In the past paper libraries used to be the all the information we usualy had, now students go over all the electronic facilities and only a few look at 'books'.

I think the most important thing, especially for students, is to provide an index of either good quality journals and conferences, or an index of search engines that do so (such as web of science and scopus). Those search engines have their problems, but for students it is more important to have a minimum level of quality.

In addition, I've seen and met many students that favor the library as a great place to study or work - I know this sounds kind of obvious, but quiet working places in or near the library and the option to use materials are something students really tend to appreciate, especially in exam times. If you want to attract motivated students to the library, this is a good way to do it (according to my anecdotal evidence, of course).

As for researchers - we tend to be fairly self-sufficient, but the possibility to obtain specific books is still important, despite all the digital things we have.

As for the digital world: one feature that would also be very useful is an eprint archive for publications of people that do research at your university. As most publishers allow the publication of manuscripts on personal or institutional websites, this would also contribute to the accessability of the research your university does, which is good for the researchers and good for the university's visibility and reputation.

Hi Valeriya, I think you have to start by imagining that your Library has no physical stock and what researchers would want. I am guessing a digital library populated with all the resources and tools they need, in a form they can access and delivered in the easiest and most convenient way for them. They may also want a physical space to work with access to networks, power supply, study spaces, places to meet and discuss and so on. I think the watch words for such a space are agile and flexible.

I am guessing that an institution as old as Tomsk State University has massive legacy physical collections probably of National or International Importance. The problem I know - from working in one - for many academic libraries in the UK has been to downsize the physical stock to create spaces that students want to use. My thought is that historic physical collections need separate and special care / mission / strategy to manage them into steady state so as not to absorb the effort in developing and delivering services to current and future students, In any case historical collections in physical or digital form will be the source material for some subjects.

Dear colleagues, thank you for your answers. I`m agree, that students need space for working with networks and quiet working places, we can see it at our library. We have also eprint archive of University people`s publications, but, in my opinion, it isn`t suitable for working – so, we`ll need to improve this situation. Mr. Holland, thank you for your opinion about Tomsk University. Yes, we have Rare Books and Manuscripts department (about 114.000 items from XII to XX centuries), some of them in digital form. I think, we need some kind of special database for introducing this part of our collection, usual catalog isn`t enough for this purpose.

I`m also agree, that Internet, Google and Wikipedia are great. But one of the sources for network information are traditional libraries. The problem is as follows: libraries miss some researche`s and student`s needs; we try to improve situation at our University.

Also I like very much suggestion “to start by imagining that your Library has no physical stock”. I think, it`s very good method for planning our work, we`ll try to use it.

University libraries can be open spaces to discuss and intervene (phisically) with modules that permit university students to share knowledge with children and other members of non academic communities...

I agree that many students see library as a nice place to work. Free Wi-Fi could be valuable to them. As for researchers, library should be able provide articles in digital form and books through interlibrary loans.

Dear colleagues, thank you for your answers. As to the articles in digital form – we have our own digital library with articles of the University scientists, but it`s full-text version is available in the University net only because of copyright. So, copyright is support for books in traditional form – and (sometimes) a kind of obstacle for scientific communication?

The idea about library as a place for the contacts with non academic communion is very interesting. We have some library tours for schoolchildren; sometimes – meeting with scientists and writers, but that`s all. What do you think about such events, as “Night at the Library”, includes animation of the University history, book quest, dances, masquerade and so on? It seems to me, that it`s more suitable for public library, not for university.

Уважаемая Валерия! Разделяю и Ваши заботи, и Ваши тревоги о судьбе университеских , да и вообще, - библиотек. Разделяю хотя бы уже потому, что сам и забыл, когда посещал библиотеку. Часть работ я получаю непосредственно от авторов, другое - в сети. И Википедия действительно стала лучше (но это совсем не решение проблемы). Я глубоко убежден в том, что то, что написано пером, топором не вырубишь. А в сетевых публикациях - вырубишь, да ещё как. Думается, что сеть, как удобная форма работы студентов и ученых вообще с литературой (ночью, в любое свободное время) - это такая вот иголка, за которой, при желании, потянется и нитка.

Я, например, решаю эту проблему для свои студентов так: После долгих скандалов с самопальными редакторами из Википедии, поучаствовал в проекте KNOLL, куда просто так с редакцией не попадёшь, а потом мне мои друзья помогли сделать научно-образовательный сайт, где есть и раздел для студентов - там я предлагаю и книги, отсканированные в сети, и свои, и чужие работы.

Да, это отнимает очень много времени, но зато я точно знаю - что именно я имею право спросить со студента.

Кстати, удивительно, но сайтом больше пользуются не мои студенты, а ребята и взрослые люди из Белоруссии, Украины, Казахстана и т.д. Тоже неплохо.

После летней атаки на сайт в то время, когда я был в экспедиции, количество посетителей резко сократилось - это можно увидеть у меня на сайте статиски. Были тысячи просмотров ежедневно, сейчас едва набирается сотня. Но это пройдёт.

Вот адрес сайта, что Вы можете об этом сказать (имея ввиду, что я ведь ещё и читаю лекции и делаю презентации - тоже, кстати выход для необорудованных аудиторий):www.ice.tsu.ru ?

С уважением, Алексей Рудой.

Уважаемый алексей николаевич! Прежде всего, спасибо за ответ и за ваше неравнодушие к проблемам библиотек. Я с интересом посмотрела ваш сайт (кстати, сын мой, обучающийся на физфаке тгу, заинтересовался работами по астрономии, которые у вас размещены).

Конечно, это огромная работа, которая отнимает существенное количество времени. У меня глубочайшее убеждение, что львиную долю работы такого рода по идее должна выполнять именно библиотека, а преподаватели на своих сайтах могли бы ее дополнять и развивать. Для этого нужна координация на уровне университета, которой пока нет. Будет ли - не знаю, сейчас назначен новый директор, будем посмотреть. У нас был целый ряд предложений по организации работы такого рода, но я не могу сказать, будут ли они учтены.

Что касается сетевых проектов типа википедии - я изначально не стала с ними сотрудничать, когда звали: во-первых, из-за нехватки времени, а во-вторых, мне кажется, это скорее просветительские, а не учебных проекты. Когда я еще преподавала, я кое-что оттуда рекомендовала студентам исключительно как коллекции ссылок. Вики сейчас получше стала, но идеал тут, по-моему, недостижим по самой природе этой структуры.

Да, в библиотеки сейчас многие перестали ходить, не только к нам в научку. Я думаю, дело не только в появлении цифровых технологий, многое и сами библиотеки упускают. Собственно, это и было одной из причин, которые меня сподвигли задать здесь вопрос.

С уважением

валерия есипова

Do not visit site www.ice.tsu.ru, it is infected.

Сайн был заражен до тех пор, пока я был в экспедиции. Сейчас сайт полностью здоров, прчина (источник) вируса выясняется. Заходите ко мне спокойно. - а.н. Рудой

Сайт был проверен всеми новейг=шими антивирусными программами, он располагаетя на платформе тгу, нехорошо провоцировать люей, дорогой руг из канзаса!

Dear Mr. Dusevich, thank you for warning. I visitit the site yesterday, it`s OK, it isn`t infected just now. My DrWeb is agree with me.

Спасибо, валерия. Сайт действительно здоров для существующих антивирусных программ.

What is the role of university libraries in digital era? In my opinion the most important task is to educate people (both researchers and students) about digital documents and access to them. I study information and library science but I have many colleagues from other faculties, who even don't know about collections of documents they can access using our university library's services. The same happens with resarchers, I guess. So there's many to do to show them all possibilities that digital era gives them.

Other work to do is to build university repositories and promote Open Access idea. I think, that academic library is the institution which can and should persuade scholars related with university to publish their new articles, reviews and even books in that repository on open licence (i.e. Creative Commons).

In my opinion, university library should also provide access to databases with abstracts or full texts (EBSCO, ProQuest, JStore etc.). It is very important to give resaerchers the newest research results and sources of information.

Showing new possibilities of access to scientific literature and information would convince scholars and authorities of university that libraries are still very useful and worth investing money.

Dear Mr. Kozakowski, thank you for your answer. I think, your are right about education of recearches and students: I faced regulary the same situation in our university. As to the acces to databases, we have this option (about 20 databases, including mentioned above), I agree, it`s very important. But sometimes we return to the "first paragraph": a lot of databases and a few of readers. I think, different educational srategies in the field of databases and open acess information are necessary for different groups of "university people".

In the past paper libraries used to be the all the information we usualy had, now students go over all the electronic facilities and only a few look at 'books'.

You can university libraries in the digital age and as a result of the availability of global databases that offer a lot of research and studies that help researchers and graduate students to conduct studies to better them and shorten the time and cost.

One good point students cum researchers need to know is not all solutions had been recorded in the digital media for now and as a student one needs to be aware of all forms of media, i.e. oral, print in terms of LETTERS OR GRAPHICS, and digital. Its only the librarian and her/his library that provides access (intellectual and physical) to these forms of information media.

Bryson (1990: 89) defines an academic library as a central service or unit of operation set up to provide a location, materials and facilities for the study, teaching and research being carried out in the institution overall.

In the digital era libraries occupy a virtual space in the cloud which needs to be utilized by innovative librarians to provide a location for study, teaching and research.

BRYSON, Jo. 1990. Effective library and information centre management. Worcester: Gower Publishing Company.

I too think and feel that as librarians in the digital era we have to provide access to electronic sources (databases, journals etc.) through libraries and at the same time we should enhance the awareness of academics and research students regarding accessibility and availability . We conduct awareness and enhancing information literacy programs for undergraduates and almost 90% of them have indicated that they had not used these resources due to unawareness of theavailability and accessibility.