Innovative services for libraries through the Virtual Reading Rooms of the Digital Dissertation Library, Russian State Library

The Russian State Library (RSL) is a unique repository of candidates' and doctors' dissertations on all subjects except medicine and pharmacy that have been defended in the country since 1944. In 2003, the RSL started the Digital Dissertation Library (DDL) to ensure that the valuable collection was safely kept and also widely accessible. To enable potential readers to access the resources of the DDL, Virtual Reading Rooms have been set up in the libraries of various organizations in Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The DDL catalogue and search engine are on open access at the DDL website. A licensed programme, DefView, allows the viewing of copyright protected documents and prevents unauthorized copying. Within the framework of the DDL project there exists the Open Digital Dissertation Library (ODDL), which allows authors to place their dissertations or abstracts on open access at the DDL website. The Russian State Library is constantly working on the development of the DDL in order to form a common information zone.