Information Support of the Cultural Sector: Achievements, Problems, Prospects

The 2nd International Scientific and Practical Online Conference “Information Context of Culture: Resources, Technologies, Service” was held on October 11—12, 2022. Conference organizers are the Russian State Library (RSL), the Russian State Library of Arts (RSLA) and St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture (SPSIC). The purpose of the event is to summarize scientific research and practical experience on the issues of information support in the cultural sector, demonstrate the best achievements, identify problems and ways to overcome them. The leitmotif of the forum was the topic of cooperation between libraries, archives and museums of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. During two days of the forum, more than 80 representatives of the cultural sector from the RSL, the RSLA, the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, the national libraries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, public libraries of almost two dozen regions of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as from the universities of culture in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Tashkent, as well as from the South Ural State University, worked in video communication mode. During the event, more than 900 viewings of the broadcasts of the meetings were recorded on the RSL YouTube channel. Within the framework of the conference, there were held the plenary session, two sessions of the Section “Information potential of libraries for the development of the cultural sector” and two special events: The 12th Conference/Meeting of the heads and specialists of information services on culture and art “Libraries — in the Year of Cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia” and the Round table “Development of library and information space on the basis of border libraries of the CIS member states: conceptual approaches and advanced directions”. In order to improve the work on information support for representatives of the cultural and art sector, the conference participants recommended to promote digital transformation aimed at the formation of common access resources on culture and art and improvement of information services; as well as to strengthen cooperation on the formation and mutual use of information resources created by the libraries of the CIS member states.