The fire damaged 15% of the funds of the INION scientific library in Moscow. Almost no money was allocated for digitizing books.
On the night from Friday to Saturday in Moscow, the library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences was burning . 38 fire calculations extinguished the building almost all night. 2000 square meters burned out, a part of the roof collapsed. The library contained 14 million books and documents, including rare editions of the 16th - early 20th centuries. 15% of funds are damaged from fire and water, but scientists hope that most of the damaged specimens can be saved.
According to the director of INION, Yuri Pivovarov, the library’s collections are almost not digitized, because no money was allocated for this. Fortunately, most of the contents of the library does not exist in a single copy, there are many foreign editions in it, which are digitized abroad. The preliminary cause of the fire is a short circuit. For the full repair and replacement of the wiring of money is also not enough. For several years now it has been rumored that the institute wants to be moved somewhere far away from the center in order to release a convenient section near the Profsoyuznaya metro station. The president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, who visited the site of the fire, said that neither he nor the firemen were considering the arson version.
The problem of complete digitization of any documents, manuscripts and folios, including the rarest ones, has not yet been solved on a global scale. Many libraries, mainly in rich and technologically advanced countries, are gradually converting funds to digital form. Technically, this is not a very difficult task - modern book scanners work quickly and very delicately, you have to manually scan only the most dilapidated copies. Another problem is the lack of money for this important, but non-urgent and non-profitable business, and legal obstacles that make it impossible to have free access or an inexpensive subscription to digital library services. So, every digital appearance of the next part of the collections of the best libraries becomes a big event.
')
According to the director of INION, Yuri Pivovarov, the library’s collections are almost not digitized, because no money was allocated for this. Fortunately, most of the contents of the library does not exist in a single copy, there are many foreign editions in it, which are digitized abroad. The preliminary cause of the fire is a short circuit. For the full repair and replacement of the wiring of money is also not enough. For several years now it has been rumored that the institute wants to be moved somewhere far away from the center in order to release a convenient section near the Profsoyuznaya metro station. The president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, who visited the site of the fire, said that neither he nor the firemen were considering the arson version.
The problem of complete digitization of any documents, manuscripts and folios, including the rarest ones, has not yet been solved on a global scale. Many libraries, mainly in rich and technologically advanced countries, are gradually converting funds to digital form. Technically, this is not a very difficult task - modern book scanners work quickly and very delicately, you have to manually scan only the most dilapidated copies. Another problem is the lack of money for this important, but non-urgent and non-profitable business, and legal obstacles that make it impossible to have free access or an inexpensive subscription to digital library services. So, every digital appearance of the next part of the collections of the best libraries becomes a big event.
')
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/376059/
All Articles