The catalog of the Russian State Library (RSL) will soon become available worldwide via Internet. This will result from the project of building an up-to-date automatic information system in RSL. The pilot project is funded by the European Committee, which assigned EURO 1 mln. for it, and will take 18 months. It is being carried out by the consortium headed by the British Council.

RSL is the national library of the Russian Federation. It is the largest library in Europe and the world's second library (after US Congress Library) in the number of items stored in it. In particular, it owns extremely valuable collections of manuscripts since the VI century and publications of XVI to XVIII centuries. The total amount of its books and manuscripts in 247 languages achieves 42 million.

Ambassador of the European Committee in Russia Dr. Ottokar Khan hopes that the starting EURO 1 mln. is just the beginning and that the Committee will continue funding the project. According to RSL director Victor Fyodorov, including a single item into the electronic catalog costs about US$ 1.00. Currently there are 42 mln. items in the library.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

---