In the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia, established by Decree No. 962 of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin dated December 25, 2025, the Russian State Library hosted the annual International Scientific and Practical Conference “The Rumyantsev Readings” (April 21—23, 2026). The conference addressed a wide range of issues in library science, bibliology, and bibliography, highlighting chapters from the history and the current state of librarianship. The activities of libraries in the Russian Federation serve to preserve the historically established state unity of the country, the richness of traditions and ethnocultural diversity. This topic was widely covered at the plenary session and in the reports presented at the round tables and sections of the conference. Noting the role of books in personal development and libraries as humanistic centers for accumulating and promoting historical and traditional knowledge, the speakers emphasized the importance of supporting the unity of the peoples of Russia and a common national culture. Russia’s largest regional libraries, as key institutions for disseminating the cultural, historical, and documentary heritage of the peoples of the country, set an example in developing professional competencies, theory, and practices in librarianship. By advancing new information and digital technologies, they promote national books, while preserving language and traditional culture, strengthening spiritual and moral values, and instilling in users a love for their native land. The newly created local history collections serve as a foundation for developing regional national electronic libraries and modern services for users of different generations in the languages of the peoples of our Homeland. By preserving cultural heritage and implementing state cultural policy, libraries provide an impetus for the development of science. This is vividly demonstrated at the Rumyantsev Readings conference, which brings together specialists from libraries of all levels, as well as from archives, museums, higher education institutions, research institutes, various government agencies, and public organizations. Participants included specialists from Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The 2026 International Scientific and Practical Conference “The Rumyantsev Readings” confirmed its status as one of the largest events in the library sector, promoting the development of collections, the consolidation of scientific and cultural institutions, the search for promising paths of library development, and the dissemination of successful practices in light of modern challenges.

In the context of limited computing power and small training sample sizes, the challenge of achieving high-quality subject indexing is particularly acute. The human-in-the-loop (HITL) concept offers a solution that combines automated processing with expert human input. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the use of active learning and targeted tagging mechanisms, which enables indexing accuracy comparable to that of full-text neural network models with minimal resource expenditure. An analysis of the distribution of functions between process participants demonstrates that, in the era of algorithmic methods, human intelligence and library classification retain their role as guarantors of information quality and reliability.

Within this model, the librarian transitions from manual indexing to quality control and system training, verifying algorithm results and correcting errors. A subject expert generates training samples and provides interpretation of the scientific context for the system. The programmer, in turn, develops an interface for making edits and implements a closed feedback loop that allows for further model training.

A detected index error is interpreted not as an individual cataloger’s oversight, but as a signal to recalibrate the interactions of all participants in the process. It has been established that manually structured datasets outperform automated counterparts in terms of the effectiveness of training neural network models. Libraries’ efforts to create and maintain high-quality metadata not only remain relevant but are also becoming a key factor in ensuring the quality of artificial intelligence systems. In today’s environment, a library’s value is determined not by the size of its archival collections, but by its ability to transform information into high-quality datasets suitable for solving modern scientific problems.

While promoting open science, libraries inevitably face a lack of information regarding its history. This impacts efforts to overcome researchers’ reticence to embrace open science practices and to engage the public in research. Sources covering the history of open science remain fragmented; the most comprehensive are available in foreign languages and focus on the development of open access in specific countries.

This article introduces the Russian-language project A Brief Chronology of Open Science, describing its development principles and the challenges associated with its creation. This resource was prepared by the Open Science Research Department of the State Public Library for Science and Technology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The main challenges in creating the chronology were the lack of consensus on the concept’s inception, insufficient availability of open-source information for pre-2010 events, and the high risk of interruptions in the services providing the visual component of the project.

This resource, presented as a widget, covers the period from 1971 to 2025 (and is expected to be expanded further). It provides links to both original documents and copies archived in The Wayback Machine, and also includes a text copy of the information to prevent data loss. The events recorded in the chronology offer a clear perspective on the development and practical implementation of the open science concept, and the project itself has the potential to become the basis for a more detailed source on the history of the subject, accessible to a wider audience.

This article analyzes the contributions of the distinguished historian, source scholar, art historian, bibliophile, and academician Nikolai Petrovich Likhachev (1862—1936) to the study of library history. Three areas of his research are highlighted: monastic book collections, the library of Ivan the Terrible, and the Likhachev family collection. Throughout his life, the scholar collected books, amassing tens of thousands of volumes, and it was his bibliophilic passions that stimulated his interest in library studies. Works in this field are few in number, cover a wide range of topics, and are concentrated primarily in the late 1880s and first half of the 1890s. They should be considered in the context of N.P. Likhachev’s research into the history of the Russian Middle Ages and source studies. He examined descriptions of monastic book collections from the 16th and early 17th centuries, actively participated in the debate over Ivan the Terrible’s library, and, taking a principled stance, demonstrated that information about it was either unreliable or derived from forged texts. When describing the Likhachev family library, the scholar employed a new methodological approach, successfully linking the history of its formation with genealogy. All of N.P. Likhachev’s works are characterized by a prioritization of source-study discourse, often combined with an archaeographic examination of texts. This commitment to analyzing specific subjects within a broad historical and cultural context objectively facilitated the development of interdisciplinary dialogue and the formation of points of interaction with many fields of humanities knowledge, most significantly with archaeography, source studies, and genealogy. In essence, a new methodological model for the study of book collections was created, based on a consistent analysis of written monuments and implying the resolution of traditional external criticism issues regarding authenticity, authorship, chronological localization, and the reliability of information. All of N.P. Likhachev’s research demonstrates such profound knowledge of libraries that he can rightfully be considered a library historian. The appendix contains N.P. Likhachev’s response to archaeologist I.Ya. Stelletsky’s letter to the USSR Academy of Sciences regarding the search for Ivan the Terrible’s library (1925).

The book collection of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Mining Plants is the oldest 18th—19th century scientific and technical library in Siberia. It has great historical and cultural significance. Reconstructing the composition and history of this collection requires consulting a wide range of historical sources, among which collection catalogues, accounting, and recordkeeping documentation hold a special place.

This study analyzes the cataloguing processes of the book collection of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Plants. The central institution that stored and distributed books from this collection in the Altai mining district was the Barnaul State Library (BSL). The novelty of this study lies in its comprehensive examination of the cataloguing processes of its collection throughout the 19th and first quarter of the 20th centuries. The BSL catalogues and recordkeeping documentation, dating from the mid-19th to the first quarter of the 20th centuries, are brought into scholarly circulation for the first time. The results obtained can be used for further reconstruction of the book collection of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Plants and the attribution of specific items to the collection under study.

From its founding in 1764 until the early 19th century, the BSL lacked systematic organization, with only a brief and uninformative inventory. In 1808—1809, P.K. Frolov developed and implemented a new collection accounting system, which categorized books by purpose, subject, and language. He also introduced a new BSL seal and a special notation, striking out letters in typographic text that spelled out the word “kasennaya” (state-owned) when read sequentially.

The system introduced by P.K. Frolov continued to be used until the end of the 19th century, without significant changes. However, the ever-increasing size of the collection and the diversity of publications, the large number of lost and not written off books, and the decline of mining in the Altai region necessitated an update of the library catalogue. To this end, the Chronological Catalogue of the Library of the Main Administration of the Altai Region was compiled. It covers the period 1906—1911 and reflects the state of the BSL collection in the final years of its existence.

The BSL catalogues, compiled over the years, allow us to characterize the subject matter and quantity of the book collection, as well as track the dynamics of its acquisition. The article establishes the attribution of call and inventory numbers in surviving books to a specific stage in the cataloguing history of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Plants’ book collection, allowing us to assign copies to the collection that lack key identification marks. This is particularly important for reconstructing the latest stages of the book collection’s existence.

The personal library of Academician A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky (1863—1919) was acquired in 1919 by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS, since 1925 the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1991 again the RAS). Its inventory was not compiled; the ownership stamp was affixed not by the owner, but by staff of the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now Russian Academy of Sciences Library, RASL), and not in all copies. Processing of the collection, for the most part, took place significantly later than its acquisition and proved to be a protracted process. Administrative records providing insight into this process do not allow for a unified opinion on the number of books inventoried or on their distribution within and beyond the RASL collections. The processing and placement of publications were uneven. Moreover, even after their transfer to a particular collection, changes could occur. This is precisely what happened to the library fragment that became part of the reference (auxiliary) collection of the general (main) reading room of the RASL, established in 1925.

This article examines the role of this fragment in the formation of the reference collection of the reading room and the organization of its work, and explores the subsequent fate of this part of the library, as well as the A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky collection as a whole (within this collection and beyond). The relevance of this topic is due to the high level of interest in studying the history of private libraries in Russia, the significant role of A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky in the development of historical scholarship and the organization of archeographic, expert, and research activities at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the value of the scholar’s book collection for the development of librarianship. The experience gained from processing this collection offers valuable lessons for preserving personal collections in libraries and reorganizing library structures. A particular difficulty arises from the discrepancy between the modern and historical names of several library departments and the overlapping functions of these departments. Changes in the composition and status of library departments may entail a redistribution of books previously held in the library’s collections. It is also necessary to consider the potential for personal collections (and fragments thereof) to migrate within the RASL collections (and beyond), the specifics of publishing activity, and the evolution of the library’s book depository structure. A chronological principle was applied to the reconstruction of A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky’s personal library collection.

This article presents an overview of the main thematic areas and formats of professional events organized by federal and central regional libraries for industry specialists in 2025 in accordance with Decree No. 28 of the President of the Russian Federation of January 16, 2025 On Holding the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland in the Russian Federation. The event agenda covered a wide range of topics, from the historical role of libraries during the Great Patriotic War of 1941—1945 to efforts to strengthen traditional spiritual and moral values in modern society, foster patriotism, and support those who found themselves in difficult life situations during the special military operation. The following topics were prominent in the business programs: saving book collections in occupied territories, the activities of libraries in the rear and their restructuring for wartime conditions, the Great Patriotic War in the lives of librarians, patriotic education of citizens with a special focus on youth, historical education as a field of library activity, the creation and use of digital educational resources, and the preservation and popularization of cultural heritage dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. For example, the Russian State Library held a roundtable discussion on “The Great Patriotic War in the Context of Patriotic Education” (February 28, 2025), the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “Preserving the Historical Memory of the Great Patriotic War: The Role of Libraries” (May 14—15, 2025), organized a series of online lectures, and developed Victory Library, a thematic section in the National Electronic Library. These events spanned various geographic areas — international, national, interregional, and regional. In most cases, both in-person and remote participation were envisaged. The most common formats of participation included forums, conferences, seminars, webinars, competitions, and educational lectures. Library events marking the Year of Defender of the Fatherland reflected decades of experience in preserving historical memory and fostering civic identity based on traditional Russian values, becoming an integral part of the nationwide celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. Libraries are actively involved in addressing priority state objectives.

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