Library as the Spirit of Society

A three-hobby continues a series of articles about the present and future of INION. The newspaper turned to experts who spent more than one year in Ionion, with questions: “How do you see the future of INION (if you see)? How, in your opinion, should this future be developed and designed? " We publish expert answers and hope to continue the discussion.

Lev Gudkov , doct. Philos. sciences, professor, director of the Levada Center:

It seems to me that the catastrophe that happened to Inion is not realized by the educated community. We do not have in the full sense of the national library (this legal status is given only to certain book meetings - components of everything that relates to the culture of this country, including foreign materials about it). Both the RSB (Leninka) and the RND (Saltykovka) have long, already at the end of the Soviet era, lost the right to such an authority, not being able to ensure the fullness of the acquisition and providing it to readers.

In Leninka, the largest book meeting of the country at that time, more than 27% of the fund (special security, limited access funds, etc.) were not available to ordinary readers. But in comparison with what happened after the collapse of the USSR, the then position seems if not blooming, then quite normal.

INION Academy of Sciences of the USSR was at the end of the Soviet period a completely amazing and unique institute. Firstly, it was better than other large libraries is equipped with domestic and foreign literature in social and humanities. Secondly, the degree of openness was significantly higher (of course, only for employees of academic institutions, but this barrier could be without much difficulty overcome with the help of a “letter-attraction”). Thirdly, INION conducted a huge and extremely important referral and bibliographic work, providing all interested parties with operational analytical information in the form of RSA and collections of essays and reviews in which it was possible to read materials that are not available due to censorship and other restrictions.

Its difference from a full-fledged research institute was the absence of scientific discussions and the provision of a “lightweight” version of scientific ideas and statements adapted (after all!) Materials.

The death of INION was predetermined by constant narrowing of the volume of financing. Let me remind you that according to the initial project, INION was supposed to be located in two buildings (a multi-storey tower in free space was designed-the existing building has a L-shaped shape). Therefore, a lack of premises for book storage began to be felt for a long time, and the funds were gradually crushed and transferred to specialized institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where they were actually stable and not used; From here is a preserving number of refusals to readers in issuing the necessary books and a drop in the authority of INION as the largest, close in status to the national, library.

If we talk about the restoration of the role of INION, then, of course, we must return to the previous model “National Academic Library + Information and Analytical Institute”, but without its previous functions of the factory of preparing analytical notes in party authorities and ideological bodies. This should be the paramount analytical center of the latest information and literature on the social and humanities, oriented primarily on the coverage of new foreign research and publications.

This should be a self -governing Academic Institute, but under the control of the Council of trustees, represented by scientists from all specialized institutions and public intellectuals who have established themselves as disinterested moral authorities. In no case is a bureaucracy of any rank or sphere.

The library, as the largest historian and expert on library law Peter Karshedt, is the embodiment of the spirit of society, that is, values, memory and intellectual resources of this social, cultural, national or religious community. Today, none of the major libraries (having lost the possibility of adequate staffing, primarily foreign literature, but everything is quite deplorable with the domestic) does not meet this definition. Hence the growing superficiality and high-viewing of all those who write about modern social and cultural processes or socio-humanitarian problems (maybe excluding historical sciences, but here the strongest gap with Western works in conceptual and analytical terms is clearly felt).

Irina Dezhin, head of the group in scientific and industrial policy in Skoltkh, Vedas. scientific. sore. Institute of Economic Policy. E. T. Gaidara:

Inion was beautiful and modern for his era, a library in social sciences. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I collected materials for the dissertation there, and everything was convenient, affordable and comfortable-up to individual tables in reading rooms.

Inion should be a modern library, and not only in the sense that everything will be digitized there and be stored in modern formats. For public and humanities, access to paper publications is important, including the old. Figuratively speaking, watching the 1913 newspaper and holding it in his hands are completely different things. An additional sensation of time appears.

It is also quite natural that the library performs functions and the research center. Moreover, it can be a source of review and analytical information for government and parliamentary structures. For example, the US Congress library has a prompt research service (CongReansal Research Service), which publishes very high -quality thematic reviews for the congress, and the materials are politically neutral. The library can also be a cultural center where concerts are held, shows of classical and documentary films.

The future format and functions of INION can hardly be determined by the forces of the library team, especially taking into account the fact that during its plighting position a number of employees began to simply be in it, and fully works in other organizations.

The fate of the library should be decided by its founders, based on consultations with its users, employees, foreign professionals in the field of library. In addition to the general concept, there are a number of narrow -professional issues relating to the organization and work of libraries, which the experts should advise.