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Presidential Library opens new regional centre in Southern Federal District

The Presidential Library’s electronic holdings include over 190,000 items

ST. PETERSBURG, September 22 (Itar-Tass) —— Volgograd’s Gorky Regional Universal Scientific Library has officially opened a regional centre and an electronic reading room of the Presidential Library named after Boris Yeltsin.

They will give the region’s citizens access to printed and archival materials, audio and video recordings that reflect the history of the Russian statehood, the theory and practice of law, as well as Russian language.

The Presidential Library’s electronic holdings include over 190,000 items.

Deputy Director for Corporate Development of the Presidential Library, Sergei Makeyev said that the opening of the regional centre and electronic reading room is the next step towards creating a branch of the Presidential Library in Volgograd. Its purpose will be to ensure the full access to information for people in the region.

The creation of the regional centre of the Presidential Library contributed to the implementation of modern telecommunications projects in the Volgograd region, such as the use of electronic signature technology to provide access to electronic collections of the Presidential Library.

The branch is also actively digitising regional and local history publications. According to Makeyev, the collection of documents from archives, libraries and museums of the region, digitised by the Volgograd Regional Universal Scientific Library, will become part of the Presidential Library’s holdings and will be available to all of its readers in Russia and in the reading rooms abroad.

The Library’s holdings were replenished during the opening ceremony with an electronic collection of rare local history editions titled “The Patriotic War of 1812”, which was donated to the Presidential Library.

In addition, a thematic collection titled “Volgograd Region: Pages of History” from the holdings of the Presidential Library was presented at the opening ceremony. It includes studies, essays and archival documents on the region's history. The earliest publications date to 1852. These include the book “Tsaritsyn - Stalingrad in the past” by G. S. Skolkov, which is considered the most significant regional edition in Stalingrad in the prewar period.

The cooperation agreement between the Presidential Library and the administration of Volgograd Region was signed in December 2010. According to the Russian president’s Decree No. 326 of June 18, 2007, the Presidential Library’s branches are to be established in all regions of the country.

The regional centre in Volgograd is the second site of the Presidential Library in the Southern Federal District; earlier, the Library opened a reading room in Sochi.