The Role of Electronic Libraries in Cultural Heritage Saving and Accessibility

The aim of the article is to highlight the importance of saving cultural heritage, to investigate the role played by electronic libraries in this process, and to analyze current directions of their activity, as well as problems of their adaptation to the realities of today. Research methods ground on the combination of general scientific, interscientific and actually scientific principles of scientific knowledge: objectivity, historicism, research evidence, conceptual and terminological uniformity and accuracy, integrity, practical orientation. Theoretical, culturological and social-communication-informational approaches were also used, which made it possible to analyze the role of electronic libraries as a system of social and informational communications aimed at effective saving and accessibility of rare and unique documents. Scientific novelty consists in highlighting the dynamics of the technological development of information technologies, and their use for saving and accessibility of cultural heritage, the analysis of projects of electronic libraries successful use for saving and accessibility of rare and unique documents. The advantages of electronic libraries over the traditional ones were analyzed in detail, including their effectiveness in saving and accessibility of rare and unique documents that could be damaged or lost due to age or other factors. Main conclusions. The results of the study proved the important role of electronic libraries in saving and accessibility of rare and unique documents. The significant importance of electronic libraries as a system of social and informational communications aimed at effective saving and accessibility of rare and unique documents was confirmed Safeguarding them from damage and destruction, making these documents accessible to a wide audience via Internet, prove to enable people from all over the world to study and research rare and unique documents that would otherwise be available only to a limited number of researchers.