The monitoring of the staffing needs of public libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, conducted by the Russian State Library, shows the dynamics of the regional library policy and allows us to determine the vectors of development of the human resources potential of libraries in the near future.

The staffing needs of public libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation — participants of the monitoring, their size and professional structure are different and are mainly conditioned by the size of the regional library network, the level of staffing in the region and the professional composition of library staff. These factors directly determine the indicators of staffing needs of libraries in the near future.

The needs for library specialists with higher profile education prevail in relation to other professional groups. However, the absolute indicator of these needs does not exceed half of the regions’ staffing needs and accounts for 43.07 percent of their total number. At the same time, the average value of the relative indicator of the regions’ needs in library specialists with higher profile education is only 29.7 staff units.

The need for library specialists with secondary non-core and core additional education remains high. Based on the requests of libraries, their number should be increased by 5.76 percent of the available number.

The regional comparative-correlation analysis of the need for library specialists revealed that there is a great need for specialists with higher profile education in a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which have specialised universities that train bachelors and masters in “Library and Information Activities” (Republic of Tatarstan — 77 specialists, Altai Krai — 87, Krasnodar Krai — 174, Samara Oblast — 127). Perhaps, the high demand is due to the low availability of specialists with higher profile education in libraries in these regions (on average — 33.21%).

The monitoring data indicate an increased need of public libraries for IT specialists: it amounts to 11.65% of the total staffing needs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Based on the stated needs, the number of IT-specialists should be increased by 30.42%. At the same time, the need for IT specialists with higher profile education significantly exceeds the need for specialists with secondary profile education: 71.45% to 19.35% respectively.

The needs of libraries in specialists of other professions are relatively small and occupy 8.43 percent of their total staffing needs. Of these, 71.65 percent are specialists with higher professional education.

The main mission of the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the formation of the documentary heritage of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. The document fund in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the North of the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was formed from publications in five languages: Even, Evenki, Yukagir, Chukchi and Dolgan. The main principle by which the library fund was completed was an exhaustive collection of all published documents. The history of the book fund in the languages of the peoples of the North is divided into five chronological periods. The first period (1812—1917) is associated with the activities of the Russian Orthodox mission. The second (1918—1960) includes the creation of the Committee of the North (1924), the opening of the library (1925) and the beginning of the introduction of universal primary education in Yakutia. At that time, the People’s Commissariat of Education of the Yakut ASSR published and distributed the first ABC books for adults. The third period (1961—1990) was marked by the problem of publishing literature in the languages of the Evens, Yukagirs and Chukchi. In total, 3—5 books were published in the Even language per year, literature in other languages of the peoples of the North was not published. Languages were on the verge of extinction, there were no necessary conditions for their preservation. The fourth period (1991—2020) is associated with the completely destroyed book supply system in the early 1990s, the beginning of the commercialization of publishing. In 1990, the library was returned to the national status, which played a positive role in the formation of national and local history documents. The modern stage of the development of the book fund in the languages of the peoples of the North began in 2021, when the “Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030” was adopted, which fixed the main tasks, directions and measures of state policy in the field of librarianship. In July 2022 The Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has approved the “Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for the period up to 2032”, which defines the main tasks for the formation of a depository storage fund for documents in the languages of all indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. As of January 1, 2023, the document fund in the languages of the peoples of the North numbered 2,659 copies. Work continues to preserve the documentary heritage of the small peoples of the North. The electronic library of the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is being developed, and the digital project “Knigakan: about the Arctic and the indigenous peoples of the North” is being implemented as part of it. The digital library of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East “Knigakan” currently has 2,760 digitized documents that are in great demand among readers. The electronic publishing house of the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) plans to publish books in all languages of the small peoples of the North, including endangered languages, and preserve them for future generations. The long-term task is to create a depository storage fund for documents in the languages of all indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. This project should intensify efforts to preserve and ensure free access to the documentary heritage of indigenous minorities, the development of linguistic and cultural diversity of the peoples of Russia.

News is the most accessible, timely and popular information in the world, it affects many spheres of social life and reflects their current state. News in the field of science is no exception. People were interested in news long before the widespread use of information technology, and some current forms of information and library services were introduced in the 20th century.

Defining and strategizing the direction of news information is a significant part of information support for researchers. Scientific libraries, as important social institutions specializing in providing access to information, can contribute to the search for and provision of this kind of information. The basic principles of building a news strategy in modern libraries are the relevance of the news topic to the library’s vision and its relevance to the target audience, taking into account the use of modern information technologies. In a scientific library, open science can be used as such a topic due to its demand among researchers and specialists.

The purpose of this article is to develop a set of information products designed to achieve information support of scientific library users (by the example of open science). A study of 100 websites of foreign university libraries included in the Top 100 Leiden ranking of universities’ openness in 2023 was carried out to identify the practices of news informing users about open science. Five best examples of foreign experience were identified. An important part of the information strategy — the technology of selecting channels for receiving information — was developed. On its basis, a set of information products was prepared and published on the website of the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Library for Open Science”: news feed, quarterly digest “Open Science News” and issues of “Live News of Open Science” in video material.

Personal book collections of scientists are valuable both as a historical and cultural source for the study of the owner’s personality and as an information resource. The article provides for the first time a multidimensional characterisation of the book and journal collection of the famous Russian librarian Yu.V. Grigoriev (1899—1973). The collection is currently part of the Fundamental Library of the Tambov State University (TSU) named after G.R. Derzhavin. After the death of the owner, the collection was acquired by the Tambov branch of the Moscow State Institute of Culture. It was included in the Fundamental Library TSU named after G.R. Derzhavin in 1994 in the process of its creation. The volume of the collection is 6241 copies. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of its thematic sections gives additional touches to the reader’s portrait of Yu.V. Grigoriev, reveals the sphere of his professional interests. The collection is universal in composition, most of which are publications on librarianship and related fields. The lower chronological boundary of the editions in the collection is 1852. Of special value are the editions of the 19 century, annual sets of magazines “Red Librarian”, “Bibliographic News”, a collection of abstracts of PhD theses of authors who became authoritative Russian librarians and bibliographers. All books contain exlibris of Yu.V. Grigoriev. More than 300 copies have gift inscriptions of colleagues and students, including two inscriptions of L.B. Khavkina. Being in the collection of the university library, the collection retains not only the memorial value, but also is a unique information resource, which is used in research and educational activities of teachers and students of the Department of Library and Information Resources of TSU named after G.R. Derzhavin.

Library collection development is directly related to the issues of placement, storage and delivery of documents. The eternal storage of the totality of documents that make up the national heritage is one of the functions of national libraries (NL), which solve the problem of placing materials with consideration to their financial and other capabilities.

An overview of the successful national libraries’ practice in solving the lack of storage space problem is presented (Library of Congress, British Library, German National Library, National Diet Library of Japan, National Library of France, Royal Library of Sweden, Austrian National Library, National Library of the Czech Republic, Royal Library of the Netherlands). The experience of the Russian State Library in solving this problem is also analyzed.

Finding place for growing collections with a tight of storing conditions is a challenge that requires not only constant attention, but also a flexible approach. Various options for solving this problem are being considered: construction of new (including remote) storage facilities; efficient use of existing premises (for example, an implementation of high density storage systems or co-opting of premises built for other purposes — idle exhibition centers functional conversion, etc.); lease of rentable areas.

The research is based on the analysis of information from official websites of the national libraries.

The appendix presents the results of the NL survey on the following issues: withdrawing of certain categories of materials, dispatching them to depositories; construction of new storage buildings; statistics concerning active use and actual availability of collections.

From August 30 to September 3, 2023, the 36th Moscow International Book Fair was held at the Expo Centre Central Exhibition Complex on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. The Forum brought together participants from various regions of Russia, as well as representatives of 21 countries, including seven countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Germany, China and Iran, and was attended by more than 34 thousand people. The VKontakte social network has become a partner of online broadcasts and the official MIBF network. More than 300 events were held at seven venues. Publishers from Moscow, St. Petersburg and 26 other Russian regions presented their books.

The article presents an annual review of the activities of the MIBF: The National competition “Book of the Year — 2023”, the competition of the Russian Library Association “The Best professional Book of the Year”, the 3rd Readers’ Assembly of the Commonwealth, the industry conference “Book Market of Russia — 2023”, the Moscow International Children’s Book Fair. In the event context of the most relevant events for the library industry, libraries’ understanding of their role in the socio-cultural life of society is revealed: achievements and initiatives aimed at preserving heritage, promoting books and reading are noted, new projects, including book publishing, are presented, the results of the participation of the Russian State Library and the publishing house “Pashkov Dom” in the MIBF-2023 are summed up.

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