The problem of libraries handling extremist materials was discussed in Moscow

On February 25, 2009, the State Public Historical Library of Russia (GPIB) hosted a round table dedicated to the work of libraries with publications included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. The organizers of the round table were GPIB and the Information and Analytical Center "SOVA". The main objectives of the discussion were to develop an agreement on the positions of the library community and regulatory authorities on this issue and to develop recommendations for libraries to work with materials included in the Federal List.

The event was attended by: Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage - Head of the Department of Libraries and Archives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation T.L. Manilova, Deputy Head of the Department for the Preservation of Cultural Property of Rosokhrankultura A.M. Serpinsky, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the Russian Library Association , information and analytical center "SOVA", ANO "YURIKS", etc.

The keynote speakers for discussion were:

Director of the Information and Analytical Center "SOVA" Alexander Verkhovsky ;
director of GPIB Mikhail Afanasiev ;
Head of the Non-Traditional Print Funds Sector of the GPIB of Russia Yelena Strukova, .

The main attention of the participants of the discussion was related to the problems of inconsistency between the Federal Law "On Countering Extremist Activity" in terms of ensuring a ban on access to materials recognized by the courts as extremist and the main provisions of the Law "On Library Science". Meanwhile, the unsettledness of these contradictions has already become the reason for a number of sanctions by supervisory and law enforcement agencies in relation to both libraries and individual library employees.

In particular, the round table presented information on the results of inspections by the prosecutor's office of the implementation of the Federal Law "On Counteracting Extremist Activity", which were carried out in 2008 in the Kirov Regional Scientific Library and the libraries of the Voronezh Region.

The second part of the discussion was devoted to discussing the problems that arise when working in libraries with the "Federal List of Extremist Materials", which are primarily related to the lack of a unified description of documents.

Fragments of the transcript of the discussion can be found on our website in the "Publications" section.

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