National Electronic Library

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The National Electronic Library (NEL) is a Russian government-funded online library. It gives people access to digitized books, newspapers, and magazines from libraries, museums, and archives across the country. It is run by the Russian State Library in Moscow.

As of November 2024, the NEL had about 5.75 million electronic documents, and 94% of them were available under Open Access terms. The library keeps growing by scanning more materials, turning them into searchable text with OCR, and storing them in a digital database. There is also a mobile app for iOS and Android.

History and goals
- After the Soviet era, Russia kept several national libraries, including the Russian State Library in Moscow and the National Library in St. Petersburg. The idea of a national electronic library gained traction with advances in technology and the internet.
- In 2003, the project began with the two major libraries (the Russian National Library and the Russian State Library) proposing a nationwide electronic library to the Ministry of Culture.
- The project was officially announced on December 17, 2008, and in 2012 it became part of a state program called Culture of Russia (2012–2018).
- From 2013, the Ministry of Culture started funding the project to build a technological platform, acquire copyrights, and digitize printed books.
- In 2019, the government approved a regulation that requires the mandatory deposit of electronic copies of all works published in Russia, strengthening the library’s collections.

How it was built
- The first stage was funded by the Russian State Library, which invited developers with a tender that was worth about 12 million rubles (roughly US$462,000 at the time).
- The project was completed by two Russian companies, CROC and EMC.
- Hewlett-Packard provided the hardware, and DefView supplied the document viewing software.

Criticism
- The project has faced several criticisms, including unclear goals, restricted access to some copyrighted materials, and the purchase of many books with low demand.
- It has also been noted that the library’s presence in global search engines is weak, deadlines were missed, and the developers sometimes underperformed.