CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF MUSEUMS OF THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES: ON THE WAY TO SAVING REGIONAL CULTURAL HERITAGE

In the article by Victor Sokolov «Cultural and educational activities of museums of the history of libraries: on the way to saving regional cultural heritage», the relevance of research on the creation and functioning of library museums is disclosed. Experience, problems, perspectives of creation, peculiarities of the functioning of museums of the history of libraries in Ukraine are described. The purpose of the article is to analyze and characterize the socio-cultural factors of creation and the peculiarities of the functioning of the Museum of Library History, as well as to study and clarify the specificity of the formation of electronic format of museum expositions and the work of the virtual museum of library history, in addition – to reveal the importance of the cultural and educational activities of these museums in preserving and popularizing the national cultural heritage. In his work the author used methods of compari son, analogy, deduction, description, analytics, typological method and other methods of scientific research. The article analyzes the basic preconditions and stages of the formation of museums of history of libraries and the peculiarities of the organization of their work. The main directions of the social functioning of the Museum of Library History and the influence of its activity on the work of library colleges are described. The author disclosed the specificity of the compilation and substantiated the advantages of creating electronic museum expositions in libraries. Experience proves that the creation and operation of a virtual museum of library history has certain advanteges and can be more effective in the cultural and educational work of the library than the real museum. However, the creation of an electronic format for museum expositions in libraries is mainly based on the functioning of a real museum. The article also analyzes the importance of museums of the history of libraries in the development of book-keeping, research and exhibition, exhibition and cultural-mass work, in preserving and popularizing the national cultural heritage, in enhancing the image of librarianship. As a result of the analysis of sources, scientific materials and library experience the author has identified and described the main positive features and benefits of virtual museums of library history. According to the researcher, the main advantages of virtual museums are: availability for remote users who have access to the Internet; acquaintance with documents and objects of the museum in electronic form; providing free communication between users (by commenting and discussing the material) as well as receiving additional information through hyperlinks; simplification of the library’s museum work component. The author of the article made the conclusion that the active work of the Museum of Library History manifests itself in the direct dependence on the development of its ethnographic, cultural, educational and research work; the level of information on library and bibliographic activity; the introduction of innovations, systematic archival and scientific research; cooperation with various institutions of culture, science and education; coordination of research and museum activities of libraries, museums and archives of the region.