 The Russian National Library has about 34 million printed and other informational sources for readers of different interests. Each year, the library lends out over 12 million editions and serves almost 1.5 million visitors: they are scientists, teachers, and businessmen, representatives of the industrial sphere, culture and art.
Thanks to its history, and its unique collections of handwritten and printed documents translated into all foreign languages, the Russian National Library is famous around the world and holds an honorable place among national libraries of the world.
The library is an active member of international professional society; it takes part in realization of United Nations programmes, UNESCO, IFLA, European Soviet and other international organizations, and collaborates with organizations in the cultural, scientific and educational spheres.
While safely keeping cultural and historical traditions, the library management looks forward. The 'Digital Revolution', having hit the whole world, has made some changes in understanding the role and place of the library in modern life. By the end of the XXIth century it has turned into popular informational centre of digitized texts necessary for scientific work and acquiring knowledge. Its rich stock and informational potential are becoming more accessible to a wide range of readers. Like the other largest libraries in the world, the Russian National Library is aiming to preserve, develop and use its unique resources with maximum benefit for society, promote them, and work in cooperation with other libraries.
The National electronic library, created in the RNL, is becoming a modern, widely-accessible national informational resource.
Among the library’s strategic goals are on-line user service: regardless of place of residence everyone has access to the library’s stock and information.
The RNL is developing not only as a modern scientific informational, cultural and educational resource, but also as a research institution of federal status in the sphere of library business and bibliography. It is now considered the organizational and methodical center of libraries in the Russian Federation.
Greetings of Vladimir Zaytsev, Director General of the Russian National Library
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