Several Russian astronomical observatories have unique collections of astronomical photographic plates obtained since the beginning of the past century. A preliminary stage of preserving of the glass libraries is carried out, and their digitizing is started.

Currently archives of two observatories are being scanned.

Plate archive of Sternberg State Astronomical Institute (about 50,000 plates) is being scanned with two scaners CREO EverSmart Supreme. Plates up to 30x43 cm can be scanned with resolution 5600 dpi.

Two scanners Epson Expression 1640XL are used in the Zvenigorod Observatory of the Institue of Astronomy (about 10,000 plates). They allow to scan plates up to 30x30 cm with resolution 1640x3200 dpi.

The database of glass libraries, containing the descriptive information for the photographic observations stored in Russian archives, is being constructed.

This work is conducted in collaboration with the Wide-Field Plate Database team, Sofia.