The Section has been actively involved in activities of the Russian Library Association realizing the modern approach to specialized libraries in the context of the general librarianship process. A separate direction of the Section’s work is organizing scientific events for art and museum libraries. Thus in September of 2011 the Section organized a  regional seminar “The site of the library as a leading tool for development of library services”, which was held on the basis of the Yaroslavl Regional Universal Scientific Library named after N.A. Nekrasov. The seminar examined such issues as development of libraries’ sites and on-line services, activity of libraries in social networks, attraction readers by  websites, etc.

In October of 2011 the Russian State Art Library hosted a scientific workshop “Documentary photographs in museums, libraries and archives. Formation of collections: History, problems, prospects.” Specialists of archives, libraries and museums from Moscow and St. Petersburg participated in this event.

The conference “Theatre heritage and modern times”, which was conducted by St. Petersburg State Theatre Library, was held in October of 2011. Theatre libraries, libraries of universities and museum libraries took part in this conference.

The 9th scientific-practical seminar “Theatre postcard”, which was held in March of 2012 at the Russian State Art Library, was dedicated to problems of visual materials in library collections. The main organizers of the seminar were specialists of the Department of Iconography of RSAL. The seminar brought together those who were interested in issues of study and use of the card as a document in practical work of libraries, archives and museums.

A seminar “Information resources and technologies of regional libraries for educational institutions in the field of the culture and art” had an of the all country/ regional  scale. It was held in March of 2012 at the Vladimir Region Universal Scientific Library named after Maxim Gorky. The seminar considered issues of development of information resources of libraries and educational institutions and evaluated the role of the library in development of innovative educational environment in the region.

In addition to organizing scientific seminars, the Section traditionally took an active part in the 17th Annual All-Russian Library Congress of the Russian Library Association and in the 18th International Conference “Crimea 2012”. The All-Russian Library Congress of 2012 became especially significant, because in this time the Section not only participated in joint meetings with other sections, but also presented for a professional discussion a very important for museum libraries document – Draft “Standard Regulations about the Museum Library.” The Section was involved in elaboration of this draft from the middle of 2011 in order to improve the status of museum libraries, as they do not have autonomy and depend entirely on museums. The “Regulтиations” are a universal document, because on its basis any library of a museum can make its own "Regulations" as a normative document, which will take into account specificity of this particular library. The draft presented at the All-Russian Library Congress was highly appreciated by specialists and got approved at the Plenary session of the Congress. Today not only libraries-members of the Section, but other libraries of the country use these “Regulations”.

At the international conference in the Crimea the Section had several meetings. At a visiting meeting, which was held in the Voloshin House-museum in Koktebel, participants discussed the problem of preservation of book collections with a help of the technology RFID. The second meeting of the Section was dedicated to the theme “Archives and libraries in the information society.” The third meeting of the Section was held at the suggestion of the Section of Libraries for People with Disabilities. A theme of the meeting was designated as “Accessible beauty - Equality of opportunities.” At the meeting issues related to the role and mission of libraries in work on socialization and cultural adaptation of persons with disabilities were discussed.

Traditionally the Art and Museum Libraries Section takes upon itself the mission of uniting active and creative forces of librarians of its sphere. As well as in previous years, the opening of the exhibition “Artwork of librarians” became a real celebration of creativity.  Participants were awarded with prizes, diplomas and memorable souvenirs. The holiday was followed by a concert of the Russian romance and a performance of an amateur ensemble of the Russian folk song.

Even from the brief report about the Section’s activity one can see that its work goes in several directions, and scientific events and professional meetings alternate with work on documents. At the same time the Section is actively expanding its relationships with other sections of the Russian Library Association.

Chair of the Art and Museum Libraries Section,

Director of the Russian State Art Library 

Ada Kolganova