Russian librarians have had increased contact with Western librarians over the past decade. They have absorbed the current mania for automation in their libraries. Soviet Libraries were oppressed by censorship, but the services that were available were traditionally free. Now, Russian librarians are beginning to consider and implement user fees for services. Hopefully even the new electronic resources that are being created in Russia will accessible to all Russians in the emerging intellectually open society.
Russian librarians are accustomed to overcoming obstacles.
Under Soviet rule it was a way of life. Now that the ideological restrictions have been lifted, new ones take their place in the form of financial hardships and the challenges of preserving collections that have been neglected for decades. Another barrier that is presenting itself is the barrier of gender. Karen Adams, another Canadian librarian who joined Helen Apoutchine on her tour of Russian libraries in April 1998, notes that all but one of the systems programmers she met were young men who had no library background. All of the librarians she met were women.