By Tatiana Pastukhova
Summarising the results of a report for National Library employees, Galina Karmishenskaya, a representative of ProQuest Company (a universal information resource for science and education), tells us that theses by our scientists will become available all over the globe.
The National Library is a subscriber of ProQuest’s two largest databases, which include 28 thematic sections, covering technical and humanitarian sciences, medicine, business, management, economy and law, as well as multi-disciplinary theses. “Belarusian scientists will have the opportunity to place their theses in our database, if they meet our criteria,” notes Ms. Karmishenskaya. All library users will be able to access the database via the Internet or can use a programme to review commonly used file types.
Ms. Karmishenskaya notes that the appearance of theses by Belarusian scientists on the Internet will open up new horizons. The works will become widely-accessible, readable and quoted. Moreover, if an author doesn’t want to place their thesis for free access, they can sell it via the company at beneficial terms.
The National Library, the Presidential Library, the BSU Library and the Academy of Sciences Library are subscribing to ProQuest’s databases, which also ensure access to several hundred others containing information on literature, history, sociology, bio-engineering, environmental protection and technology. ProQuest representatives are confident that co-operation with Belarusian libraries will expand. “We’re keen to see this, offering special prices to prolong subscription. We’re conducting a very flexible policy: the more users of our databases there are in a country, the cheaper the subscription price,” explains Ms. Karmishenskaya, adding that the National Library is interested in new databases on art and humanitarian sciences.
