. Although for us the commissioning of the second stage is extremely important, because we currently do not have a physical place to store newly incoming newspapers, musical publications and a number of other materials. We hope that the trial will end in the most favorable way for us and, perhaps, we will put these new squares into operation.
— Last year there was a conflict related to the mass dismissal of librarians. Information flashed in the press that allegedly this was done in order to raise the salaries of the remaining employees ...
— At the end of last year, about 200 of our employees retired. On this moment The National Library of Russia has 1,400 employees, wages have doubled or even 2.5 times. At the end of 2012, the average salary of a library employee was 13,000 rubles. The final salary at the end of 2013 amounted to 30,240 rubles, despite the fact that the main payments occurred in the second half of the year. I will give an example: November - 42,000 rubles, December - about 60,000 rubles. The fact is that subsidies sent from Moscow to increase wages, arrive unevenly, but mainly in the second, third and fourth quarters. If we take St. Petersburg as a whole, then the average salary of a worker for 2012 was 30,346 rubles, and for 2013 - 34,991 rubles.
— There is a stereotype that only grandmothers work in libraries. Do young people go to work in libraries?
“Now young people want to join us, but there are certain difficulties: we are sorely lacking vacancies. Any grandmother was once a young girl, and therefore we cannot say something like: "You are already 70 years old, it's time to leave." It is believed that flight attendants should be young, and if we see a flight attendant in years, we already begin to think that something is wrong. Something similar happens with librarians, only in reverse: if the librarian is not elderly, then this causes us bewilderment. Now we can observe an interesting transitional period. The fact is that when a young man, advanced in computers, is forced to come to the library for a paper book and he meets with an elderly librarian, there is a certain misunderstanding. However, this is far from a reason to ask an older person to retire. But specialists for work in our field are being trained, and we have concluded an agreement with the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts: if smart guys are noticed at the library department, we will be introduced to them. And we, in turn, will be ready to take them to us, even if creating additional jobs.
— What famous libraries of the world could be compared with the National Library of Russia?
— We are among the five largest libraries in the world. Yes, the Lenin Library in Moscow is ahead of us in terms of the size of its fund: we have 37 million copies, they have 40 million. Leninka also has another advantage - dissertations go there, but we only have abstracts of dissertations, and this is an additional resource. If we compare the RNL with the Library of Congress, with the British Library, with the Functional Library of France, then there are positions in which we are ahead of them: for example, we have more space for readers, we use the same software. What is the difference? The fact that they have wider financial horizons, and this is primarily expressed in the fact that they have more opportunities to digitize funds. We cannot compare the salaries of librarians, because we live in different taxation systems and so on. Otherwise, there is not much difference between us. Although I feel the difference with Chinese libraries, the halls of which are literally packed, and the bookstores are not overcrowded. The fact is that in China there is a pronounced incentive: a person either reads, engaging in self-development, and as a result becomes someone, or stands knee-deep in water in a rice field all his life.
— How often are the RNB funds replenished?
“Let's start with the fact that we have a legal deposit law, according to which all publications that have been published on the territory of our country since 1810 come to us: more interesting ones in two copies, less interesting ones in one. Another source of replenishment of funds is a purchase. We have the means to buy publications. Why is this being done? Sometimes ordinary periodicals run for a very long time: there was a situation when the Ogonyok magazine took and sent all the issues for the past year at once! In 2013, we spent 50 million rubles on purchases, including a database and literature for subsidiary funds. Some part of the amount was spent on the purchase of valuable materials, manuscripts, rare books, and so on. In recent years, we have received about four hundred thousand documents. A lot of literature is now being published in Russia, more than in the Soviet Union: in 2011 alone, 120,000 books and brochures saw the light of day. Of course, such a flow of materials raises the question of the place of storage: after all, only we and Leninka do not write off literature - we store it forever.
— How are things in the National Library of Russia with high technology?
— The question is difficult. Of course, we try to keep up with the times, but sometimes it turns out to be very costly: to take the same digitization - the transfer of one page to digital format costs 25 rubles. Working with a newspaper is even more expensive. However, thanks to the new software we will be able to organize stable access to our funds, or rather, to those resources, the license agreement with the suppliers of which allows the transfer of information through the network.
- When will the system start functioning?
- I think that by the summer. We are currently working on licensing agreements, and soon those materials for which permission will be obtained will become remotely available. But it is worth noting that we have a large database of digitized abstracts. In theory, since they are copyrighted, they can only be used in the library, but our system allows registered readers to access it remotely as well. We try to do our best to make working with our library convenient.
- You noted that library attendance is falling ...
— Yes, five years ago the attendance rate was one million, now it is about six hundred thousand. But on the other hand, the attendance of our electronic portal, where most of our funds are made available to the public. As a result, the building of the National Library of Russia is visited by 600 thousand people a year, and the electronic resource - by 6 million. And I will say that this phenomenon is widespread. Visiting the US Library of Congress last year, I contemplated the half-empty halls. To be a pessimist, we can assume that children from 3 to 5 years old can no longer imagine themselves without a computer. But on the other hand, many scientific literature continues to be published exclusively on paper, so those who are engaged in science will be forced to visit our reading rooms for the time being. Also, everyone should understand that very soon there will be no more free content: the movies have already been sorted out, the texts will also be dealt with. There will be a law that will prosecute the owners of sites that distribute text content, over time they will have to pay. For example, in a French library, if there is no book in the catalog, the resource automatically sends you to the publisher's website, where you can purchase a book in in electronic format. Thus, the library will remain the only free information resource.
shaken by public scandals related to the activities of its CEO Anton Likhomanov. All these years I worked there, in the oldest domestic public print repository, and I could personally see from the inside a lot of what was happening.
It is widely known, for example, that in 2012, Likhomanov, following, according to him, an oral order of the Ministry of Culture received by phone, energetically began mass layoffs of library staff. Many people also know that the corresponding order was signed then by Likhomanov's deputy for the administrative and economic part, Vladimir Aleksandrov. Alexandrov is not the only one behind whose back the CEO tried to hide. From the heads of departments they demanded - in a rude, categorical, unquestionable form - to write memos addressed to the general director with the wording: "I ask you to reduce" the number of employees in such and such a department due to a decrease in the volume of work. So that, hiding behind such documents, Likhomanov could say that he acted at the request of the workers. However, events got out of his control, and the mass dismissal of the library staff did not take place then.
And now a new scandal. This time, in connection with the alleged resignation of the general director, the contract of the Ministry of Culture with which expires in January 2016, his subordinates stood up for the boss. The immediate reason for " open letter"on behalf of the "RNB team", the Prime Minister of Russia was the appearance on November 20 in the Izvestia newspaper of information about the impending resignation. What has been happening since that moment, I would rather call a campaign organized by a group of activists. In order not to offend any of them, I will list in alphabetical order: Sergei Basov, Galina Mikheeva (she is also the initiator and author of the above-mentioned "open letter"), Anatoly Razumov, Evgeny Sokolinsky All people are authoritative and respected.
It is strange to read in the press, now organized in support of the director general of the Russian National Library, that his employees are afraid of layoffs in the event of his removal from office: they were afraid of layoffs throughout the entire time of Likhomanov's leadership. Although staff layoffs of the anticipated unprecedented scale were avoided in 2012, some departments were merged and liquidated. When Likhomanov was appointed to his current position, the library had more than 1,800 employees, and today it has only 1,300 staff members.
The defenders of the general director credit him with the knowledge of the library, explaining this knowledge by the fact that he has been working in it for thirty years. It's true: Likhomanov has been an employee of the National Library of Russia for a long time, although with a long break for freed Komsomol work. However, Likhomanov does not know its organization in essence, in terms of purpose and functions of its various divisions. This became especially noticeable when he headed the library. In all likelihood, the director was little interested in the content side of the activities of the institution, within the walls of which he spent many years. However, Likhomanov has accumulated a lot of personal vulnerabilities, claims against many employees. Having become a director, he, instead of building an internal and external activities libraries, in accordance with the challenges of the time, began to settle scores with "old enemies".
The first victims of Likhomanov were people from the inner circle of Vladimir Zaitsev, whom he replaced as general director. Unable to fire all the people he did not like for any reason, he began to create conditions under which employees had to leave "on own will", and was very successful in this. He expelled the deputy general director for financial matters Tatyana Ivlieva, Deputy General Director for the Administrative and Economic Department Vladimir Alexandrov - a person who really knew and loved the library and did a lot for it and for its employees. These two key figures from the point of view of the activities of the National Library of Russia were dismissed at different times, but with the same haste, within one day, without ensuring any continuity in work or even transfer of affairs. Many got the impression that all Likhomanov was thinking about as he snatched his resignation letters “of his own free will” from the hands of his deputies was how to arrange dismissals as soon as possible so that they would not have time to change their minds. In production, technical and economic departments he carried out a total personnel "cleansing", recruited new people who knew nothing, were not oriented in the huge and complex economy of the library.
Likhomanov's "skillful leadership", which is now pointed out by the defenders of the general director, led in 2013 to the protest withdrawal from the library of an entire department - the Center for Cultural Programs. Twelve people simultaneously submitted applications for dismissal "of their own free will", as a sign of protest against administrative arbitrariness.
Likhomanov treats his subordinates as if they were his serfs, whom he won by chance at cards.
All personnel matters- from receiving and moving even the most junior staff within the library - Likhomanov concentrated in his hands. The heads of departments and deputies of Likhomanov were essentially deprived of any rights, having acquired only duties, the main of which was to unquestioningly carry out the will of the boss. All positions of the scientific plan of the library, all decisions about what will be published by the National Library of Russia and what is not, the director makes and approves personally. But, as always, hiding behind someone else's back. In this case, behind the back of his deputy for scientific work, Vladimir Firsov, who must put his signature everywhere and on everything that he, Likhomanov, decided on the scientific part.
Take, for example, recent liquidation departments. In November, the Department of Library Technology was liquidated, which was competently dealing with issues of placement of funds. In the conditions of the National Library of Russia, where these problems are very acute, only an irresponsible leader could liquidate such a department. The same can be said about the elimination of the Machine Readable Record Representation Format Division.
In the library, it has long been no longer customary to openly discuss the decisions of the general director. It is dangerous not to please him: for this you can pay not only with a bonus, but also with a job. Library staff became afraid of many things. As one of them accurately noted, Likhomanov treats his subordinates as if they were his serfs, whom he won by chance at cards. Every time after another scandalous, “voluntary” dismissal, employees look at each other and ask each other the same question: who is next?
Like a typical official of a well-known school, Likhomanov, trampling on those who are below, obsequiously and unquestioningly tries to carry out any orders coming from above, acting like a cog in the system. But, apparently, the screw turned out to be defective, since they wanted to replace it. A letter in support of Likhomanov, addressed to the Prime Minister of Russia, was signed "on behalf of the staff of the National Library of Russia" by 430 people. This is only a third of the library staff, and even among them there are hardly half of those who truly sincerely support the current leader. Many put their signatures out of fear that Likhomanov, if he is left as director, will deal with those who did not sign in his defense.
At the same time, I can understand those who were indignant at the general negative assessment of the activities of the National Library of Russia, which was voiced in Izvestia. I completely agree with Yevgeny Sokolinsky: indeed, a very strong team is still working in the National Library of Russia, it has serious achievements in various fields, significant not only for the country, but also for the rest of the world. The library strives to carry out its mission despite the adverse circumstances and the essentially destructive efforts of its failed manager. It is difficult to break such a team.
In one of the recent publications, another opinion was voiced, which cannot be ignored: “Another dissatisfaction of the Ministry of Culture is connected with the scientific activities of the library. The department is perplexed why most of the 118 researchers of the National Library of Russia are engaged in “preparing and publishing ongoing bibliographic indexes” instead of research ". The National Library of Russia has a Department of General Bibliography and Local Lore (OBIK), which employs about thirty employees. The department, in accordance with its purpose, is compiling bibliographic indexes, including ongoing ones. This is one of the main activities of any national library. The indexes prepared by OBIK have a high scientific reputation, are famous and in demand in Russia and abroad. In addition to preparing indexes, employees are engaged in research, the results of which are published, they hold scientific conferences, in particular, one of the largest international library forums in the country, "Bibliographic Congress". As for the rest (about 90) researchers, they are all engaged in the development of scientific and practical and research areas, in accordance with scientific tasks their departments. That is why the claims against these specialists seem untenable and cause quite justified alarm in many. It is not entirely clear why there was a need to defend the enormous work and reputation of the Russian National Library at all.
Nevertheless, the main motive for publications in Likhomanov's defense boils down to the fear that his replacement will make things worse. That is probably why the former deputy director of the library, Galina Mikheeva, said in an interview with Radio Liberty: “I don’t think that Anton Vladimirovich is so bad. He is a normal director, we are used to him.” Indeed, someone in the National Library of Russia got used to this little authoritarian owner. What people are not used to. But, perhaps, a large part of today's problems of the glorious cultural institution lies precisely in this?
I joined the library in 1979 and worked there for thirty-five years, the last fourteen of which I was in charge of the Department of Archival Documents. The library has become for me, as well as for many of us, its old-timers, a second home and a temple to which you selflessly serve, giving yourself away. Many of my publications are devoted to the library. My service history was simple and dignified, they are usually referred to as “an impeccable track record”. This continued until Likhomanov came to the leadership of the National Library of Russia, for whom I was on the "black list". The last years of my service were poisoned for me by methodical administrative pressure, unreasonable demands, claims, nit-picking, and insults. In the end, the CEO got his way, last summer I filed an application with a request to fire me of my own free will. But do not believe if someone tells you that I left the National Library of my own free will: I, like many others, was survived by A. V. Likhomanov.
Irina Zvereva - Candidate of Philology, former employee Russian National Library
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Anton Vladimirovich Likhomanov(b. September 16, 1964, Leningrad) - Russian library worker, from January 20, 2011 to January 19, 2016 - General Director of the Russian National Library, historian.
Biography
He began his work in the National Library of Russia in 1981 as a librarian. In 1987-1990 at the Komsomol work. In 1990 he graduated from the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University.
Since 1990, again in the National Library: Deputy Director for Administrative and Economic Work, Head of the Department of Funds and Services, Deputy General Director. After the death of V.N. Zaitsev from October 2010 - and. O. general director. On January 20, 2011, he was appointed General Director of the National Library of Russia. January 19, 2016 left the post due to the expiration of the employment contract.
Candidate of Historical Sciences.
Major writings
- Newspaper "Russia" in 1905-1906. : (The history of the emergence of Stolypin officialdom) // Book business in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. - L., 1990. - S. 46-55.
- The issue of foreign-language publications in the Special Meeting on the drafting of a new charter on printing (1905) // Book business in Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. - SPb., 1992. - Issue. 6. - S. 56-63.
- I. Ya. Gurlyand and the Jewish question in Russia // Bulletin of the Jewish University in Moscow. - M.; Jerusalem, 1993. - No. 4. - S. 142-153.
- The struggle of the autocracy for public opinion in 1905-1907. - St. Petersburg, 1997. - 133, p. - ISBN 5-7196-0982-2.
- How to secure the library. - M., 2002. - 112 p.
- Countering the ideology of terrorism and libraries. - M., 2005. - 112 p.
- Special meeting on the drafting of a new statute on the press of 1905: personal composition // Censorship in Russia. - SPb., 2005. - Issue. 2. - S. 35-69.
- Dmitry Fomich Kobeko // History of the library in the biographies of its directors, 1795-2005. - St. Petersburg, 2006. - S. 194-211. - ISBN 5-8192-0263-5.
- Development of press legislation in Russia and France in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century: comparative analysis// Proceedings of the Department of the History of Modern and Contemporary Times. - St. Petersburg, 2007. - No. 1. - S. 78-90.
Literature
- Who is who in the library and information world of Russia and the CIS. - 5th ed. - M., 2001. - T. 1. - S. 395. - ISBN 5-85638-019-3.
05/03/2015
49 days ago we sent a request to the Director General of the Russian National Library A.V. Likhomanov (pictured left) with a request to answer questions from the editors. Not 7, not 30, but 49 days have passed, and the answer from the General Director Likhomanov A.V. not received by the editor. And this means only one thing: there is nothing to answer not only on the solution of specific, long-standing problems, but also on the prospects for the development of the National Library of Russia.
E it can also be stated that this official violated the law of the Russian Federation “On the Mass Media” (according to article 40 of which the answer must be provided to the editors within 7 days) and the law of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for considering applications from citizens of the Russian Federation” (according to article 12 of this law, written appeal is considered within 30 days from the date of registration). To finish with legal aspects, let me remind you that the National Library of Russia is a federal state budget institution, i.e. subject to all of these laws. Naturally, such disregard for the law will entail the consequences provided for by law.
And here are the questions I wanted to get an answer from Anton Likhomanov:
Commissioning of the second stage of the new building of the National Library of Russia on Moskovsky pr., prospects, terms;
Reducing the number of employees to increase income left, the facts;
Creation of a domestic Wikipedia, the main parameters of the project, purpose, timing;
Prospects and terms for electronic ordering of documents stored in the main building;
Work on the Primo electronic catalog, problems with its performance and the deadline for completing work on it, how many people are working on correcting errors and filling gaps?
I think that Anton Likhomanov understands: general words will not suit me, I know the situation in the library too well. In other words, the library's first and foremost problem is its management. If A. Likhomanov does not even respond to a written appeal, defiantly violating two laws of the Russian Federation at once, it means that he does not even want to admit and declare aloud the problems of the National Library of Russia. And if the problems are hidden, not announced aloud, then they are not being solved.
This means that things are as bad with the same Primo electronic catalog as they were in the summer of 2014. The electronic catalog of the Russian Journal Fund is poorly made, and no one is working on bringing it to perfection. There is even no way to know when the second stage of the new building will be put into operation, which would make it possible to unite the divided fund of the Russian Journal Fund in the new building, temporarily move the manuscript department in its place, and begin repairs in the manuscript department.
I want to note - especially for the leadership of the National Library of Russia - that I do not invent these problems and do not collect them "from outside", but being a regular and active reader of the library, I myself constantly encounter problems.
A whole range of problems is associated with the reduction of employees, the results of which I feel as a reader. For example, in March 2014, the National Library of Russia opened an exhibition of books donated to our library by the House of the Russian Diaspora named after. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was a very valuable and generous gift. Personally, I urgently needed one book from this exhibition: the author is an American literary critic V. Aleksandrova, the book is called Literature and Life: Essays on Soviet Social Development to the End of World War II (New York, 1969). I ordered it because the books were coded at the exhibition, but it turned out that it had not yet been processed and was not issued to the hall, and the processing department staff kindly offered me to read the book in their department, for which I was grateful to them. And it will not be issued soon, they warned me. Well, I'll read autumn more carefully, I thought.
A year has passed - the book is listed in the Primo electronic catalog without a code and is still not issued; there is not enough staff to process the incoming books promptly. The book is there and it is not.
And there is a reduction in personnel - in any case, everyone in the library is talking about it. But it is impossible to find out the real situation from the leadership of the National Library of Russia regarding the implementation of these “publicly significant functions” (PZF).
There are persistent rumors that General Director for Library Work Elena Tikhonova decided to lay off all the employees of the information and bibliographic department and liquidate the department itself. Allegedly, there will be an attestation soon, everyone is not attested, and the issue will be resolved automatically.
I don’t really believe in this, but Tikhonova herself also considered it inappropriate to answer my questions, so I’m discussing this topic as a probable hypothesis. If this happens, then we can talk about direct sabotage. Because of all the "publicly significant functions" the most important and most public is the direct communication between the reader and the bibliographer. It's not about learning how to use catalogs, it's about the very methodology of finding the right books and articles. No one will teach at the National Library of Russia, except for a bibliographer. Employees who give out books at the points of issue do not have the appropriate professional competence. In addition, there are many card and electronic catalogs in the National Library of Russia, you still need to know which one to look for. The existence of bibliographers who advise readers is a longstanding and unique feature of the NRL, and to lose it simply because it is necessary to reduce the number of employees to save the payroll is a crime against culture.
Talk about "bibliographers are not needed because now there is the Internet" is nonsense. The Internet does not replace the bibliographer, if only because the National Library of Russia is an independent complex machine for scientific research like the hadron collider. The RNL itself does not prepare instructions for using the library as a “knowledge machine”. Therefore, readers will learn how to use the RNL not on the Internet, but from bibliographers.
Another example. The foreign magazine fund was almost completely moved to a new building. And the service catalog of this fund was either forgotten, or left in the old building, and the premises were locked up. Whether someone uses it or not is unknown. In the new building, an incomplete reader's card catalog was installed. It was impossible to use them then, and now. There is also an electronic catalog of this fund on the website of the National Library of Russia, but there is never a complete certainty that it fully reflects the service card catalog of the IzhF. Employees are afraid that the unique IZHF service catalog will simply be burned during the renovation of the premises.
And the IZHF electronic catalog works like this. You look for, for example, the magazine Nation for 1967. You don't find it. Then you discover that you have to write The Nation, i.e. with article. I write in the request the name with the article. Judging by the answers received, after 1917 the magazine did not enter the National Library of Russia, and this is not so. I know, and I have been using the National Library of Russia for 38 years, that some old foreign magazines with a fortress cipher remained in the main building. At the same time, the reader's catalog on the card of The Nation contains an incorrect code, and the only reliable official catalog of the Foreign Journal Fund is buried somewhere in the main building. Well, can you deal with all this without a team of bibliographers?
The electronic catalog Primo does not scold only the lazy. Just one example. I am looking for a book by Yuz Aleshkovsky "The Book of Last Words". In the column "author" I write the name of the author, in the column "title" - "The Book of Last Words". The search result is null. There is no such book in the National Library of Russia. But I know who created the directory. Therefore, I remove the author's surname, and immediately receive a bibliographic description and code.
There are dozens of such examples. Sometimes you need to remove the title, and if the book, God forbid, has two authors, then it is better to search only by the title, because the book is recorded only by one of the two authors. Etc. In fact, it is necessary to verify the general alphabetic card catalog and the electronic catalog with the Primo electronic catalog, because at some point - no one can name it exactly - cards were no longer poured into the card catalog, only into the electronic OPAC, and then only into Primo , and it is absolutely known that not all entries from the first two GAKs were included in the third. But for this work, additional employees are needed.
Now about electronic library. Thanks to an order from Finland, the newspaper department of the National Library of Russia scanned Literaturnaya Gazeta for 1929-1960 a few years ago. They didn't do it any further because it wasn't ordered. Naturally, only “pictures” are given on the RNL website, without recognition, which the RNL does not do. Why - I can not get an answer for many years. I suspect that it is simply because the authorities of the National Library of Russia did not understand and still do not understand what it is and why researchers need it.
By the way, now the National Library of Russia is buying a subscription resource from some Moscow company remote access, it is called East view (IVIS) and includes the full texts of a large number of Russian magazines and newspapers - in particular, Pravda, Izvestia, Literaturnaya gazeta and a number of others, the journals Voprosy Literatury, Voprosy Istorii, etc. .All texts are recognized and there is a contextual search. This is a unique resource for which the National Library of Russia is now paying money (access for readers from the premises of the National Library of Russia is free), but could receive it itself if it did, having unique funds, this, in general, simple work. It is already impossible to imagine working in the library after trying this East view. About the same as losing the Internet.
And when, in the midst of all this mess, the National Library of Russia announces that it is starting to work on “domestic Wikipedia”, and Likhomanov also explains that it is necessary because “Wikipedia is controlled from the USA”, then I want to ask: maybe before you start improving Wikipedia and start cutting the money allocated for this super-megaproject, first make your own electronic catalogs normal? Not for a report, but for real, in an adult way ?
Mikhail ZOLOTONOSOV
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