Books from the stadium!

Abstract

In Moscow an intemational seminar was held from 1 to 7 October, 1998, organized by the State Public Library on History, for the Slavic staff of foreign libraries. The participants were given information on the presem status of the Russian book maricet, with special focus on the acquisition resources of libraries. The representatives of the publisher of Russian National Library told the workshop that a reliable database can hardly be created because the majority of publishers fail to submit mandatory copies for the National Library. The delegates of book publishers and distributors revealed the almost total lack of national book trade, publishers operating in major cities serve only their limited clientele. Therefore, the few Russian enterprises dealing with intemational book trade whose target include also foreign libraries, are unable to provide a comprehensive overview of the Russian book production. Their sales lists contain mainly volumes published by some Moscow publishers. Due to the deficiencies of information on bibliographies and book exports, interiibrary exchange that had been established earlier with Russian libraries should be maintained and expanded.