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The recent history of Russian medical libraries is presented here with special reference to the most important Moscow libraries. The problems and successes of the Central Medical Library in Moscow and the Russian State Library will be described in more detail. In Russia access to international specialist literature has long been more or less restricted, which has disadvantages for practice and research. The lack of literature was partially compensated for by Russian-language editions, some of which were compilations from foreign sources that contained translations of different quality and were sparsely illustrated. Today, thanks to internet resources, these obstacles are gradually being overcome. However, free internet sources cannot fully address the persistent shortage of paper issues of handbooks and journals. According to the author, the Russian librarianship should develop with more international cooperation, following the pattern of Western European neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the experience in reforming the continuing professional education of Russian library staff. The paper considers the organisational structure and major educational projects of continuing library and information education in Russia at federal, regional and municipal levels. The paper states the shortcomings in librarians' professional development and outlines the directions for its future improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on "Konservativismus in Russland und Deutschland - Ein internationaler Dialog," a conference that focused on political conservatism in Russian and Germany that was held in Voronezh, Russia from September 15-18, 2011. Papers presented at the conference discussed topics such as the origins and development of political conservatism in Germany and Western Europe, "conservative socialism" during the 19th century, and German right-wing political activists in Russia.

The article reports on the conference "Osteuropäische Geschichte und Globalgeschichte" (Eastern European History and Global History), held on February 24-25, 2011, at the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany. Papers presented covered topics such as formal and informal Russian imperialism in the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia, transnational aspects of polar exploration, and cooperation between the Soviet Union and developing countries during the Cold War.

Théophile Gautier, French romanticist writer, visits Russia twice in 1858/61. His Voyage en Russie (1866) is not just a travelogue, but rather an intrinsically philosophical text about travelling, about the perception of the own and the other, suggesting "(self)alienation", "bracketing" of the world and one's own experience as a means of aesthetic pleasure and intellectual penetration; a reflection on the "gift of the visible"; on the mutual in- and superscriptions of reality, imagination and art - in one word: a "phenomenological" experiment avant la lettre. This paper proposes a reading of Voyage en Russie through the prism of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception, in particular of vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is giving an overview about the librarianship in contemporary Russia. Leading Russian experts within the area of libraries and information services have prepared the material. It has been compilated by the well-known librarian scientist and, merited collaborator of culture" Prof. Dr. Julija Petrovna Melent'eva. The overview contains sections about the characterisation of the most important library types, the presentation of the actual administration system of libraries in Russia, the characterisation of the most important constantly conducted international conferences of scholarship in Russia, the state of the art of librarian and informational education and graduation. A register contains subject media and publishers. The tendencies of the development of librarianship and information services in Russia are analysed. A compilation of the used literature with titles of leading specialists of the past years facilitates an overview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]