The library continues growing its historic collection by scanning additional materials, converting them into text using optical character recognition, and storing in its digital database, capable of full-text search.

[7] Since 2013, the Ministry of Culture has begun developing the project, allocating funding for the creation of a technological platform, the purchase of copyrights, and the digitization of printed books.

In February 2019, the Russian Government approved the Regulation on the Federal State Information System "National Electronic Library".

[8][9] The first stage of project was sponsored by the Russian State Library, that announced an invitation to tender for potential developers at a cost of 12 mln.

[10] The project has been criticized for the lack of well-defined goals,[12] restricted access to copyrighted materials, purchase of numerous books, that have little demand from the users, poor library profile in global search engines, missing deadlines by its developers, and their overall underperformance.