This article presents the main changes taken place, to the authors’ opinion, in the perception and practice of libraries'work on information support to specialists in the sphere of culture and art, such as: forms of participation, individual and group information sharing, creation of the resource base, mass work. In particular, the article notes increasing credibility of libraries as organizations, able to monitor the state of regional library sphere. Publishing has become an important integral part of libraries activity. Much more events of complex nature requiring high analytical skills are being held. One can highlight the main consumer groups of information and analytical products of libraries. They are: executive authority and research staff of cultural institutions and high schools. The article is based on the results of written and oral surveys of about 40 central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation, on the analysis of publications and libraries’ reports from the website “Central Libraries of the RF Subjects: Corporate Full-Text Database for Professionals” and from other Internet resources.