The Future of Russian Libraries: Current Problems and Development Forecasts

Some published and purely pessimistic scenarios for the development of Russian libraries are analyzed, based, among other things, on the statistics of printed book publishing in Russia, as well as on official data on the annual reduction in the number of public libraries. The one-sided and technocratic interpretation of the library as one of the information and communication channels that cannot compete with the Internet is fruitless. Long-standing predictions about the sad future of traditional libraries and printed book publishing have not been confirmed in practice. Book culture and book business in general, and books and libraries as their main subject and object in particular, are multifaceted. Printed and electronic books in modern conditions are increasingly acting not as antagonists, but mutually complement and enrich each other in the interests of the producer (author or publisher) and the end user (reader or buyer). The rejection of communist ideology and the change of technologies in the book world cannot diminish the socio-cultural role and humanistic significance of libraries as centers of personal development reading and education of a person able to navigate the information field. The library should not only provide free access to information, but also contribute in every possible way to the formation of socially significant knowledge. The problem of finding, critically evaluating and selecting high quality information becomes more acute every year. It is the library that has special opportunities in the practical training of its readers in these skills, i. e. to save the most valuable resource — time. Reliable state support is needed; this is the key to the further existence and development of libraries in Russia.