Internet in Russian Scientific Libraries: Fragments of History

Kalenov Nikolay Evgunievich ORCID: 0000-0001-5269-0988 Doctor of Technical Science Chief Researcher; MSC RAS - branch of NIISI RAS; FNC Kurchatov Institute 32a Leninsky Ave., Moscow, 119991, Russia nekalenov@mail.ru

Prerequisites for the introduction of the Internet in libraries

Russian scientific libraries began to deal with the issues of using network technologies in their work practice in the mid-1980s. The leader in this field was the Library of Natural Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences (hereinafter BEN), which headed the centralized library system, which at that time included more than 100 libraries of academic organizations ^{[1, 2]}. As a departmental library, the main tasks of which were information support of scientific research conducted by academic institutions, BEN established in the early 1980s years of close ties with the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) USA ^{[3, 4]}. For many years, ISI has been producing and distributing printed editions of the Science Citation Index (the prototype of the modern WEB of Science database). These publications contained information about articles published in several thousand of the world's leading English-language journals on various branches of science. The information included bibliographic descriptions of the articles, information about the authors and lists of the bibliography. The printed publications contained a number of indexes, according to which it was possible to quickly find articles of interest and get a range of publications related to a certain section of science. These publications were indispensable for scientists, but subscribing to them cost a lot of money, and they were subscribed to by only a few libraries in the country, among which was BEN. Realizing the leading role of ISI in the global information scientific space and the importance of spreading information about the achievements of Russian science in the world, the BEN leadership proposed that ISI expand the list of Soviet journals reflected in SCI and expressed readiness to generate the necessary data for this. ISI Director Y. Garfield was interested in this proposal, and consultations and joint work in this direction began between ISI and BEN

As part of these works, in March 1984, an on-line information search was conducted from the BEN building in Moscow in the ISI databases located in the ISI branches in London and Cologne. A group of specialists from ISI participated in the experiment, which specially flew to Moscow with the necessary equipment, and technical specialists from the newly established All-Union Research Institute of Applied Automated Systems (VNIIPAS). Communication with the databases was carried out via a dial-up telephone channel. During the session, 15 requests were successfully processed in various fields of natural sciences, prepared in advance by scientists of the Academy of Sciences at BEN's suggestion.

Subsequently, VNIIPAS organized access to ISI and other foreign scientific information resources from its premises, and BEN staff regularly visited VNIIPAS to process requests from scientists transmitted through the library of the relevant institute.

In the second half of the 1980s, the International Information System on Social Sciences of Socialist Countries (MISON ^[5]) was successfully developed under the leadership of INION. Within the framework of this system, an experimental exchange of information over a dial-up telephone channel was conducted between INION and the Cuban information center in Havana.

In the same years, VINITI began experimental work on the introduction of tele-access to its databases. BEN takes an active part in these works ^[6]. Cooperation between BEN and VINITI in the field of automation of information support for scientists began in the late 1970s and continued until the early 1990s ^{[7, 8]}. During these years, BEN served as the main "testing ground" for VINITI, where new technologies were developed for both selective dissemination of information on constant requests and retrospective search for one-time requests in the mode of tele-access to abstract databases in various fields of natural sciences.

In the early 90s, e-mail appeared in Russia. BEN, among the first academic organizations, was connected to e-mail through the Kurchatov Institute (where RELCOM JSC was established in 1992) and received several addresses in the domain kiae.su E-mail began to be used in technology to accept orders for literature on an interlibrary subscription (completed orders were sent by regular mail or transported around Moscow by transport libraries).

There is a 1993 memo in my digital archive regarding payment for using e-mail (Fig.1)

Fig. 1. BEN's participation in the RELCOM

The first steps. In 1993, the Ministry of Culture established The Interdepartmental Expert Group (MEG), which includes experts from the largest scientific libraries Of Russia. The initiator of its creation was the head of the Department for Libraries of the Ministry of Culture, Evgeny Ivanovich Kuzmin. Boris Rodionovich Loginov, Director of the State Scientific Research Center, was appointed scientific director of the MEG. The MEG was supposed to coordinate the work on the creation of the all-Russian information and library network LIBNET. In 1994, "the first stage of the LIBNET program was implemented - an experimental version of a library computer network using dial-up communication channels was created. A pilot operation of the network uniting five largest scientific libraries located in Moscow has been carried out: the State Public Scientific and Technical Library, the State Public Historical Library, the State Central Scientific Medical Library, the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Library of Moscow State University" (Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation dated 02/23/96 No. 138. - http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&link_id=0&nd=102101727&ysclid=lnnizrl7ty351473690 ).

The project of this network was funded by the foundation of the newly established Open Society Institute (OIE). The IOO was headed by the director of the VGBIL Ekaterina Yurievna Genieva. With her active support, this and a number of other library projects funded by the PSI were implemented.

Each library included in the project received the necessary equipment, and its connection was provided by the staff of the IPPI RAS headed by Vladimir Mironovich Vishnevsky. Several experiments were conducted on the exchange of information between libraries, but these experiments did not receive further development, since the libraries included in the network differed significantly in their functions and the principles of organizing internal technology. However, thanks to this project, libraries not only received equipment and checked the possibility of exchanging information through communication channels, but also moved on to the active development of network technologies. Already in 1994-95, publications on this topic appeared both in practical terms ^{[9, 10]} and in the legal plane ^[11].

In 1995, the MEG was transformed into the Interdepartmental Expert Council on the Problems of Informatization of Libraries in Russia (MEA). In the operative part of the above-cited Order of the Ministry of Culture dated 02/23/96 No. 138, a new composition of the MEA, consisting of 34 members, was approved. E.I. Kuzmin was appointed Chairman of the MEA, and B.R. Loginov was appointed his deputy and at the same time head of the LIBNET program. The board included directors and leading experts in the field of automation of all federal libraries of the Ministry of Culture, the central libraries of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Scientific Library of Russia and other major scientific libraries. Paragraph 4 was included in the Order in the following wording.

4. In 1996, the following works should be recognized as priority areas of the LIBNET program:

- development of the conceptual foundations for the creation and development of the LIBNET computer network;
- creation of a national format of bibliographic records in machine-readable form;
- connection of Russian libraries to the world computer network INTERNET: equipment
telecommunication nodes, creation of information servers, equipment of user classes;
- creation of a corporate cataloging center;
- creation of an electronic system for informing libraries about the latest editions of Russian literature.

This Order created the prerequisites for the development of the Internet in all libraries of the country, but in practice, the Internet began to be massively introduced into the practice of libraries only after a few years, as discussed below. In the mid-1990s, the Internet was used only in some of the country's largest libraries and centralized library systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nevertheless, as early as 1996, the staff of the State Scientific and Technical Library of Russia and INION published review and prospective studies related to the development of network technologies in libraries ^{[12, 13]}.

At the end of 1994, another attempt was made to cooperate libraries in the field of network technology development. On the initiative of Yuri Evgenyevich Khokhlov (for more information about Yu.E. Khokhlov, see https://iis.ru/hohlov /) an application for the development of the LibWeb network was prepared and supported by the RFBR for the period 1995-1997. As part of this project, it was supposed to create a "pilot fragment of the LibWeb network based on 4 nodes in the National Bank of Moscow State University, the State Scientific and Technical Library of Russia, BEN RAS and INION RAS" (see https://www.gpntb.ru/win/libweb/about/about.htm ). It was planned to develop unified approaches and standard software solutions related to the formation of online library catalogs and network interaction in the field of library technology. A group of specialists from the Central Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by V.A. Serebryakov, was to participate in the implementation of the project along with library staff.

Unfortunately, the project was not implemented in its initial formulation, but by 1997 the participants had developed online versions of their electronic catalogs and successfully reported to the RFBR ^[14-16].

The development of the Internet in libraries

Western charitable foundations contributed to the development of the Internet in libraries in the mid-1990s. IREX, the Council for International Research and Scientific Exchanges, has been active in academic libraries. He financed Internet access classes in many libraries and paid for communication channels. In particular, at the end of 1996, an Internet access class was opened with the support of IREX at BEN RAS ^[17]. In the agreement concluded by BEN with IREX, as part of the Library's obligations, it was prescribed that not only BEN readers, but also all Russian participants in IREX programs, be able to work in the classroom for free. A special room was allocated in the Library, where 4 computers with Internet access were installed. To ensure the work of the class in BEN, by order of the director, a special group was created in the structure of the Department of System Research and Automated Technology (OSIAT), it included four employees (with skills in working with information resources and personal computers), who took turns on duty in the classroom.

The class time was divided into 45-minute sessions. It was possible to work in the classroom by making an appointment in advance by phone or face-to-face when visiting the Library, as well as without an appointment, subject to availability.

The duties of the duty officer included pre-registration and registration of users, advising visitors (at that time, not everyone, even in the Russian Academy of Sciences, was guided on the Internet), recording the information found on users' floppy disks with a preliminary check of floppy disks for viruses (flash drives appeared only in 2000). Of the 4 PCs, three were intended for the work of visitors, one for the attendant. For security reasons, disk drives were disabled on users' computers, and the information found by users that they wanted to save was recorded over a local network to the computer on duty.

The Internet access class was very popular in BEN and after a while it was expanded to 7 computers - six for visitors, the seventh for the attendant.

By the end of the 1990s, IREX was replaced as a sponsor by the American non-governmental organization Project Harmony Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Project Harmony, In 2020 it was recognized as "undesirable" in Russia). This organization has concluded agreements with many Russian libraries on joint non-profit activities in order to implement the program "Education and Internet Access" (hereinafter - IATP) ^[18].

An agreement between Project Harmony. and the AGREEMENT, concluded in early September 2000, defined the obligations of the parties and, in particular, contained the following points.

"Project Harmony undertakes:

- to provide computer equipment for the use of the Institution in order to modernize the Open Internet Access Point in quantity and in accordance with the specification provided for in the "Act of Acceptance and Transfer of Equipment", which is an Annex to this agreement;

- regularly provide methodological support to the work of the Open Access Point by involving the Institution in distance learning courses, online forums, thematic chats and other network events."

BEN RAN commits to:

provide a room with an area of at least 25 sq. m. at the address: 11/11 Znamenka str., Moscow, Russia, for the modernization of an open access Point;

prepare the premises provided for the organization of an Open Access Point, provide everything necessary to protect against unauthorized entry into the Open Access Point no later than October 01, 2000.;

to ensure the operation of the Open Access Point for at least 30 hours per week, providing the opportunity to use the services provided by the Open Access Point to graduates of exchange programs sponsored by the US Government, education workers, students, municipal and government employees, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as everyone interested in coordination with the administration of the Institution;

to conduct free classes, consultations, seminars and other events for users of the Open Access Point with the help of their specialists."

Similar "Open access points" were organized in all central libraries of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In BEN, "Dot..." existed until mid-2003, when Project Harmony tightened the requirements for partners. What they were, can be seen from the letter we sent to the Harmony Project, given below.

Fig. 2. BEN's letter to the Harmony Project

As can be seen from Figure 2, BEN used e-mail in the domain in mid-2003 irex.ru . But soon she acquired a domain benran.ru , which is still in effect at the present time.

But let's go back to the second half of the 1990s. In 1996, a network technology was implemented in St. Petersburg, uniting a number of libraries of universities and scientific organizations ^[19] - the prototype of future library consortia. At this time, global problems such as "Libraries as guarantors of access to Internet resources" are being discussed in the national library press ^[20], and leading scientific libraries are developing online user services ^[21-23].

By this time, the largest scientific publishing houses in the world were beginning to create their own electronic libraries and, along with subscribing to printed journals, offer online access to their full texts ^[24].

In 1998, at the initiative of BEN, the RFBR program "Support for Scientific Libraries" was adopted, within the framework of which printed versions of leading scientific journals were provided to a consortium of Russian libraries, and Russian scientists had online access to their electronic versions. The agreement on the consortium, which includes 15 of the largest libraries in Russia, was signed in BEN during events related to the 25th anniversary of cooperation between BEN and the publisher Sprinder Verlag. The signing ceremony of the consortium agreement was recorded by me on a video camera and posted online at https://disk .yandex.ru/i/PkQPyBrJtt6omA. The recording was conducted in analog mode on a VHS cassette and after digitization, its quality leaves much to be desired, but, nevertheless, it is of interest as a documentary evidence of library cooperation in the development of new information technologies. The signing of the agreement was attended by the directors of BEN RAS, GPNTB of Russia, SCNMB, RNB, representatives of VINITI, RGB, VGBIL, RFBR, as well as the heads of the publishing house Springer Verlag and the bookselling firm Lange & Springer. Thanks to this consortium, by the end of the 20th century, more than 2,300 leading foreign scientific journals were available to readers of academic and federal libraries ^{[25, 26]}.

As a result of gaining access to the Internet and equipping with the necessary equipment, leading libraries began to actively use network technologies in user service processes. Electronic document delivery centers (EDDS) began to be created in the central libraries of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1997-98 an attempt was made to create, with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, a corporate EDD system with the participation of BEN, BAN, GPNTB SB RAS, INION, VINITI and the American company AccessRussia, organized by N.Ya. Birman, an employee of VINITI who moved to the United States ^[27]. Although, as in the case of the LIBWEB system, initial plans to create a unified system for servicing users with electronic copies of documents were not implemented, EDD technology was developed and implemented in each of the participating organizations. If at the first stages users ordered copies of articles of interest to them by e-mail and received scanned materials using it, then soon the technology of ordering materials directly from electronic catalogs was developed and implemented in academic libraries, and digital copies were downloaded by users from library servers.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Internet has become firmly established in the practice of libraries of various levels and subordination ^[28-31]. This was greatly facilitated by the PSI program for the creation of library consortia. As part of this program, the PSI sponsored the development of corporate automated library technologies based on the use of the Internet, subject to parity financing from the Russian regional authorities and (or) organizations that included libraries participating in the consortium. Thanks to this program, by 2002, more than 10 regional library consortia had been formed in the country, exchanging information based on unified formats and protocols ^[32-34].

Large scientific libraries, such as BEN RAS, implemented comprehensive user services with network resources and maintained websites with up-to-date scientific information ^[35-36].

Conclusion

By 2003, the process of establishing the Internet in libraries was almost complete. Thousands of libraries at various levels, ranging from rural to federal, were connected to the network and used its capabilities in their activities.

In 2002, regional library consortia merged into the ARBICON Association, which continues to operate at the present time (https://arbicon.ru /) and implements a number of interlibrary projects.

In 2001, the LIBNET National Information and Library Center was established (http://www.nilc.ru /), currently functioning, within the framework of which a system of corporate cataloguing of literature has been implemented and a consolidated catalog of libraries in Russia is maintained.

The websites of federal, central academic and departmental libraries are powerful information systems offering users a wide range of information and library services.

Libraries have been and remain the main custodians of reliable, time-tested scientific knowledge reflected in publications, both traditional and electronic (digital). This determines their important role in the creation of a Single digital Space of Scientific Knowledge as an information structure providing solutions to a wide range of social and scientific problems ^[37]. Having mastered network technologies perfectly, scientific libraries can act as experts, content providers for the ECPNZ and its wide range of users.

This work was performed at the MSC RAS, a branch of the Federal Research Center of the Federal State University of the Russian Academy of Sciences, within the framework of state assignment No. FNEF–2024-0014.