Алаш Орда

2017 is the year of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the Alash Party and the formation of the government of the national autonomy – Alash Orda. In this regard, the East Kazakhstan Regional Universal Library named after Abai worked on the project of creating the electronic library “Alash”. At the initial stage, materials from historical, cultural and educational institutions were collected about the life and work of the “Alash” figures not only in Kazakhstan, but also in foreign countries. The purpose of this electronic library is to collect and place full-text material, including rare editions and modern scientific works of the scientists of Alash and make the library accessible anywhere in the world via the Internet.

The main fund of the electronic library compiles digitized copies of books and articles from the pages of periodicals. Placement of publications in the fund of electronic library is carried out in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on copyright.

We are grateful to the specialists of Russian libraries, museums, archives, educational institutions, as well as to specialists of foreign museums and archives, who supported us in the implementation of this project. Our initiative was supported by the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, regional libraries, museums and archives of the country, as well as archives of Bishkek and Kazan. 10 libraries became partners, including 3 libraries of educational institutions, 17 museums and 8 archives.

Activities to implement this project were carried out in stages.

The result of the first stage was the collected material from the rare collections of Russian libraries published during the lifetime of the Alash Orda figures, issued in the beginning of the 20^th century in Moscow, Orenburg, Kyzylorda and on the pages of the yearbooks of the Semipalatinsk sub-division of the Russian Geographical Society, as well as the works of contemporary scientists of Alash. A list of literature of our library was compiled, appeals were written to the libraries of Kazakhstan asking for partnership and digitization of books that are not found in the collections of our library.

At the second stage books and articles were published, published on the pages of periodicals, bibliographic descriptions were placed in the electronic catalog and placed in the “Alash” database. Author’s contracts with the authors of studies on the topic of Alash were made.

In the third stage, in order to replenish the electronic library’s fund, letters and appeals were sent to museums and archives of the country and near abroad with valuable publications and documents, asking for help in working on the Alash project. As a result, copies of documents replenished with the electronic library were received and selected.

At the fourth stage, the work was carried out to create the interface and structure of the electronic library, filling the information with headings. The electronic library consistently contains materials about the figures of the Alash Orda government, members of the commissariat and candidates for members of the educational commissariat, as well as about the objects named by the Alash Party figures. The technological basis of the electronic library is the database “Alash”, created in the electronic catalog of the library named after Abai. WordPress software served as a platform for creating a web-based version of the electronic library. In this electronic library, the works of the Alash Party figures, scientific research on members of the Alash Orda government, as well as articles from the pages of republican, regional and city newspapers and magazines are collected.

It should be noted that the work on the creation of the electronic library “Alash” has not been completed. In the future, measures will be taken to increase the availability of materials for Alash Orda, including work with authors, contract publishing houses, the search for documents and valuable publications in libraries, museums and archives of Kazakhstan and foreign countries.