History
Kamyshanova Yu. V. Methodological Association of Higher Education Libraries of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra: creation, main results and prospects of development // University Libraries: Global Challenges and Regional Aspect: Conference of September 27-28, 2021, Khanty-Mansiysk.
The history of the Methodical Association of University Libraries of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra dates back to 2000.
On April 27 of this year, by the order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Scientific Library of Surgut State University was approved as a methodological centre for libraries of educational institutions of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
Valentina Nikolaevna Shevchenko, the first director of Surgut State University Scientific Library, recalled: ‘It was a happy time. The time of fulfilment of professional ambitions, the most incredible projects. The time of creation. One of such projects, without a doubt, was the creation of our methodological association.
I would like to note at once that the task was quite difficult. In the region, where a few years ago the very possibility of organising a higher education institution was questionable, a genuine university infrastructure was just beginning to take shape. The “oldest” universities were not even ten years old: Nizhnevartovsk State University was established in 1992, Surgut State University was founded in 1993, Surgut State Pedagogical University in 1995, and the official opening of Yugra State University was still more than half a year away. Libraries designed to ensure the educational process and research activities, opened together with universities, also started their work practically from scratch.
Once again I want to refer to the memories of V.N. Shevchenko: “Not only in the city, but also in the region there were no libraries of this type, neither university nor scientific. Of course, the collections of the district libraries were formed much better than in many other cities of our country, but there were no textbooks or scientific publications, and even more so, no primary sources in the libraries...”.
There was also a lack of qualified personnel, not only ‘ordinary’ librarians, but, first of all, specialists who knew the specifics of university library work. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the nearest colleagues whose knowledge and experience we could borrow were at least a thousand kilometres away from us.
It became obvious that it is practically impossible to cope without professional co-operation within the region. That is why the initiative of Surgut State University Scientific Library to create an association within the framework of which the libraries of the region could coordinate their work was unconditionally and enthusiastically supported by the colleagues of the libraries of higher education institutions of the district.
In December 2000 the Methodical Centre received the first statistical data from Nizhnevartovsk and Surgut to compile a unified report and send it to the zonal centre – the Scientific Library of Tomsk State University. In 2001, immediately after its opening, the library of Yugra State University joined the association, and a few years later – the library of Khanty-Mansiysk State Medical Academy.
The libraries of our association are located hundreds of kilometres away from each other, so joint meetings were usually held during the annual district seminars.
The first one was held on January 31, 2001, at which the main tasks of the association were defined, namely:
- Coordination of activities in all areas of work;
- professional development of library staff;
- identification, generalisation and introduction of advanced technologies into practice.
Since then, the work plans of the district's libraries have regularly included activities in accordance with the set tasks.
As already mentioned, in the district's libraries many employees had no special education. Such specialists, regardless of their work experience, needed additional training, so the methodical association took upon itself the organisation and conduct of events with the involvement of experienced specialists, theorists and practitioners of librarianship, from the leading libraries of Russia.
During the first decade of its work scientific and practical seminars and training master classes were organised on practically all topical problems of library work.
These annual events were considered not only as training and professional development of staff, but also as a real opportunity for professional and informal communication of librarians of our region.
In addition to the traditional ones, these professional meetings discussed topical issues of organisational culture development, implementation of quality management system and, of course, mastering computer technologies, which were seen, first of all, as an opportunity for development, as the most important point of growth.
The advanced experience of Russian libraries in the era of automatisation and informatisation was actively studied and implemented. In 2001 three libraries of the Association already provided their users with access to Internet resources, and two libraries of Surgut universities had experience in implementing and working with automated library information systems.
During the first decade of the association's work the computer stock in general increased more than in 15 times, the libraries of Khanty-Mansiysk and Nizhnevartovsk successfully implemented IRBIS Integrated Library Information System in their work, Surgut State University Scientific Library started to develop automated library information system Ruslan and began to work on implementation of RFID-technologies.
I will not be far from the truth if I say that the libraries of our association in the first decade of the 21st century experienced a period of rapid development. The reports of this period speak for themselves: the total fund of libraries increased by 2.6 times, the number of readers – by 1.8 times, the area – by 4.7 times, the number of librarians – by 1.7 times.
In 2008 the Scientific Library of Surgut State University moved to a new building designed with open access to the collections, equipped with specialised furniture and equipment.
In this new 6-storey library the first meeting of the regional methodical council and seminar for directors of West Siberian university libraries took place in 2009.
The 2000s were also the time when library professional associations and grant activities emerged and developed in Russia. The libraries of the district, of course, were not left out, winning grants, becoming members of various professional associations and participants of library projects.
In the following years the libraries of our association, responding to the demands of the time, expanded the range of services, created and actively replenished full-text databases, developed, following the majority of their advanced users, a new space for themselves – the global Internet.
Reports of the association libraries of this period show that, for example, in 2017 the number of user accesses to the websites reached 112,278. The electronic catalogues presented on the Internet contain information about 638,642 electronic documents, and the collections of higher education libraries include 13,340 electronic resources of their own generation
Then, dear colleagues, came the time of losses, first unexpected and then habitually expected. Library suffered some reputational losses. It was time when only a lazy person did not tell us about the unpromising nature of libraries in the age of the Internet. Library had material losses, when we had to write off the collections (up to 10% per year of the total number of collections in some libraries), free up our reading rooms (about 15% of the space) to accommodate newly organised university structures. Personnel losses (about 25%) were also present, when vacant positions were transferred to other university departments.
However, we survived in spite of everything, supporting each other, together finding answers to the questions about new formats of library positioning, about the boundaries of the university library space, its role and functions. Because our task was not just to survive, but, practically starting from scratch, to earn authority again, integrating into the educational and research activities of our universities.
The tasks of the new era for the libraries of the association were:
- actual support of educational and research activities of universities;
- positioning of libraries as communicative platforms of the university;
- modernisation of the library space.
Nowadays university libraries of the district are modern in terms of technical equipment and comfortable in terms of user service organisation.
The libraries of the region are formed in accordance with the norms for the availability of library and educational resources and provide the educational programmes with printed and electronic editions in 24/7 mode. The libraries are actively working to support the publishing activity of university authors, conducting classes with students to develop competencies in the field of information literacy, organising spaces for individual and group work, installing the necessary furniture and equipment for educational, scientific, cultural and educational events not only at the university, but also in the city and district formats.
To create new forms of interaction with users, libraries use social networks.
We have learnt to meet the challenges of time with dignity and the past pandemic 2020 and, almost past, 2021 years became a confirmation of this.
In 2020 the Surgut State University library successfully implemented the social project “75 Stories of Victory” with the participation of students, scientific and pedagogical staff, university employees and city residents.
On the “Archipelago 20.35” the staff of the Library and Information Complex of Yugra State University together with the Scientific Library of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (Arkhangelsk) worked on the project “Selection of scientific literature with the help of Artificial Intelligence”.
District librarians successfully completed training at the Lan School, took part in the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “University Libraries. Follow us” and organised a section “Development of publishing activity of scientific and pedagogical staff of the university” as part of the Surgut State University conference “Best practices of innovation of Russian and international universities”.
In 2021 Library and Information Complex of Yugra State University became a member of the Association of Creators and Users of Electronic Resources, and the librarians of the complex took part in the all-Russian foresight session “Librarian of the Future”.
The libraries of the association participate in the project “Network Electronic Library of Classical Universities”, implemented on the platform of ELS Lan and joined the network initiative for the development of university and scientific knowledge IPR TRANSFER “Library of Digital Economy”.
Vera Agapitova, the leading librarian of Scientific Library of Surgut State University, became the winner of the 1st stage of the All-Russian competition “Leadership Laboratory – 2021: the best university librarian” and now actively continues to participate in the competition.
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Today the methodological association of university libraries of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, as well as at the very beginning of its organisation, has 5 libraries. It may be inferior to many methodological associations in Russia, but each of our librarians feels himself a part of a unified library professional community.
Promising areas of our joint activities can be called and work on the creation of a unified network library and information space, and the joint implementation of cultural and educational activities.
In these conditions the role of the methodical association, providing coordination of development of higher education libraries of the district, only increases. And the modest experience of the libraries of higher educational institutions of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra is the proof of this.
September 27, 2021.