"Foreigner" demands the dismissal of the new director, ex-adviser Medinsky. Vadim Duda has been appointed to the post of director of the Library of Foreign Literature (vgbil)

Interview with the new director of the All-Russian State Library foreign literature Vadim Duda

It would be nice to organize points for issuing books ordered from online stores in Inostranka and regional libraries. This is not only convenient, but also logical.

Vadim Duda: This is a great idea that we are already discussing. The library is really very good at organizing book logistics. And obviously the bookstore in the library is also an important thing. We roughly understand the demand of our readers.

Young people are reluctant to go to work in the library, because the pay is low. What is the average salary for a librarian?

Vadim Duda: Yes, we will certainly need "fresh brains". But at the same time, it is important to preserve the essence: the library should remain in the hands of professionals. A average earnings today we can compare with the average salary in the Moscow region - 30-40 thousand rubles.

How much has the number of subscribers decreased over the past few years?

Vadim Duda: The dynamics of issuing tickets, of course, is declining. Previously, they gave out about 8-9 thousand a year. Now - about 5 thousand.

Is the e-book to blame or the decline of culture in general?

Vadim Duda: There is such a thing as an external locus of control, when a person attributes his failures to external factors that he cannot influence. In our case, this is the emergence of the Internet, a decrease in interest in reading, an increase in the number of books. But how competitive are we in the fight for human attention? To what extent does our set of services meet people's expectations? How exciting is it to be back in the library again? This is in our area of ​​responsibility - our competitiveness in the fight for free time we must increase.

Do you believe that the day will come when all paper books will electronic form, A book novelties old - paper - sample will be just a highlight for book lovers?

Vadim Duda: I don't understand how one can read for the soul with . The book should be well published: only by reading with a pencil in hand, making notes, you can perceive the text deeply. But at the same time, everything should exist together: the same book in electronic form, in order to quickly look, refresh your memory, make a reference, for example. Well, and most importantly, a person should have a choice: if he wants to read - please, there is paper, there is electronic version just read, please.

You were involved in the creation of the National electronic library, there is an acute issue of copyright: can a reader from anywhere access books that are still covered by copyright, or is it worth reading such books in a library?

Vadim Duda: Unfortunately, little depends on librarians here. The balance of interests is shifted to the side. It will take serious efforts to shift the balance towards society. New licensing mechanisms are needed. The NEB should not be a threat to publishers, it should be a platform for a fair distribution of funds for reading books. On the other hand, it should have a wide range of readers. How to find this balance - this is a serious challenge to the NEB.

What is your favorite - desktop - book, what do you re-read?

Vadim Duda: It's hard to say, it often depends on the mood and on life situation. I do not have one universal book for all states. And with age, preferences change: in childhood -, Hemingway, in student times -,. Friends still remember how they “swallowed” Marquez in one day, opened the book and disappeared. I read a lot and constantly, if I start to list - it's a long time.

Do you follow modern Russian literature?

Vadim Duda: Certainly. It takes time to miss contemporary literature through yourself. Although you and I are sure different views about contemporary Russian literature. Due to age. Even at school I subscribed to "Youth", read Dean Rubin with pleasure. And for me, she is still a modern Russian writer. I love her humor, her caustic approach to theme, plot, and detail. That's why I don't like talking about women's or male literature. Literature can only be interesting, fascinating, talented or brilliant.

REFERENCE
Vadim Duda was born on December 24, 1964. Graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering, having defended a diploma in English language. In 2005 he received an MBA degree (American Institute of Business and Economics). For some time he was the director of the Department of Information Policy and International Relations of the Ministry of Culture Russian Federation, was an adviser to the Minister of Culture. He was involved in the development of libraries, the creation of the National Electronic Library (NEB), worked on the creation of the library of the Center children's creativity in Sochi.

31.07.2015

About the new concept for the development of "Inostranka" and the situation with cultural centers, about promising international plans and the opening of a regional network of branches, about NEL and library associations in an interview with the General Director of the VGBIL named after M.I. Rudomino Vadim DUDA.

Vadim Valerievich, three months have passed since your appointment as General Director of VGBIL. I'm sure, to the end to delve into everything problematic issues during this time it has not yet been possible, but I think I have succeeded in “plunging headlong” into the library space of “Foreigner”. What was the most difficult for you then (at the time of making the decision) and now?

You know, to be honest, everything happened quite unexpectedly. Inostranka has always been a library with a serious identity, a reputable brand, and a strong leader at its head. We all associated the library with the name of Ekaterina Yurievna Genieva, it was an unshakable dogma. A very difficult decision to take a place after such a person. But I must say that the great merit of Inostranka is that a very positive internal atmosphere. The concept of “tolerance” has entered the consciousness of the collective so much that people try not to express harsh judgments, there is no rejection. Before drawing any conclusions, they first seek to understand what is the matter and understand the position of the interlocutor. It helped me a lot in many ways.

To be frank: in my three months of working in the library, I have not had a single day when I would get up in the morning with a heavy heart and think that I would again have to plunge into this tangle of problems. I get great pleasure from meetings with colleagues, I see that everyone is ready for active work. I clearly understand how I can be useful to the library at the current stage of its development. I think the most difficult stage already behind.

Why do you think the choice fell on your candidacy? What competencies have become your competitive advantage? There was a lot of talk in the community that you speak some huge number of foreign languages.

- (Laughs.) Of course, I can communicate with the taxi driver, solve some everyday issues in five or six languages. English, by the way, I do not consider foreign: it is must have, just has to be. I am sure that this is not a matter of languages ​​at all, this cannot be a decisive competitive advantage. The library is not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we are not diplomats.

I must say that I was somewhat surprised by the systematic approach of the ministry. When I G.P. Ivliev very carefully hinted at the appointment, I was very puzzled, but he gave several arguments that were based on the VGBIL Development Program adopted back in 2012. Priority areas included the development of the communication component, IT, international cooperation, and educational programs. Working in the ministry, I roughly understood how financing mechanisms are arranged, I understand information technologies, having been doing this one way or another for the last 20 years, I headed APRIKT for a year. So there was logic. Probably, this is the case when the decision was not emotional under the influence of the public mood, but very rational: they compared certain competencies of the candidate and the needs of the organization for this moment.

- What changes will affect the personnel and personnel policy of the library?

In one of his recent interviews E.Yu. Genieva said that there are many daring plans, but very little time. To be honest, I do not quite agree with this thesis. It's not just about one person, it's about the entire organization. We are going to actively continue what was started not only by Ekaterina Yurievna, but also by Margarita Ivanovna Rudomino. We have enough time, and it is very important that the team ensure consistency. I am sure that one should not move away from the roots and the principle “a new broom sweeps in a new way” is not suitable here.

I am a supporter of the evolutionary approach: it is necessary to single out the main thing from what was created by the great predecessors, and build a development program on this. Therefore, no drastic changes in the personnel policy is not planned. Of course, we will invite people with new competencies that are needed to implement the library's priority development plans. For example, the interaction with the Ministry of Culture of Russia is not well built. This requires some specific work and understanding of what is happening in the relevant department.

We receive very little funds for extrabudgetary activities from the FTP, we need to intensify this direction. Equipment needs to be purchased major renovation, develop electronic resources. This requires constant, routine interaction.

As far as I understand, during these three months you were supposed to formulate a concept for the development of VGBIL. It is clear that it must be built in accordance with the already mentioned program, approved by the Ministry of Culture in 2012. Nevertheless, share the main provisions and theses of your vision of the development of the library. What areas do you prioritize?

There are several public bodies whose opinion we value. One of them is the Library Board of Trustees. We considered it necessary to hold an extraordinary meeting in early September, because the main provisions of the concept must be approved by the Council, among other things. We have approved the concept as a framework, now we are filling it with details.

The main thesis is that the library's mission is to be the center of international cultural communication. It should form tolerant thinking, intercultural competence, so that people are ready for the challenges of both physical globalization, and information, and life in a multicultural world. This means that for us one of critical factors becomes an audience. Of course, all library issues - acquisitions, collections, preservation of collections, and maintenance - are priorities, we will deal with this simply by default. But besides this, we must actively develop the communication component.

We analyzed the composition of the audience of "Foreigners", the services in demand. It turned out that approximately 42% of visits are provided by library services, 20% - by an electronic reading room, and the remaining 38% are attracted by international cultural centers. The concept that was formulated by M.I. Rudomino, that the library is a center for learning languages, familiarizing different cultures, "a window to the world" - and is now very relevant. 84% of all orders fall on several main topics: linguistics, literary criticism, fiction on foreign languages. The number of visitors to the electronic reading room and electronic services in general is growing rapidly.

For two months, we have been carefully tracking the path of the library visitor: where he goes, how much time he spends with us. It turns out that at the same time 30 people are in the electronic reading room, another 30 - in the library halls and the same number - in international cultural centers. Thus, 80-90 people are present in the library at the same time. I must say that we have something to strive for. Even with today's layout and placement in the reading room, we have about 220 jobs. Thus, it is far from being completely filled. Up to 150 people can be in cultural centers at the same time. By the way, cultural centers give 45-50 thousand visits per year, of which more than a half- American. The reason is objective - there are about 700 events a year. For comparison: in Japanese - 100, he is in second place in terms of attendance.

I return to the analysis of the behavior of the reader: it turned out that the average time of his stay in the library is quite short - about an hour. You can, of course, say that people read books less, but you need to take a sober look at things: if a person has worked for an hour or two, then he needs to drink coffee, have a snack, and just relax and unwind.

We took into account the wishes of readers and identified four main areas in which we want to be leaders. First of all, these are international cultural centers. There should be a lot of them, we plan to allocate special areas in order to increase their number (today there are 14). We must take a leading position in the direction of virtual services. It is necessary that the library become interesting and comfortable for work: there should be a cafe, places for co-working. And of course, regional development is a priority. We want to have a regional network. Of course, we need a new portal. And we will actively participate in the NEB.

I would like to dwell on two potential projects that seem interesting and promising to me. Now everyone is upset by the difficulties with acquisition: the exchange rate of the euro and the dollar is growing, the subscription to electronic resources is becoming very expensive. We want to offer national libraries in different countries to open their virtual reading rooms in Inostranka. Everyone has a roughly similar approach to copyright, i.e. access to full texts only from library premises.

I'll give you an example. How many Portuguese are there in Moscow? I don't think so. But the library should provide access to modern books, research materials, scientific work. At the same time, it is costly to complete their own full fund for them. Virtual access to electronic resources National Library Portugal can solve this problem.

Another project is the digitization of periodicals. In our bookstore great amount archives of newspapers in foreign languages. At the same time, there is very little information about them in the catalog: we do not list them by articles, content, in fact, only the number and date of issue are known. This is not very convenient for searching, the value of such a catalog as an information resource is low. At the same time, this archive takes up a lot of space, and its demand is minimal.

There is a temptation to digitize everything and empty the shelves, but it is obvious that we need not just scans, but metadata, a tagging system, etc. At the same time, the same newspapers, most likely, are in major libraries ah those countries where newspapers were published. Therefore, in the Council of Europe, we proposed to agree with libraries on cooperation, joint digitization of periodicals, and develop common technological approaches so that all project participants can continue to use a common resource.

Serious changes await the premises of the library itself. We intend to make the first floor open social space. There will be a bookstore, a literary cafe, areas for meetings with authors, master classes, and presentations. Anyone can enter there. In Finland, I saw a very interesting picture: there people stand in line for the opening of the library to read the latest newspaper and drink a cup of coffee. I'm not sure that it will take root in our country, but such practices are worth studying.

Any ideas for an update? courtyard libraries. On the second floor, it is planned to have an e-book hall and rooms where you can gather in a small group of two or three people, a coworking space. People will be able to work effectively there, and it is planned to equip isolated, private offices.

In the library, in an open space, there are cultural centers, but there are also administrative premises which we will try to free up by opening new reading rooms and new international cultural centers. We are thinking about more careful zoning of the premises: South and North America, Europe, Asia, so that the reader can easily find the resources of interest in the relevant part of the library. We want to do all this together with embassies, institutions and people who are responsible for promoting the culture of these regions and who can help with funds and events.

There is an idea to place a multi-format space on the fifth floor (on the roof), including a reading room and a literary cafe. There is a stunning view of Moscow. It will be possible to take a book from any reading room with an open layout, go upstairs, read, relax and spend at least the whole day there.

It is clear that the project is expensive - we will talk about tens of millions of rubles, but this is not a matter of one year. We want to start from the ground floor and modernize it over the next year. We have already discussed the project with the ministry and private investors. Obviously, this should be done only in cooperation, to find a mutually beneficial mechanism for public-private partnership.

It is natural that we plan to expand interaction with our foreign partners. When we communicate with embassies, they are ready to provide books, multimedia materials, organize meetings with authors and cultural figures, interesting people. For them, this means an increase in the number of contacts, access to materials. And if we also offer a regional network, we can count on an increase in the number of books, materials, and meetings with interesting people.

The essence of our proposal on regional cooperation is roughly as follows. We want to agree on the creation of "Inostranka" corners (allocation of space for books, multimedia resources with Internet access) in regional libraries, while taking over their filling with foreign literature and multimedia funds with the support of our international partners, as well as providing a cultural program. Thus, we will be able to offer people who come through the institutes of embassies and cultural funds to visit not only VGBIL, but also a network of regional branches.

I know that VGBIL was chosen as a pilot project in terms of implementing the initiative of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation V. Medinsky to open bookstores in libraries. How do you evaluate this idea in terms of effectiveness in your library and in Russia as a whole?

Oddly enough, there is a common goal for both the library and the store - to increase traffic, the audience. Of course, the flow available today - 150-200 people - is not enough for a bookstore.

Cafes, meetings with authors, presentations and other events will attract an additional audience, which will indirectly affect the operator's revenue. I consider it important to carefully approach the choice of the thematic focus and format of this store. Not sure if any one statement can match all types of libraries.

We have a very specific audience, and an ordinary bookstore is not our format. Perhaps, at the first stage, it is worth limiting ourselves to terminals for ordering books, given the modest possibilities of libraries in terms of the area that they can allocate. Right now I don't see a ready-made concept that would suit us, but we are very actively working on its creation.

Given the difficult political situation, many questions have recently arisen regarding the cultural centers of VGBIL, in particular the American one. How was the situation resolved?

International centers are an extremely important asset for us. This is a priority both as a source of extrabudgetary income and as an interesting service for the audience. But all centers should be transferred to a certain legal field, since there are many comments on this matter.

A week after my arrival at Inostranka, I gathered representatives of all international cultural centers and set them the task of working to legitimize all agreements.

We also informed our US colleagues about this, but they took a rather tough position: no auctions, everything that the State Department said is sacred. This situation did not suit us, the agreement should correspond to our understanding of the legal field. Having received such a harsh conclusion from the US Embassy that absolutely nothing can be changed, we were forced to notify them that we were waiving the current grant agreement.

I emphasize that we have not given up on the American center, it is open and fully functional, we have given up money. The center has been preserved with the same area and equipment, the people who worked in it have been transferred to full-time positions in the library. We are restoring the programs that were there. Moreover, we want to continue to cooperate with our American colleagues, but only on terms that comply with Russian law and are accepted by both parties, and not just by the US State Department.

For two years you participated in the NEB project. Is the project development strategy chosen today appropriate, in your opinion? What are its weaknesses, what services should be added or developed?

I think we have achieved a lot during this time. Main value in the fact that the NEL from a "cabal" of several large libraries has become a matter for a wide community. Of course, a lot of things can be criticized, but in general, the NEL is gradually becoming a truly general library project. Of course, now it is not such, because there is little motivation for participation.

We are still very far from ideal, and if we talk about the prospects, then, in my opinion, the main thing that needs to be done is to create a system to stimulate the participation of libraries in this project.

What I don't want is for the NEL to become a website for the RSL or some other library. The NEL should become a set of electronic libraries, a system of organizational, legal and technological measures that encourage libraries to create electronic collections and share them with a wide audience.

We are in very close contact with everyone who participates in the NEB, I am actively involved in this on new position. We will help, support and try to ensure that the interests of the broad library community are taken into account.

- How do you evaluate the model for solving legal issues regarding access to modern content in the NEL?

Together with the EKSMO publishing house, we have developed pilot project"Giving access to e-books", where the model is completely different. We do not buy anything for storage, but acquire access to a fund of 50,000 books and will organize the issuance of these books through Inostranka's partner libraries at the request of the user.

There are differences from the current model of interaction between libraries and LitRes, where everything is organized more complicated: there are instances that have their own life cycle, you have to buy them. Here we agreed to pay only for use, we buy a certain number of loans from a fairly wide range.

The project with EKSMO also implies the acquisition of regional offices with books in electronic format. The partner library will receive a login and password for the administrative part of the system and will be able to issue logins to its readers. They will download mobile app, branded as a library, and will be able to receive e-books for temporary use.

I think that in six months or a year we will have certain statistics, an understanding of how much this is in demand by readers and libraries.

I am against attempts to forcibly alienate some rights, content. We need a fair mechanism for distributing money depending on usage and views, Pay per view for example. Everything should be clear and transparent for all parties - readers, libraries, publishers, founders.

- With what collections does Inostranka plan to participate in the NEB?

This year we will most likely include our “bilingual” publications in the NEL. The classics were published - Pushkin, Lermontov, other great poets - in Russian and French, Russian and English, Russian and Italian. I think this is a very unusual and popular format, content that will arouse interest.

You were one of the initiators of the creation of the Libraries of the Future Association, becoming the Vice President of this organization. How do you see its future?

The main role of the Association, in my opinion, is that it should become a partner of the state in the field of management major projects related to the library industry, such as the NEL, the inclusion of 10% of annually published books, the distribution of digital books, etc. The ministry cannot accurately formulate all the tasks of the industry, there are very few resources.

There is a need for a collective management body for large projects. They may become a new Association. In addition, it can help bring together library resources for joint mutually beneficial projects.

- And what prevents this from being done within the framework of the existing RBA?

I'll try to explain. If you remember, there was a “battle of the titans” at the RBA presidential elections in Ryazan a year ago - Ya.L. Shraiberg and V.R. Firsov. V.R. Firsov was of the opinion that the association is a political body, it should express the opinion of the community, ensure its consolidated position. This is definitely an important feature.

Ya. L. Shraiberg stood on the economic platform: the association should manage certain resources, participate in the implementation of government contracts, there should be projects supported by money and resources.

It seems to me that these approaches are very different, it is difficult to combine them within the same association. And the conflict, in my opinion, was not caused by the very idea of ​​​​creating a new association, but rather by a clash of personalities of very respected people, a certain misunderstanding. I don't see anything wrong with competition, but I think that the two associations should be partners and not replace each other or confront each other.

It is necessary to develop trust; without it, major undertakings and projects are impossible.

Prior to your appointment, you were actively involved in projects for the implementation of the Model Library Standard. How do you assess the practical applicability of this document in your current status?

I hope we will use all our developments on the Model Standard in the regional development project. At the end of the year, we plan to launch a library in Bogolyubovo that meets the Model Standard, Inostranka will supply some of the equipment, and we will help the ministry to implement this project.

Serious discussions in the professional community caused proposals for remote recertification of personnel. What is your attitude towards this initiative?

I think this is a very promising idea. It is quite possible that this may become the work of a new association, one of its directions. Everything related to distance education, remote certification can be of great interest, there is clearly a future behind this.

- How do you plan to organize the publishing activities of the library?

For the library, publishing is not important in itself. This is not a business, not a KPI, this is a reason to bring interesting people, organize meetings, presentations, ie. rather a way of solving political, classroom tasks.

I will highlight two areas that I am very impressed with in our publishing. The first is the publication of "bilingual", bilingual publications. This is an excellent tool for promoting the language, these books should be mandatory to complete representative offices of Rossotrudnichestvo, diplomatic missions, foreign universities. The second is our interaction with the Forum of Slavic Cultures, such as the series "One Hundred Slavic Novels". We must not give up in the fight against the global dominance of the English language.

In recent years, the positioning of the Russian library community on the international professional landscape is a very difficult topic, given the fact that Russia has lost its former positions and our “presence” in IFLA is another indicator of this. What priority steps, in your opinion, should be taken to promote domestic projects more actively?

I agree that we are not aggressive enough and consistently behave in the international professional arena. Unfortunately, we are poorly visible in the international information field. What was the Russian delegation like in Cape Town? 12 people. There were more than 250 American colleagues. Of the 12, as far as I understand, there was not a single director of the national and federal libraries. And how many of the 12 present could communicate informally in English? How many presentations are there at the annual IFLA Forum? Hundreds. And how many of them were Russian? There are many questions, and all the answers are not in our favor.

We need to very clearly formulate the policy of presence in IFLA, in other international venues. There must be permanent members in sections, committees, board. We must actively influence the agenda. Opinion leaders and authorities in international associations are needed.

Until we have permanent members in the leadership of such organizations who are in the know, enjoy authority and really do something, things will not move forward.

We had a similar situation with the Council of Europe. When we started communicating through the Ministry of Culture, we chose a policy aimed at active participation in project management within the committees of the Council of Europe. One of them was the conference of ministers of culture of the countries of the Council of Europe in 2013. This means that we fully participated in the Bureau and working groups.

We actively influenced the agenda and implementation issues. And most importantly, after this conference, the Council of Europe issued a document - the Moscow Agenda, which fixed the pan-European priorities in the development of culture, including in the field of digital technologies, for several years.

I think that in order to promote the Russian library community in the international arena, an active working group, which should cover topics of interest at the international level, it should have a certain resource, support. Then it will be possible to talk about the development and implementation of a strategy for our international cooperation, increasing the significance and authority of Russia.

- What are your preferences in reading by genres and formats?

It is difficult to answer the question unambiguously, it depends on the situation and the situation. I often have Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce on my bedside table, although now there is Anton Donchev, a Bulgarian writer. Interesting, sounds a little weird, but I like it. And if I were on a train, at night, in winter, I would gladly re-read Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, in order to feel especially clearly how “a snowstorm molded circles and arrows on the glass” ... By the way, I don’t read e-books, it doesn’t deliver great fun. Only paper!

- Thank you and good luck!

Interviewed by Elena Beilina

General Director of the Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature Vadim Duda spoke in an interview with RIA Novosti about new educational projects, cultural and training centers, said that a new one will appear in the library after a large-scale renovation, and also shared his thoughts on how the library community should develop in the conditions rapid development information technologies.

— The beginning of the school year is approaching. Is it planned to create educational projects for pupils and students? Perhaps the number of meetings and master classes on the basis of the cultural centers of the library will increase?

— This year we decided to create an educational cluster. We will single out a whole wing of the library - classrooms, places for recreation, very precisely prepared for educational services. To begin with, we will continue the language courses, which we will conduct in conjunction with the cultural institutions of the respective countries: English - with the British Council, Spanish - with the Cervantes Institute. The first Spanish groups will appear this autumn. Courses will also open in other major languages ​​- Italian, German, French - together with the cultural institutions of these countries. There are several national cultural centers in Inostranka: American, Japanese, Dutch, Azerbaijani and so on. Many educational programs are held on the basis of these cultural centers - these are conversation clubs, meetings with representatives of embassies, meetings with native speakers. A lot of attention is paid to national cultures and their peculiarities: in the Japanese Center, for example, master classes in traditional tea drinking or origami are held.

About 150 events are planned for September. Most of the meetings devoted to the study of foreign languages ​​will be held at the American Center and the recently opened Francothek. Inostranka will also host the 4th International Congress of Fiction Translators "Literary Translation as a Means cultural diplomacy", Days of Czech Culture and other events.

- A message appeared on the Inostranka website that the Center for Slavic Cultures will soon appear. Can you tell us more about it, when will it open?

— We have been communicating with the Forum of Slavic Cultures (FSK) for a long time, we had a lot of publishing projects: a series of "One Hundred Slavic Novels" and individual works, which we published jointly with the forum. We thought that in Inostranka, among a large number of national or language centers, there is a great lack of a single center dedicated to Slavic culture, to which our country also belongs. We decided to open a specialized hall with an extensive program of events dedicated to Slavic culture and a library of literature on Slavic languages. FSK will be a partner of the Center for Slavic Cultures. Now the forum includes 13 countries, including Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and so on. All of them are of great cultural interest. Our center will be open either in December 2016 or at the very beginning of 2017. Work is already underway, we are selecting funds, FSK is helping us establish contacts with libraries and ministries of the relevant countries, which, we hope, will help us with both books and filling the activities of this center, so that there are people, meetings, live communication.

- At the moment, Russia is in the process of restoring relations with Turkey. As far as I know, the Turkish language that existed in Inostranka Cultural Center was closed. Is there a plan to reopen it?

Let's look at the situation from a pragmatic point of view. The center is a room in which there are books, people, events. The activity of the center was financed by one of the foundations of Russian-Turkish cooperation. At some point the funding stopped. Everything related to the premises and books remained safe and sound, but the activity ceased. This is not a library solution. If we have partners, we will continue this work with pleasure.

- Is the foreigner planning to open any new points in the library, cultural or educational centers?

The library is currently undergoing major renovations. Our cultural and social center will open on the first floor in autumn, there will be a reception, places for self-registration of readers. In addition, two very important points of the library will appear - a bookstore and a literary cafe, large areas of which will be located in the open air. We often hold book presentations, meetings with authors - this is one of the best formats for attracting interest in reading and buying books. We have our own devoted audience, which is interested in languages, linguistics, literary criticism, interesting novelties - we will rely on them in our bookstore, where there will be books on art, albums, catalogs, fiction in languages.

Literary cafe will become a place of live communication. We think that our bookstore is an important pilot project for the library environment, because libraries can be good places to open bookstores: there are a lot of them, people who love the book fanatically work in them. In addition, libraries are usually conveniently located.

A little later, I think, next year, there will be a redevelopment of the Atrium: there will be specialized places for outdoor meetings, a small cinema ... Until we reveal all the secrets.

In 2017, we plan to open the Italian Cultural Center, because the Italian language and culture require great attention. This is the fourth most popular direction among our readers. Then we will think about opening the Center for German Culture, but specific plans Not yet.

In addition, at the end of this year, we will open the Pearson laboratory. Pearson is a publishing house that specializes in the study of languages, mainly English. It will be a multimedia center where you can come to work out on your own, teachers will be able to try out certain Pearson methods and use them in the educational process.

— Tell us more about the laboratory. Will it be a computer class where individual students will come? Or a group class?

- And so and so. It will be open to readers of Inostranka, including in virtual form: users will have access to certain resources, methods and programs without leaving their homes. The class will also be open to teachers of language groups.

— How will funding take place?

— You see, libraries have always been a point of access to knowledge. Knowledge used to be associated with a book, but now it is available in some other form. Why should the library stay away? Both ourselves and in cooperation with our partners, we will finance access to electronic resources.

— Not so long ago, the Francoteka opened in the library. Are there any statistics on visits to the center?

— Francoteca is in great demand. Summer, in general, is a quiet period, but in the month and a half of its work, the center was visited by about 600 people, which is very good indicator. Francoteka is a successful project that is interesting to the audience. I think that starting from September we will increase the number of events and programs.

— Inostranka's website has a user-friendly interface, clear navigation. What are the plans for the development of the library in the virtual environment?

— A library is a fairly complex organization in terms of information support. What have librarians always been good at? Receive a large number of books, classify, systematize, catalogue, provide correct placement to quickly find the book you need. This has been practiced for centuries.

20 years ago, information technologies burst into our lives and it became clear that with their help it is possible to open library collections, describe them and systematize them. But it is not always easy to transfer the principles of working with paper catalogs to electronic form, since this is a completely different environment that requires different approaches. In most libraries, electronic catalogs are similar to paper ones. Our website is a good example. We have a really convenient and modern interface that allows you to quickly navigate the flow of announcements and news. However, there is a big gap in the electronic catalogue. We plan to spend a lot of effort and time to ensure that our catalog becomes as adequate and relevant as possible, that is, it fully opens our funds and is user-friendly, contains scans of covers, tables of contents, and information from encyclopedic sources. We have about five million storage units, of which there are two and a half million books. In order to put all electronic records in order, you need to verify the record, make sure that the book is in place - this is a very serious job, which we will be doing for at least two or three years.

— Are there enough employees for this job?

— No, not enough. The library community is beginning to realize that we need to think about the technology of our traditional processes. In order for the library to become a place for meetings and communication, resources must be freed up. The library needs to be more efficient, more well organized so that we can free up time and resources for educational, educational, cultural and social activities.

— What rare, representing special interest books or book collections can appear in the library?

- We are guided by the fact that the library should receive about 10 thousand new books a year. The specificity of our library is that we deal with foreign literature. Over the past two years, our ability to buy literature has halved, because the exchange rate of the ruble has changed. We are working on projects such as Francoteka to help ensure that the library receives new interesting books in foreign languages ​​and maintain the level of acquisition. At the opening of the center, we received about seven thousand books for French and subscription to electronic resources: in fact, this is our annual plan for the receipt of books. Indeed, there are certain difficulties. It is necessary to improve the efficiency of internal processes in order to free up funds for the purchase of new books.

— A foreigner is engaged in the digitization of books. What stage is the digitization process currently in? What was the plan, say, for a year and how much has already been completed?

- Let's figure it out. There are at least two areas of digitization: the first is what we are doing for the National Electronic Library (NEL). The ideology of the NEB is to provide access to knowledge. About one hundred thousand book titles are published annually in Russia. The average circulation of the book is 5,000. If we talk about scientific books - 500 pieces. The NEB focuses on preserving what is published in a very small circulation, but creates a large fund of knowledge. This year we will add about a thousand books to the NEL that correspond to the NEL acquisition profile: culture, science, education. By November, we will complete this task.

The second is digitization, which we do ourselves. We try to digitize rare books and those that may be lost at some point due to their dilapidation. These figures are approximately equal to what we do for the NEB. Such rates, of course, are insufficient. Our fund of rare books consists of about 60 thousand copies, and at least this fund needs to be digitized.

— Which books are more popular - electronic or paper?

- Probably, I can’t answer this question for you, and here’s why: it seems that e-books are more popular. But libraries do not have many convenient services for providing access to e-books. Our pilot project with LitRes and the AST-EKSMO publishing house showed that people are interested in electronic books. But after reading such a book, they often come to the conclusion that they want to buy a paper version. E-books good for quick reading, for finding information. Real reading is still a paper book. These are completely different media with different purposes.

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• source: openrussia.org

Library employee: He breaks the entire library into boutiques, turns it into a shopping center

Text Tasya Nikitenko

Employees of the Library for Foreign Literature demand the dismissal of director Vadim Duda. They accuse the new leader of incompetence, shutting down key departments, harassing and harassing old employees, and misappropriating funds. Tasya Nikitenko spoke with employees of three departments of Inostranka (names and positions of employees are not indicated at their request) and with Vadim Duda himself to find out what is happening in one of the country's main libraries.

The hardest winter

On Inostranka's website, in the section devoted to its history, it is stated: The first winter of the Library, the winter of 1921-1922, was probably the most difficult in its history. It is not a fact that the current employees of Inostranka will agree with this statement.

In 2015, after the death of Ekaterina Genieva (she headed the All-Russian state library foreign literature. M.I. Rudomino since 1993. - Open Russia) post CEO one of the main libraries of the country was occupied by Vadim Duda, a leader with a bright background.

Vadim Duda graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering and the American Institute of Business and Economics with an MBA program.



He was engaged in air transportation to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, from 2002 to 2012 he worked in the Terem group of companies on leadership positions, was the rector of the Academy of retraining of workers of art, culture and tourism. I met 2015 as Director of the Department of Information Policy and International Relations of the Ministry of Culture in the status of Advisor to the Minister Vladimir Medinsky.

The library director's lack of specialized education was the first complaint of the staff. Vadim Duda himself in an interview with Open Russia said that he did not see this as a problem: My very first job was in the library of the Moscow Aviation University in 1984. So the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. I spent a lot of time working with information, information technology and international. Therefore, it seems to me that the library is not a place that does not fit my profile of activity at all. I think there was some sort of pattern.

The protest of the library staff moved into an active phase in 2016, after the library’s book depository was sealed due to the lack of fire extinguishing systems. Then the visitors and employees of Inostranka lost access to four million books for several months.

Vadim Duda did not deny that problems with the bookkeeping department still exist, and even offered to give a tour. Her most striking moment was the discovery of an empty bottle of Russian currency vodka, covered with a layer of dust, hidden in a fire cabinet behind a hose.

The new director of Inostranka said that the contract for the installation of a fire-fighting system had already been concluded, and by the end of June the book depository would be equipped with everything necessary. On the public procurement website, there is indeed a contract for 127 million rubles, which was concluded with the USC Group, which was engaged in the installation of fire protection systems in office buildings and towers of the Kremlin.

Every square meter must be sold

The next item on the list of claims against the director was personnel policy. The library staff told Open Russia about the mass layoffs - the vacant seats were occupied, according to them, by friends and relatives of Duda: We are being replaced by people who were engaged in private business. They are not oriented at all, they are destroying the library. For example, Mikhail Shubin and Anastasia Dyatlovskaya, Duda's former colleagues at Terem, now work, respectively, as the head of the information technology center and the head of the development department (the position was established by Duda).



On January 30, employees of the library's exhibition department received a notice that their unit would be liquidated on March 31. The dismissed employees are sure that they will be eliminated because they took up a lot of space: the exhibition department was located on an area of ​​​​about 600 square meters.

He (Vadim Duda. - Open Russia) constantly says: "Every square meter of the library should be sold." He constantly reproaches us that there are no queues for us, as for Serov. But such queues are a mockery of both the person and the culture. We have a different function, but he does not understand this.

Vadim Duda explained to Open Russia that the exhibition department has been reduced due to its irrelevance: The library does not have such a volume of exhibition projects. We are not a museum, not an exhibition organization. We do not need this activity to such an extent. I sincerely regret that we have to part with good people. But for us the most important thing is the library. The people are nice, nothing personal.

As one of the confirmations of his theory about the liberation of the area in commercial purposes employees cite the position of real estate director established by Duda.

The editors have at their disposal documents confirming that such a position was indeed created, it is occupied by Elena Aleksandrovna Novikova. In addition, one of the employees of Inostranka spoke with the workers he met in the library, and they said that some of the premises are being prepared for a change of profile.

He doesn't consider us human.

Library staff speak unflatteringly about the level of culture of the new administration. So, according to them, during the formation of the French Center, the directorate asked for 12 meters of books, and they mistakenly called the bust of Voltaire given to them by Louis XIV.

According to the library staff, Duda is forcing specialists to write applications for own will:

He destroyed humanity. He doesn't consider us human. I compare it with the occupation regime. People do not tolerate repression.

Librarians say that the administration puts psychological pressure on employees to sign resignation letters. Among the methods of influence, in addition to threats and harassment, they also cite a rather inventive method: Duda draws up lists for dismissal without his signature and sends it to departments. When people ask what it is, he says that he has no idea and in general there is no signature on the document. Well, you can imagine what state people are in after that. Another way to influence was the appointment of two employees to one position - this happened with the Slavic Center, which now has several leaders.



Vadim Duda called the topic of dismissals of employees delicate and difficult: This is not an initiative of the library management. The people are very nice. We can't risk the library. Yes, we can reduce our social activities, cultural sphere, but we cannot and will not risk the library. I don't think you'll find a single abbreviated librarian or specialist library activities. On our initiative, no one has been fired yet.

Library staff told Open Russia that a total of 16 people left Inostranka in 2017. This is almost 10% of the entire library staff. 10 people left the Acquisition Department, among them - librarians and bibliographers, the head of the sector and department. A few more people are preparing to write a statement. The entire exhibition department has been reduced - 9 specialists (although three of them remain working in the library). Inostranka employees also say that the recruitment department will be halved (there are 45 employees in the department).

Destruction or modernization?

The day after the interview, Vadim Duda got in touch with Open Russia and said that during a conversation with a journalist, he kept silent about the fact that some of the employees left the library because of disagreement with his policy: Now the situation is this: in the complex acquisition department ( in total - 45 employees) 6 employees wrote letters of resignation by agreement of the parties (with the payment of additional compensation), in the exhibition department 9 employees received a notice of reorganization, 5 employees resigned of their own free will, also with the payment of additional compensation, 4 remain working in the library. I think that they decided to leave because they do not agree with certain decisions of the leadership.



In fact, three people remain to work, the library staff corrects the director.

The library's current international activities are described as a poor caricature by the staff. According to them, many of the old partners have already turned their backs on Inostranka, while the rest continue to cooperate according to the old memory.

The library has been destroyed. Vadim Duda requires efficiency from any activity.

He breaks the entire library into boutiques, turns it into a shopping center. He needs the halls, and he's downsizing departments.

Over the past year, three international projects have been opened in the library. One of them is Frankoteka. Francoteka is a unique project. I really hope that it will help us partly solve the problems with staffing, because all the embassies participating in the project are ready to help us. At the opening, we received 9,000 books from the French Embassy,” Duda said.

They really donated 9,000 books,” the library staff commented. - But the French did not know where to write them off two years ago.

In December, the Center for Slavic Cultures was opened in Inostranka, and at the end of February, the resource center of the Pearson publishing house will start working.

Our library was an eyesore

According to Duda, in 2016 the library received 16,000 books. According to the library staff, in 2016 the library fund was practically not replenished. At the initiative of the new administration, several dozens of books in Danish were purchased;

One of the library workers shared with Open Russia the fear that during the recent renovation in Inostranka, part of the funds was misused: They spent 38 million on repairs. The elevators were supposed to start operating in September, but this has not yet happened. Employees also claim that there are dead souls among the workers. As an example, they cite Irina Dzhunzhurova, who works in the Ministry of Culture, but at the same time is on the staff of the library, not working in it.

One of the library staff believes that it was a matter of principle for the Ministry of Culture to kill the library: There was a real American center in Inostranka.

The Ministry of Culture irritated Genieva's liberal halo.

She refused to close the American Cultural Center, the British Council. And all this was very annoying.

The library terminated the agreement with the US Embassy in Moscow with the arrival of a new director - in September 2015.

Our library was a thorn in the eye of the Ministry of Culture,” recalls an employee. - But the main thing is that Genieva had people and culture, culture and people. Now this is not.

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