Creating and Evolution Centralized Scientific Journals Remote Access System for Information Support of Russian Scientific Research

Abstract

The article considers the system of information support of Russian scientific research in the field of natural sciences process. It’s gradual creating and development based on the creation of hybrid scientific library, using both the local (located directly in the library) traditional collection, and collections of electronic full-text media available remotely to the library patron and being a virtual part of the whole library collection.The article deals with the use of scientific journals (mainly foreign) as the most important part of the scientific resources required by Russian scientists’ access. The analysis is based on the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (one of the leading scientific libraries in Russia) example.The mentioned process started in the last centuries 1990s, and, as shown in the article, passes through several stages. From the very beginning, the process required for the libraries to unite into associations for the electronic resources joint use. These associations took, in accordance with international experience, the form of library consortia. At the first stage, consortia were created to bring together several libraries to access the electronic resources of a single foreign library.This system turned out to be viable, but rather cumbersome for a library (for effective work a library has to be a member of several consortia, which turned out to be non-technological). At the next stage, a single consortium was created with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research — Scientific Electronic Library RFBR. Further development required the direct state on the one of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science projects basis support. This process went through several development stages (using as a project operator consortium NEICON, the RNPLS&T and again RFBR — at another level of organization and funding).As a result, by 2020 the providing mainly information support for the work of the main mass of scientific and educational institutions in the specified field system was created and debugged on the practical level. By the early 2020s, the work had entered a more or less stable working mode.The issues requiring an urgent solution are the lack of an insurance copy of resources purchased abroad, which creates an uncertain situation in the event of the relationship with the resource owner termination, and the absence, in full, of a similar access to Russian scientific resources system, if their publication rights, in part, have been transferred to foreign publishers.