Specialized Collection 'For Library Professionals' on the National Electronic Library’s Portal

The article highlights the first stage of creating a specialized collection (section) “For Library Professionals” on the portal of the National Electronic Library (NEL). The last decade’s trend has been a reduction in the number of titles of professional library publications, and a drop in their average circulation. In these conditions, the issue of providing library and information specialists with relevant scientific, practical and reference literature has become urgent. One of the ways to solve the problem is creating electronic collections of professional library literature. The article analyzes the Russian State Library’s experience in this area since the early 2000s. Currently, the special collection “For Library Professionals” is available on the basis of the National Electronic Library, a key library and information project of recent years. The collection has been accessible since July 2019. At the beginning of 2020, this section included about 1,5 thousand documents of different types (monographs, indexes, textbooks and manuals, collected scientific articles, proceedings of scientific conferences, periodical materials, etc.). At the end of 2 019, a survey w as conducted on the feasibility of maintaining a professional library collection in the NEL, which was attended by about 700 professionals in the area. The article analyzes the results of this survey, which indicate the demand for such electronic collections of professional library literature and show the priority topics demanded by library employees and expectations in the field of search capabilities.