Russian Holidays - Librarian's Day (All-Russian Library Day)

The professional holiday of librarians is celebrated in Russia on May 27. The All-Russian Day of Libraries was established by the corresponding decree of B. N. Yeltsin and signed by the president in 1995. In addition, the decree spoke of the undeniable contribution made by libraries to the development of science and culture, and the need to further increase the role of libraries in the life of the country. The date of the holiday was not chosen by chance. It was established due to the fact that 200 years ago (May 27, 1795) a very important decree was also signed by the Empress of All Rus' Catherine II. By the highest command of the Empress, the decree proclaimed the beginning of the founding of the Imperial Public Library. It was decided to erect a building in which not only books would be stored (mainly taken from the Załuski library as a trophy by A. Suvorov after the capture of Warsaw), but also as a place available for the general public to get acquainted with printed publications. During the period when the building was being erected, the Empress actively replenished the collections of works, collecting books throughout the country. Today, this library is called the Russian National Library and is rightfully considered one of the largest in the world. At one time, the following people worked in it: Russian thinker and writer V.F. Odoevsky, fabulist I.A. Krylov, teacher and publicist N.A. Korf. In general, until the 20th century, the librarian profession was available mainly to men; only in the last 100 years have women begun to master this glorious line of work. There are more than 150 thousand libraries in our country. National and federal book depositories and libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation contain multimillion-dollar collections of books and are ranked among the world's information giants. Our national libraries, located in St. Petersburg and Moscow, are rightfully included in the top five world book depositories. The celebration dedicated to libraries is celebrated very actively in our country. On this day, events are held everywhere to increase the importance of books in the lives of people and society as a whole. In addition, in connection with the holiday, it is customary to talk about the problems that modern libraries face and ways to solve them. Indeed, nowadays, when the era of the Internet has arrived, there is less and less space for printed publications in people’s lives. They give way to electronic analogues and gradually fade into the background. The problem is aggravated by the fact that the financing of regional book depositories leaves much to be desired. The interest of people visiting these establishments is also not very great. In this regard, the purpose of the holiday is to position the idea that libraries, in spite of everything, continue to remain a very important element in the life of a modern person. An extraordinary atmosphere of knowledge and wisdom reigns in them. They include “everyone”, being related to “everything”, they provide assistance to “anyone” and “with anything” - to any person, at any age, in any direction. Only in libraries is it possible to find books that have no analogues, and therefore the Internet will never replace them. Sometimes it can be difficult to quickly navigate the huge flow of literature published today. And then a librarian will come to the rescue - a specialist who knows and is well versed in the book collection. He will be able to give advice and tell you where you can find answers to all your questions. In this regard, the All-Russian Day of Libraries is also an indisputable recognition of the importance of the librarian profession.