Russia Wants to Reinvent Libraries — and It’s Starting with a Global Tech Forum
Forget the dusty stereotype. Russia is about to throw a high-powered spotlight on libraries — not as quiet archives, but as digital ecosystems. This June, Gelendzhik will host the 9th International Forum “Books. Culture. Education. Innovation,” with one bold goal: exploring how 21st-century tech can reboot the world of libraries.
From June 15 to 20, the forum will bring together librarians, publishers, museum curators, and tech companies from across Russia and beyond. The headline theme? Digital transformation of the library system.
At the heart of the forum is the international conference “Libraries and Information Resources in the Modern World,” where experts will dive into topics like:
- Digitization of book archives
- Creation of electronic collections
- AI-enhanced strategies for improving knowledge accessibility
- Tech-driven approaches to cultural preservation
Speakers will also explore how cloud computing, open education platforms, and collaborative research tools are shifting the way knowledge is stored, accessed, and shared.
Among the tech stack poised for near-term integration:
- Science-ID, a career-building platform for researchers
- Colab, a digital collaboration suite for scientific teams
- “Science and Innovation,” a unified hub for tracking Russian research breakthroughs
The event is backed by Russia’s Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Digital Development, Ministry of Education and Science, and major national libraries and research institutions.
But here’s the thing: no one’s writing off physical libraries. As several forum participants put it, the future is hybrid. The goal isn’t to delete shelves — it’s to unlock new ways of accessing what’s on them.
In an era when AI can summarize, translate, and recommend, the library is no longer just a destination — it’s a distributed interface. And Russia is getting serious about building it.
