Organizing Research in Libraries: Framing the Problem

On September 27—28, 2023, the Russian National Library (RNL) hosted the First All-Russian Meeting of Deputy Directors of Libraries for Scientific and Methodological Work, organized on behalf of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation together with the Russian State Library (RSL) and the Russian Library Association. The main purpose of the meeting was to improve the organization of research work in central libraries of the Russian Federation subjects for more active participation of libraries in the implementation of the tasks set out in the “Fundamentals of State Cultural Policy”.The meeting was the next stage in the consistent work of national libraries to support, intensify and institutionalize research work in Russian libraries: the RNL developed a normative-recommendatory act “Sample Provision on Organization of Research Activities of the Central Library of the Subject of the Russian Federation”, adopted on June 15, 2023 at the All-Russian Library Congress; together with the RSL, courses were held as part of additional professional education on “Organization of Research Activities in Libraries”; a collection of articles “Research Activities in Regional Libraries: Content and Organization” was published.In the course of the meeting the issues of paramount importance for the central regional libraries were discussed: state scientific policy, the problem field of library research, experience in organizing research work in libraries of different types, methodology and techniques of library research, organization of interaction between central regional libraries and the RNL and the RSL within the framework of forming a unified system of scientific and methodological work of libraries. The main attention was paid to the central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation, which play the role of scientific and methodological centers for the libraries of the region. Based on the results of the meeting, further necessary measures were outlined to strengthen the scientific functions of libraries, which are important for the development of the country’s culture.