Penza librarian Victoria Dolgushova reached the final of the All-Russian competition

The shortlist of the All-Russian contest “Library of the Year – 2026” included 20 specialists. Among them are two representatives of the Penza region.

The competition is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. It is held by the Russian National Library together with the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture with the support of the Russian Library Association.

This year the competition received 353 applications from 77 regions of Russia. Of these, 336 are from library staff and 17 are from students.

Among the finalists from the Penza region was the librarian of the 1st category of the Kuznetsk Central City Library named after A.N. Radishchev Victoria Dolgushov. Before joining the library, she worked for the newspaper. Today, she prepares and conducts events, shoots videos for the library’s social networks and herself shoots in them, works with readers and writes news on the site. She also runs her own reading group, Literature Teaches.

The second representative of the region was the head of the department “Specialized library for the blind and visually impaired” of the Penza Regional Library named after M.Y. Lermontov Olga Sirotyuk. She's been in library business for 28 years. She shares her experience with students of the Penza College of Arts, preparing future librarians, acts as a mentor for colleagues in advanced training courses, analyzing cases of inclusive service. She is also a speaker at professional venues and the author of intellectual tournaments for blind people.

In October, the jury will select the winners in the nominations “Library of the Year – 2026” and “Best Young Librarian of the Year – 2026” among specialists, as well as in the nominations “Library of the Future – the View of the Young” and “My Choice – the Library!” among students.

The winners of special prizes established by the Russian National Library, the Russian State Library, the Presidential Library named after B.N. Yeltsin, the Russian State Children's Library, the Russian State Library for the Blind, the Russian State Library for Youth and the Trading House Dragonfly LLC will also be determined.

The winners will be announced on November 11 at the Annual Meeting of Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia.