Libraries in the Soviet Union always relied entirely on the state for funding. When the Soviet State ceased to exist, so did most of the funding. Libraries in post-Soviet Russia continue to experience huge financial difficulties. They do not have access to foreign currency to keep their collections up to date. They do not have enough funding to keep buying locally published resources. Also, "the Russian publishing industry has been undergoing a complete reorganization based on the free market model. There was a dramatic decrease in the volume of domestic publishing over several years. According to the National Public Library of Science and Technology, Russian publishing of scientific and technical literature has returned to the level of the 1930's... inadequate access to scientific literature causes Russia to lag behind in research and development and encourages a brain drain of the finest Russian researchers to other countries." (Apoutchine 4-5).

Another problem related to finances is the issue of automation. Of course, this process is very expensive, but Russian librarians have recognized the fact that their library resources lag behind technologically. Some libraries still rely on card catalogues, while others have managed to make the transition to automated systems. I hope an emphasis on automation will not take away from concentration on the other important issues of preservation and ideological change.

Russian librarians have found innovative solutions to their financial troubles. The following is a report of the current state of four large libraries in Moscow and St. Petersburg. All four libraries have web pages that I hope you will find interesting.

• The Russian National Library
• Russian Academy of Sciences Library
• Russian State Library
• Fundamental Library of St. Petersburg State Technical University

The Russian National Library is currently receiving generous support from the George Soros Foundation. Soros' Open Societies Institute is a huge supporter of libraries worldwide. It has offices in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and  Samara. The Open Societies Institute is currently providing the Russian National Library with $100 million over three years. This project involves 3500 public libraries in Russia. They are using the money for collection development, automation, and Internet access. While the Open Societies Institute pays 75% of the costs, local governments are required to provide the remaining 25% (Apoutchine 8).

Helen Apoutchine, a Canadian librarian who spent two weeks visiting libraries in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the April of 1998 reports: "The [Russian National] library is conducting research on a number of topics such as federal library legislation and the role of librarians in the market economy, the continuing educational needs of library staff, and library service standards. It is surveying readers in a national study entitled, "Reading in Russian Libraries" (Apoutchine 8).

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Russian Academy of Sciences Library

The Russian Academy of Sciences is an enormous research institute that is headquartered in St. Petersburg. The translation of the word "sciences" in its name is misleading. It would be better to translate it as "scholarly studies" or "research" since the Academy includes departments dedicated to the study of the hard sciences, as well as the humanities and the social sciences. One Russian librarian explains: "The Academy of Sciences libraries are the principal repositories of scholarly knowledge and represent the basis for providing information for scholarly research. A significant portion of the nation's book collection is concentrated in them. At the same time, the Academy libraries contain unique treasures of our nation and of world culture" ("In the Reflected Light of the Fire" 20). The main library of the Academy in St. Petersburg is know by the acronym BAN (БАН -- Библиотека Академии Наук), which of course is unfortunate in English.

What is truly unfortunate, and actually disastrous, is the fact that BAN underwent a  huge fire in February of 1988, from which the library is still recovering. Eight million books were damaged and destroyed (Baxter Mendrinos 79).

The fire alerted librarians to the terrible condition of the facilities in which their cultural memory is housed. Here is a horrifying report of the damages written soon after it happened: "The fire destroyed more than 25 percent of the newspaper collection of the library. Among the items burned were unique newspaper files extant only in BAN. More than 10 percent of the Russian book collection of BAN suffered worst of all. Hundreds of thousands of books were flooded with water in the process of extinguishing the blaze (by an antediluvian method: for 19 hours, 25 fire trucks pumped water into the building). The books suffered from the water that penetrated through the ceilings and walls...

"The figures of the numbers of books that burned up completely have been made public by the library administration: about 400 000 books in all, of which 188 000 were in foreign languages. Although lamentable, the books lost from the Soviet period, however, can be replaced almost completely. But the foreign collection is virtually irretrievable. Books burned up in the fire had come to the library in the course of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection is known as the Baer Collection. It was Baer who worked out the principles for systematizing and cataloguing of foreign literature...

"It would seem only natural to work out a detailed and precisely thought out plan for eliminating the consequences of the disaster as soon as the fire was extinguished. The leadership of BAN, however, chose another route. [They] misled party and governmental organs and the mass media by understating the figures on the number of books destroyed by fire and water and the general damage to the building. The priceless books of the Baer Collection that burned up were absolutely never mentioned in the newspapers or on radio and television... The absence of a carefully thought out plan for eliminating the consequences of the fire also were manifested in the fact that even by the end of the third week after the fire occurred, the administration of BAN had no precise notions as to the square meters and cubic meters of space needed for the evacuation and temporary storage of the book collections... " (Likhachev 7-9).

Ten years later, California librarian Roxanne Baxter Mendrinos reports that the necessary restoration project is underway at BAN. It is accompanied by a preservation project that aims to protect the remaining collection. The Library of Congress has donated a $135 000 machine that constructs customized boxes for each book. These individual book boxes are specially treated and will protect each book from "the damaging effects of air, insects, and age" (79).

Despite a the chronic shortage of funds, BAN is making efforts to continue adding to its collection. Rather than simply buying all of their new titles, BAN librarians have become involved in exchange programs with 2525 partners in 84 different countries. "Seventy percent of total new acquisitions and eighty percent of the libary's foreign titles, including periodicals and books, is acquired through exchange with other libraries" (Apoutchine 10).

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The Russian State Library (Formerly the Lenin Library) (Less Interesting Page in English)

Writings from the late 1980's lament the disastrous state of the Lenin Library: "The collection is not  protected at present. It is kept in an overcrowded depository whose walls and floors between the tiers cracked in 1985 when a subway tunnel was built underneath them. Several more of the library's departments are located in the main depository. The required temperature and humidity levels cannot be maintained there, and there are no satisfactory devices for removing dust. The water pipes and heating ducts, which are dilapidated and have not been properly repaired or replaced, often break down. And water -- sometimes cold, sometimes hot -- leaks into the library and into the reading rooms..." (Morozova 13).

Ten years later, Helen Apoutchine sounds almost as pessimistic about the state of the former Lenin Library: "There is a shortage of space for the huge collection. Present library storage facilities have adequate room for only about half of the documents actually stored there. Rare and valuable manuscripts and books are not being properly stored, conserved, or restored... The library is supposed to receive two depository copies of publications originating in Russia. However, the library is currently receiving only 70% of depository copies because many publishers no longer contribute copies... There is a continuous decrease in the library workforce due to the low pay. Although there is supposed to be 3000 staff currently there are only 2200" (20).

This library has also been depending on the exchange of books to continue to update its collection, however the exchange process is not always successful. It seems that some Western libraries are falling into the trap of not considering what is important to their partner libraries: "For example, the library sent copies of valuable scientific research reports to a library in France and in return received a copy of an expensive coffee table book on Picasso when the library already owned some ten books on Picasso" (Apoutchine 20).

Despite these depressing facts, the Russian State Library strives to work on improving access. Technologists began to automate its library catalogue in 1994. Now, Russia's two National Libraries (the Russian State Library and the Russian National Library) are buying an automated library system from an American library automation software company called VTLS.

In contrast to the dismal reports about the Russian State Library, a glance at its web page provides some optimism. Among the poor facilities, the relatively small staff creates continuing programs for the public, and still values the library's importance as a "scholarly centre in the areas of librarianship, bibliography, and book science" (translation from РГБ Сегодня).

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Fundamental Library of St. Petersburg State Technical University
(Formerly  Leningrad Polytechnic Institute)

True to its general purpose and name, the Fundamental Library of St. Petersburg State Technical University has become very involved in technology. It is "the first Russian library to employ high-speed optical communications" (Baxter Mendrinos 79), which means it has 100 megabyte per second access to the Internet (Apoutchine 11). The library has an automated library system and Internet access that were developed by the poorly paid, but talented computer technologists at the Open Library Systems Center, which is located in the library building (79). System engineers at the Center also created RUSLANet (Regional University and Science Library Advanced Network for Northwest Russia): "The main goal of the RUSLANet project is the creation of a common information space for the libraries of the North-West of Russia and its integration with the national and world-wide information space" (RUSLANet - library system for the North-West of Russia).

The library and the Open Library Systems Center have received donations from Digital Equipment in the form of four servers for their network. They also recently received a grant from the Soros Foundation. The technologists must depend on these donations to keep working. One of their projects has been to create the first Z39.50 gateway that is working in Russia. The gateway connects to the Library of Congress as well as to other library catalogues (Apoutchine 11-12).

This library also relies on exchange programs to continue adding foreign literature to its collection.

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Conclusions About the Current State of Russian Libraries:
So far, the large libraries in Russia's capitals have had quite a bit of success in coping with their new reality. Russia has switched to a market economy, often with disastrous results. However, some corporations and philanthropists, who understand the importance of libraries and information (regardless of their own agendas), have generously donated money and resources to Russian libraries. Hopefully, through a trickle down effect, libraries in smaller centres also be able to benefit from these projects. One example of a successful library system in a smaller center is the Belgorod Oblast State Universal Scientific Library. (Belgorod is in South Western Russia near the Ukrainian border.)

Through their own publishing efforts, the large institutional libraries outlined above are able to participate in book exchanges in order to collect foreign publications. These exchanges seem to be a very positive innovation, as long as both partners in the exchange respect one another's needs. Hopefully, shipping costs will not become too prohibitive to these programs.

Russian librarians have had increased contact with Western librarians over the past decade. They have absorbed the current mania for automation in their libraries. Soviet Libraries were oppressed by censorship, but the services that were available were traditionally free. Now, Russian librarians are beginning to consider and implement user fees for services. Hopefully even the new electronic resources that are being created in Russia will accessible to all Russians in the emerging intellectually open society.

Russian librarians are accustomed to overcoming obstacles. Under Soviet rule it was a way of life. Now that the ideological restrictions have been lifted, new ones take their place in the form of financial hardships and the challenges of preserving collections that have been neglected for decades. Another barrier that is presenting itself is the barrier of gender. Karen Adams, another Canadian librarian who joined Helen Apoutchine on her tour of Russian libraries in April 1998, notes that all but one of the systems programmers she met were young men who had no library background. All of the librarians she met were women. When the librarians were asked about the new online systems, they responded by referring to the male technicians, saying: "That is what they do." Russian librarians and library software developers should not repeat the mistakes of their Western counterparts and learn to work together from the beginning. Unfortunately, cultural and gender biases already seem to be getting in the way. However, as I stated above, Russian librarians are accustomed to overcoming obstacles. They and their libraries are surviving this time of cultural transition. Their presence on the Internet testifies to that. Their recognition by the government and participation in national and international conferences and associations will also helps them to survive and develop. They need not fear any of the obstacles that lie before them because the most formidable obstacle of Soviet censorship has already been largely overcome.

Related Links:
Dobroussina, Svetlana. "Preservation Strategy in Russian Libraries: Priorities and Realization" in 63rd IFLA General Conference - Conference Programme and Proceedings. August 31- September 5, 1997.

 Henry, Charles. "Visiting Libraries in Russia" Londren Library, Rice University, 1997.

Shraiberg, Yakov. The Current State and Prospects of Online Systems in Russian Libraries. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 1995.