The article is devoted to the overview of the events held within the framework of the III St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, which completed the Year of Culture in Russia. The scale of the Forum by content, as well as by the number of participants exceeded all expectations of the organizers. The Forum assembled over 7 thousand professionals from dozens of countries around the world. Its extensive program included conferences and round tables on topical issues of the modern domestic and foreign culture, performances and master classes by prominent artists of the world level, and signing of memorandums on cooperation with several countries. One of the main venues of the Forum was the Presidential Library named after Boris Yeltsin. There were held the events dedicated to the upcoming Year of Literature. At the various meetings of Forum, devoted to library, book, reading, there was repeatedly noted that modern information technologies had complicated the life of libraries, demanded search for the new forms of work, able to respond to the challenges of the time.

The article provides an overview of the jubilee events, devoted to the 300th anniversary of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, held in October-November, 2014. In the context of contemporary problems of library and information activities and continuity of knowledge development there was highlighted the research conference «Library of the Academy of Sciences: 300 years of Dedicated Service to Science». The attention is drawn to one of the major activities of the library, defining the outline of the ongoing and upcoming changes: improvement and development of the automated information-library system of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which solves the problem of openness and accessibility of the collections to the wide range of users.

The Russian Library Association (RLA) is currently playing an increasingly prominent role in formation of the state library policy. On October 20, 2014 in Moscow there was held the 69th RLA Board Meeting, which traditionally considered a wide range of issues.

The article presents the main areas of cooperation of three national libraries of Russia in the field of normative and legal regulation and standardization of library activities; organization of joint research and practical events; implementation of publishing, audiovisual and other educational projects; improvement of state library statistics and state tasks performance assessment system; development of the National Electronic Library; development of the system of national electronic catalogues; preparation of the II International Bibliographic Congress; maintenance of union catalogues and databases; release of bibliographic publications.

The article considers the issues of librarianship management. There are three social subjects, determining its development in Russia: the state power, the social group of «librarians» and the social environment. There is shown the variability of this triad, using as an example the stages of history of the Russian libraries of XX century. Interaction between subjects of librarianship management is executed in the forms of: education, promotion and marketing. Implementation of forms depends on the type of library. There is studied the concept of library marketing and introduced specific details in its definition. The author concludes that in contemporary Russia there is only one social subject interested in the normal condition of library triad: there is the social group of «librarians».

The article is devoted to the problem of modern library science terms of foreign origin. The author gives the definition of «kalka» (calque), «novoyaz» (newspeak) in respect to their wide-spread use in library activity. The theme of borrowing English terms from different spheres of life and science is important today as Russian language is littered with barbarisms.

The article presents art materials from the collections of the Russian State Art Library (photographs, postcards, prints, drawings), which are the visual sources describing the history of Crimea.

One of the forms of cognoscibility of book is the study of its properties, such as gravity, which is understood as attraction. This property is universal; it is inherent in both: print and e-book. To study the manifestation of gravity is offered through the processes of reading. Reading determines the level of attraction of the text to the reader. The article discusses the types of reading and the reaction of the reader's perception and understanding of the book.

For the first time in historiography there is considered the composition of manuscript books of XVI century, being preserved at the Manuscript Department of the Russian State Library. The author focuses on the dated books which have special records, including the date and place of book production, scribes and customers. These records are the main source for studying the process of book production in the medieval Russia. The aim of this article is to give the information about 111 dated books written in 1500-1600 from 22 collections of manuscripts of the Russian State Library. The work includes the catalogue of dated manuscript books, which contains data on the name, size, pressmark, date and the place of book production, scribes and customers. The scientific importance of this catalogue is connected with the new data on the books from the uncharacterized collections (such as E. Egorov’s and P. Ovchinnikov’s collections). These materials are the important addition to the amount of known data on book culture of the medieval Russia.

Problems of literacy, correctness of speech, correction of errors in printed editions, which rose a hundred years ago, are relevant today. For the first time there are examined the textbooks published for students and professionals in book printing. The main substantive aspects of the article are the role and importance of these textbooks. At the turn of XIX-XX centuries in St. Petersburg there were several schools of book printing, where in the classroom the students got acquainted with the basic techniques of typesetting works. There was a need of publishing the special literature. The authors of textbooks have become school teachers. The article analyzes the following editions: R. Nippert «ABC Books of Eastern and Western Languages» (SPb., 1859), A.Serkov «Quick Start Guide for Compositors of Typographic Art» (St. Petersburg., 1861), G. Kerbach «Slavic Alphabet» (SPb., 1894), G. Schroeder «On the History of Alphabets» (SPb., 1896). Publications on the history of alphabets made an enormous contribution to the expansion of knowledge on book printing in Russia and formed the basis for the subsequently developed special educational literature on the art of typesetting, book printing and decorating books.

The publication is dedicated to the anniversary of Anatoly Nikolaevich Vaneev, Professor of St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Honored Culture Worker of the Russian Federation, Honored Culture Worker of the Republic of Tajikistan, Member of the International Informatization Academy.

The article is dedicated to Pavel Alexandrovich Schillingovsky (1881-1942), the outstanding Russian artist and teacher of the first half of XX century, Professor at the Leningrad Academy of Arts, who did not want to leave the city during the siege of 1942 and joined the fate of many of his compatriots. There are discussed all areas of the comprehensive selfless activities and milestones of the life and career of the talented master of fine arts and a wonderful teacher. Special attention is paid to him as a master of book art and art of bookplate. There is a detailed description of his innovative design of two-volume edition "The Russian Fairy Tale" and the legendary epics of Homer "Odyssey".

The article is devoted to the history of origin and development of underexplored libraries of theological seminaries in the Upper Volga region. There is analyzed the qualitative and quantitative structure of library stocks. There is determined the need of fundamental and student's libraries and their influence on pupils and teachers of theological schools on the example of Kostroma and Yaroslavl provinces.

In 2015 there will be celebrated 150-year anniversary of the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan, which started its history with the opening of the Kazan city public library. The basis of the library holdings was made by the collection of bibliophile and local historian Ivan Vtorov, who presented it as a gift to the city. Based on the study of historical sources there is described the activities of the library during the nineteenth century.

The article describes the history of the Naval Library beginning with the Ordinance of Emperor Paul I of 25 November, 1799 till the present day. The article contains the story of Library Directors - the outstanding people of their time, employees, saving the library during the siege of Leningrad, as well as gives an outlook for the near future. The first part of the article describes the difficulties the new library had to overcome in the beginning of its glorious historical path. The second part covers the activities of the great Directors - seafarers, such as I. Kruzenshtern, F. Wrangell - Admirals, toured round the world, and many others, successfully managed the library in the nineteenth century. The third part focuses on the difficulties that befell the library in the twentieth century: Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. We are still grateful to E. Kazais, A. Maimistov, B. Nikolsky for their hard work, that allowed to save the collections. The final part of the article gives an overview on the current state of library and the prospects for the near future.

The article covers the activities of the Russian State Library (RSL), being the Depository Library of the United Nations (UN). There is examined the socio-cultural activity of the RSL Center of Documents of International Organizations, as well as RSL partnership and cooperation with the UN Information Center in Moscow and representative offices of the other UN organizations and agencies. There are discusses various events dedicated to the activities of the UN, which were held at the Russian State Library.

On the results of XXVI All-Russian Competition of Scientific Works in Library Science, Bibliography and Bibliology, finalized and announced at the Annual Meeting of the Heads of the Federal and Central Libraries of Subjects of the Russian Federation on October 21, 2014.

The article considers the Table of the Unified Forms of Library Documentation. There is substantiated the need of its introduction in documenting of management activities of regional libraries.

Review of the Book «Librarianship. State and National standards», prepared by the Russian State Library, the head organization for standardization in the field of librarianship and bibliography.

The article describes the activities of the Publishing Club of the State Historical Public Library of Russia. There is highlighted the Club Meeting of January 27, 2015. The article presents the new book of «Art-Volkhonka» Publishing House.

The article presents the information on holding the “Teleconference on questions of connecting the libraries-participants to the National Electronic Library”. There are shown the main areas of activity of the Russian State Library as operator of the National Electronic Library. There are considered the categories of libraries, which are going to become participants of the National Electronic Library. There are specifically highlighted the conditions under which libraries have the right to grant access to the digital documents. There are presented the data on statistical observations of the libraries of the Russian Federation, conducted in 2009—2011.