An analytical review of the events of the All-Russian Library Congress: 28th Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association (RLA) is presented. The Congress was held on 19—24 May in Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan), the Library Capital of Russia 2024. It was attended by more than 1.5 thousand representatives of libraries and other organisations from 76 regions of Russia, as well as from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Cuba, Serbia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The main theme of the Congress — “The Library in a Multipolar World” — was the library community’s response to today’s global challenges. The Congress was organized in various formats: pre-session events, plenary sessions, section meetings by types of libraries and areas of activity, and special events. On its various platforms the issues of libraries’ activity as a basis for the preservation of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values were discussed, the role of libraries in strengthening inter-religious and inter-ethnic harmony was considered, the tasks of military libraries were analyzed, the topic of forming the personnel resource of the branch was discussed, etc. The Congress was accompanied by the 24th Exhibition of publishing products, new information technologies, goods and services. The Congress adopted the Statute of the All-Russian Library Movement “Together Stronger”. Elections of the RLA President and members of the RLA Board for 2024—2027 were held. The event in Kazan showed the effectiveness of the RLA — the largest professional association in the field of libraries with a 30-year history — in consolidating the professional library community, library partners and authorities for cooperation in the implementation of modern state cultural policy.

In the modern world standardization is of great importance, including for the development of librarianship as a branch of the economy. Among the documents of technical regulation in force in Russia there are 23 standards regulating librarianship and bibliographic activities. All of them are part of the System of Information, Library and Publishing Standards (SIBID). Analysis of the structure of these standards shows that a large proportion of them are national standards, and only one fifth are interstate standards recognized as national in the territory of the Russian Federation. More than half of library standards were developed and adopted in 2014—2023. The analyzed standards were developed by different organisations and are under the jurisdiction of different subcommittees of the Technical Committee on Standardization 191. The leading role in the development of library standards is played by subcommittee 2 “Library Science and Bibliography” (base organisation — Russian State Library). Content analysis of the standards shows that standardization covers all the main areas of librarianship, but the depth of standardization for each of them is different: bibliographic activities and work with the document collection are the most fully standardized. In the last five years, special attention was paid to the updating of terminological standards. According to the results of the analysis, it is necessary to develop standards that establish general norms and rules of library and bibliographic activity in the digital environment; regulating procedures and criteria for assessing the quality of library services and products, modern technological processes of library work. The successful development of national standardization in the field of librarianship and bibliographic activity, determination of its priorities and resource support for the medium and long term will require the solution of a whole set of problems.

Library and Bibliographic Classification (LBC) is the national classification system of Russia. Its support and modernization in accordance with the latest requirements of scientific work is one of the priorities of the Russian State Library (RSL). The relevance of this task is determined by the wide scope of the LBC application, covering numerous groups of Russian libraries. At present, the Research Centre for LBC Development (RC LBC) of the RSL has started the preparation of the second stage of modernization of the Medium schedules, which are the basis for the whole classification. An important role in the development of the “Concept of the Second Edition of the LBC Medium Schedules” is played by the opinion of library specialists who apply the tables in practice in their daily activities in the organization of collections and catalogues. In the course of the questionnaire survey conducted by the RC LBC RSL in 2023, experts from libraries formulated proposals for improving various sections of the LBC tables. On the basis of these recommendations the main directions for further modernization of the tables, including the historical section, are outlined.

In connection with the identified need to deepen the detailing of the Contemporary History sections, an analysis of literature on current events in Russian history, not yet reflected in the tables, was carried out. It is proposed to include the Russian military operation in Syria, Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s reunification with Crimea, Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. It is necessary to clarify and change some outdated formulations in the methodological guidelines, in particular, in the divisions related to the history of Ukraine. It is concluded that the creation of a new “Concept of Development of Library and Bibliographic Classification” is impossible without practitioners, whose proposals help to determine the main directions of its modification.

In June 2023 in Murmansk at the All-Russian Library Congress: 27th Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association Murmansk State Regional Universal Scientific Library (MSRUSL) presented a new printed catalogue of book marks from the collection of rare books. The catalogue includes more than 400 Russian owner’s marks of the 19th — the first half of the 20th century, identified in the course of the research activities of the MSRUSL to study the history of rare editions. These are artistic (armorial, plot, monogram) and typographic ex-libris, applied to editions in the form of paper labels, stamp impressions, congeal embossing, super-ex-libris embossed on the spines of bindings, as well as handwritten inscriptions of owners on bookplates. Each mark included in the catalogue has an image and a detailed description. The bibliographic descriptions of books and magazines with book marks of 200 owners of private, public and departmental libraries will help to reconstruct disparate book collections, determine their composition and subject matter, and identify the reading interests of the former owners. The catalogue also provides brief biographical information about the owners and executors (authors) of the book marks with an indication of the sources used.

Auxiliary indexes of library owners, their initials and abbreviations, book marks, executors of ex-libris, authors and titles of books, titles of periodicals and continuing editions allow you to quickly find the information you need. The list of used sources, which completes the catalogue, contains full bibliographic descriptions of printed publications and electronic resources.

During 2023, specialists of the MSRUSL repeatedly made presentations on the book marks included in the edition at all-Russian conferences. In 2024 the library continues to open the pages of the printed catalogue: in the year of the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the blockade, books from the personal libraries of the besieged city residents deserve special attention. This article describes the ownership marks (stamps, inscriptions) on the blockade books belonging to M.N. Duvernois, A.N. Korkunova, A.B. Sakharov, S.I. Seleshnikov. Biographical information about the former owners of the books is given, the history of the appearance of the editions in the collection of the MSRUSL is revealed.

The article reconstructs the history of the library of the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow, established in 1904 on the basis of archival sources. The formation of the book collection envisaged by the statute was one of the main directions of its activity. A lot of efforts were made to complete the library, there was a constant exchange of publications with institutions and organisations, including provincial ones. Books were donated almost exclusively by members of the society. During 10 years 1044 editions were donated, mostly printed in 1890s—1900s. They were representative of the repertoire of genealogical books of that period, as well as the history of the nobility, archival studies and special historical disciplines. The library had rare and small-circulation books, and a part of the manuscript of the “Genealogical Russian Dictionary” by M.G. Spiridov was copied for the library. L.M. Savelov, the chairman of the society, was widely known and sometimes two copies of publications were sent to the library: one for him and one for the society. The books were entered into inventory and card catalogues, marked with an ex-libris, and kept in the Moscow mansion of L.M. Savelov. The formation of the library allowed the Historical and Genealogical Society to establish scientific contacts and raised its status in the cultural life of Russia. The article is accompanied by the publication of N.P. Likhachev’s letter to L.M. Savelov dated 1 June 1905 outlining the project of publication and study of M.G. Spiridov’s work.

The activity of the outstanding Russian art and music critic V.V. Stasov (1824—1906) is considered. In 2024 the 200th anniversary of his birth is celebrated. V.V. Stasov was closely connected with the “Mighty Handful” group of composers (he helped to create subjects for operas) and members of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions (he selected material for paintings). V.V. Stasov promoted the achievements of Russian art in our country and abroad. Having given more than 50 years of his life to service in the Imperial Public Library, V.V. Stasov made an invaluable contribution to its development: during the years of his work the volume of collections of the art department of the library, which was headed by the scientist in 1872—1906, increased by one third, a unique collection of engraved portraits of Peter the Great was formed, a clear system of catalogues was established, etc.

V.V. Stasov was always an active defender of the interests of the Imperial Public Library, striving to do everything in his power to improve the service to readers and the system of placing the collections.

The issue of dissemination of scientific knowledge is important for the development of the information society. The library, as the most accessible cultural institution, is able to ensure the dissemination of knowledge in all sectors of society. The purpose of the article is to study library activities aimed at spreading popular science knowledge. In the course of the work, the analysis of the official websites of the leading federal, republican, local and regional libraries was carried out. The study was conducted from October 2022 to September 2023. The main element of the analysis was the events in which information about the possibility of obtaining scientific information appeared. This article presents the results of the research work. The most common form of popular science activities has been identified — these are lectures/lecturing events. During the study period, lectures were held in 26% of libraries, clubs and group — in 10%, exhibitions — in 5%, seminars — in 4%. The amount of resources available to modern libraries makes it possible to hold both local and large-scale popular science events in online and offline spaces. The involvement of specialists and interaction with the local community will make this process the most effective.

The review article analyses the results of the 12th All-Russian Contest of the Russian Library Association (RLA) “The Best Professional Book of the Year — 2024”. The results of the competition were summed up on 4 September 2024 at the 37th Moscow International Book Fair, where the RLA and the Russian State Library (RSL) presented their publications at a joint stand. It is the RLA, according to V.V. Duda, Director General of the RSL, who was elected in May 2024 as RLA President for 2024—2027, should become the leader of mutual integration of Russian regions in the field of librarianship. The Best Professional Book of the Year is one of the examples of such interaction. The competition is an important event for the development of the RLA as an expert platform and project office for managing the implementation of the Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Russian Federation until 2030. The contest participants were 59 publications of 50 organisations from 25 regions of our country.

The first place in the main nomination — To Help the Professional — was awarded to the collection of articles of the Russian National Library “Research Activity in Regional Libraries: Content and Organisation”. The winner in the nomination “Library in the Cultural Life of the Community” was the book “Me and Gaidarovka”, published for the 90th anniversary of the Central City Children’s Library named after A.P. Gaidar. A special diploma in this nomination was awarded to the collection edited by N.I. Mikhailova and A.Yu. Samarin “A.S. Pushkin and the Book”, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the poet’s birth and printed by the publishing house of the Russian State Library “Pashkov Dom”.

The album “Masterpieces of the Russian State Library” by the publishing house of the Russian State Library “Pashkov Dom” was named the leader of the nomination “Polygraphic Performance”. For the academic nature of the album and service to national science in the nomination “ART-Book” of the National Competition “Book of the Year” Pashkov Dom was also awarded a special diploma, and the Russian State Library became the Grand Prix winner of the 8th Interregional Competition “Book of the Year: Siberia — Eurasia — 2024” for presenting visual images of cultural treasures of the largest book depository in the world.

The book “Pskov Legends and Tales About Pushkin” by the Central City Library of the Pskov Centralized Library System won the first place in the special nomination “The Best Publication of a Municipal Library”. The winner in the special nomination “Books for the Blind and Visually Impaired” was the publication “Unusual Libraries of the World” by the St. Petersburg State Special Central Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The contest “The Best Professional Book of the Year” is one of the most important professional events in our country. It is designed to preserve authentic history and promote Russia’s cultural diversity on the basis of local history and attention to the country’s libraries.

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