The problem of evaluating the effectiveness of scientific activity as applied to the humanitarian and library sphere is analyzed. Research conducted in libraries contributes to the development of libraries themselves, as well as to the study and disclosure of cultural heritage. The question of the effectiveness of the conducted research is of fundamental importance. An analysis of the evolution of approaches to the evaluation of effectiveness is presented. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the fundamental principle of scientific policy was the position “science is the direct productive force of society”, which focused on the implementation of the findings of research activities and the formation of ideas about the mandatory material form of the results. This attitude is not applicable in the social sciences and humanities. In the Soviet period, the task of practical connection of science with production for a long time established the position that any scientific result should be practically tangible and economically effective, and every research should end with a document containing certain conclusions and a list of measures, or with an act on the implementation of research results.

Currently, to assess not only the performance of individual scientists and organizations, but also in the formation of public science policy, the use of scientometric methods — quantitative measurements of information characteristics of published results of scientific work — is widely used. However, the scientometric approach continues to be debated.

In the last decade the theoretical problem of social effectiveness of science, which, unlike economic, is not direct and specific and difficult to measure, has been increasingly discussed. Research conducted in the field of scientific support of library development has been proven to have a pronounced impact on library work (e. g., in the form of developed concepts, strategies, programs, etc.). Research of historical and cultural character influences the formation of public and individual consciousness, value system and contributes to the solution of the most important strategic state tasks.

Determining the social effectiveness of research activities of libraries is becoming increasingly important.

The Russian Library Association (RLA) Manifesto “Library — a Humanistic Stronghold of the Nation” was adopted at the 24th RLA Annual Conference in Tula (2019). It was planned that the main ideas of this document would be included in the “Concept of the Development of Librarianship in Russia”, becoming the basis for analyzing the ways of development and transformation of the country’s libraries. Of all official documents on librarianship, the clause that “humanism is the world outlook basis of the library profession” is present only in the Code of Ethics of the Russian librarian. This is not enough. The idea of humanism as the basis of the library profession should be concretized in all documents of the branch and included in library textbooks.

In Russia, the printed book firmly holds its position, and readers expect from libraries full-fledged collections. The issue of improving bibliographic literacy of users is acute.

At the same time, librarian V.K. Stepanov has been trying to replace the essence of the library for the second decade. He proposes to consider it a social institution, deprived of the fund and readers, and to put unrelated tasks before librarians and material and technical base. He sees the purpose of the library in providing the cognitive and creative activity of the community served through the organization of intellectual interaction, the implementation of educational and leisure programmes, the provision of public use of the necessary space, hardware and software tools and access to information sources. From the scientific point of view, this postulate is far from the requirements of logic to the distinctive features of a scientific definition. In numerous articles V.K. Stepanov uses the same arguments, refers to the same facts, far from clarifying the actual situation of the country’s libraries. All of V.K. Stepanov’s theses have long been rejected by the library community.

The study of the donated collection of K.A. Novikova (1913—1984), a leading northern scholar and specialist in Tungus-Manchurian languages, was carried out. The scientist’s collection was given to the National Library (NL) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) by K.A. Novikova’s younger daughter I.L. Bochanova (Sobolevskaya) in 1993 in the amount of 328 books and 37 manuscripts. At present it is part of the gift collection of the NL of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). These are unique materials reflecting the owner’s individuality, his scientific interests, and also acting as a document of their era, an invaluable cultural artefact. The concepts of ‘donation’ and ‘donated collection’ are clarified. Types of review and analytical materials devoted to books and manuscripts of the collection are revealed. Cultural knowledge about their owners, readers, researchers, etc. is expanded by new interpretations and practices of rare editions.

The history of creation, transfer and use of K.A. Novikova’s donation in the holdings of the NL of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is shown. Its formation and functioning are analyzed. Many books have gift inscriptions of the authors, which reveal the relationship between the owner and his contemporaries and at the same time serve as evidence of the history of the book collection formation. The data of the analysis of the demand for the books of the collection from the electronic library of the NL of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for the last 5 years are given. The composition of the main scientific works on Even language and folklore and manuscripts, which contain a variety of information, has been studied. The materials of the collection are of cultural value. The heritage of the northern indigenous peoples is an asset of our country’s history and culture.

The article is devoted to V.P. Komarova (1928—2013), Doctor of Philological Sciences, an employee of the Russian Academy of Sciences Library (RASL). The biographical data and information about the most important stages of her life and activity are given: the formation of her interest in literature in her school years, her studies at the Leningrad State University, the beginning of her work at the RASL, her postgraduate studies, the study of W. Shakespeare’s works, the defence of her thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences and later — Doctor of Sciences, her work in the Department of Scientific Systematization of Literature at the RASL, her participation in the translation of the Central Systematic Catalogue of the RASL to the scheme of the Library and Bibliographic Classification. The scientific path of V.P. Komarova in the field of literature and library science is presented. The review of her main publications is given. The merits in studying the history of the creation of the systematic catalogue of the RASL under the rigid ideological framework of the 1930s are noted.

V.P. Komarova is a specialist in English literature, in the works of W. Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The works of the scientist were highly appreciated by Russian and foreign literary critics. V.P. Komarova taught at Leningrad universities, participated in the international Shakespeare conference, was actively engaged in popularization of W. Shakespeare’s works. As a scholar and librarian, she served her cause without limits.

The solution of urgent tasks to develop modern approaches to the organization of military libraries functioning is impossible without using the existing achievements in the field of military librarianship. Retrospective analysis of the work of the Information Historical and Scientific Center — Military Historical Library of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (IHSC — MHL GS AF RF) in the Soviet period can be used to improve the work of Russian military libraries at the present stage.

Due to the lack of comprehensive studies on the history of the IHSC — MHL GS AF RF in the first years of Soviet power, this article attempts to fill this gap, in particular, to establish the sources of formation of the collection of the library, which changed its name. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the history of creation and formation of one of such sources — the library of the Auditorium of Military Affairs (later — the Department of Universal Military Training at the headquarters of the Petrograd District Commissariat for Military Affairs) in the context of the construction of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (WPRA) in 1918—1921, as well as to analyze the dynamics of the library holding.

The relevance of the issue under study is conditioned, on the one hand, by its insufficient research, and on the other hand, by the demand for the historical experience of military libraries to develop principled approaches to their reform. The source base of the research is represented by the materials of Russian archives (the Russian State Military Archive, the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, the Current Archive of the IHSC — MHL GS AF RF), documents of the main and central bodies of military administration of the RSFSR, publications in the periodical press.

The research has broadened the understanding of the fate of military book collections of the Russian Empire after its collapse and the initial stage of formation of military librarianship in Soviet Russia. The fate of some nationalized book collections before they were added to the holding of the library of the Auditorium of Military Affairs has been established. The documents revealing the main directions of the library’s activity have been introduced into scientific turnover; its organizational and staff structure has been analyzed; the interrelation of the library’s history with the history of the Red Army in the first years of Soviet power has been traced. The results obtained show that the impressive book collection accumulated by the library of the Auditorium of Military Affairs is now a part of the holding of the IHSC — MHL GS AF RF.

The study of personal libraries is important for understanding socio-cultural processes that cannot be assessed by examining other historical events, phenomena and facts. The article deals with the monograph by O.N. Ilyina “Personal Libraries in Russia: Terminology and Historiography” (St. Petersburg, 2022), published in the series “The Book in Russia in the 19th — early 20th Century” by the Russian National Library and the winner of the All-Russian competition of scientific works on library science, bibliography and book studies in the nomination “The best scientific work in the field of library science” in 2023. The structure of the historical and book studies edition, the content of the chapters and the peculiarities of the author’s approach to the coverage of historiography, as well as the stages of the formation of terminology for the study of personal libraries in the domestic humanitarian knowledge in the second half of the 18th — early 21st century are characterized. The emphasis is made on the artificiality of the division of periods in the study of personal libraries in 1917, noted by O.N. Ilyina, because up to the end of the 1920s, book historians, whose professional career began before the October events of 1917, continued to carry out active research activities. This idea is confirmed by contemporary works devoted to the life and work of book historians and bibliographers born in the second half of the 19th century. Special attention is paid to the terminology for describing the history of book collections as a whole (and the collections within them), as well as book marks and marginalia in individual copies. A number of remarks on the design of the reference apparatus of the edition and the rubrication of the text are made, which, however, do not prevent interested readers. The quality, relevance and scientific novelty of the monograph are noted.

The year 2025 will mark the 65th anniversary of the first Soviet textbook “General Library Science” prepared by O.S. Chubaryan. It was followed by other textbooks in this discipline. Reconstructing their history and evolutionary transformations is important to reflect and evaluate the progressive development and achievements of Soviet and post-Soviet library science. This is a unique pedagogical experience of forming professional knowledge and self-awareness of several generations of future library specialists, many of whom became veterans of librarianship and contributed to its progress. In Soviet times four textbooks on library science were published, approved by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for use in higher education institutions of the country — three editions of the textbook by O.S. Chubaryan (1960, 1968, 1976) and one collective work — “Library Science. General Course”, prepared by Moscow and Leningrad scientists under the editorship of K.I. Abramov and N.S. Kartashov (1988). The post-Soviet textbook “General Library Science” by V.V. Skvortsov and N.S. Kartashov (1996—1997) was published in two parts. The transition to the Bologna system of education in Russia and the activation of higher education served as a catalyst for the project of publishing textbooks for bachelors of library and information science, the first of which — “Library Science. General Course” under the scientific editorship of A.N. Vaneyev and M.N. Kolesnikova (2013). Later, the textbook of the Moscow State Institute of Culture was published under the editorship of M.Y. Dvorkina and L.I. Salnikova (2015). At the current stage of modernization of the country’s higher education system and withdrawal from the Bologna system of education, the updating of the entire series of textbooks began. The textbook “Library Science. General Course” edited by M.N. Kolesnikova (2024) is prepared on a different conceptual basis than the previous post-Soviet textbooks. From edition to edition, the main professional textbook underwent transformations due to socio-political, cultural-historical, technological and other factors.

There is a lack of attention to the practical implementation by libraries of citizen science projects, science communication and popularization of open science, including outside the academic environment. This situation is due to their relatively recent appearance in the field of researchers’ attention, as well as to the insufficient formation of the necessary competencies among librarians (especially those who graduated before the introduction of competency-based bachelor’s degree programmes).

The study aims to address two objectives: 1) identification of specific competences required for a popularizer of open science in a library; 2) development of a structural and functional model of formation of such competences in vocational training.

The competences necessary for a librarian-bibliographer — popularizer of open science are proposed. They are related to project and communicative activities, social partnership, support of scientific research, formation and presentation of content, including media content. The methods of mass work are important, as well as the organization of multifunctional library space, its zoning and navigation in order to ensure the comfort of users needed for the organization of citizen science hubs or centers of scientific cooperation. The structural and functional model of formation of such competences in the framework of additional professional education is presented, taking into account the presence of the following factors: previous unsystematized knowledge, skills and abilities based on the librarian’s work experience; theoretical and practical training; application of the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities in practical activities immediately after successful completion of the advanced training course. Such realization is based both on the presence of external motivation of the librarian and on his/her knowledge of open science (most often related to the concept of open access) and principles of its functioning. Interactive forms and technologies are noted, including in the assessment phase, using remote working tools to keep the trainees motivated as well as integrating them into the open science environment. In addition, the specific working conditions of the librarian should be analyzed when selecting tasks — this can be a decisive factor in the personal interest of the learner. The basis for the implementation and testing of this approach is laid in three modules of the advanced training course “Library for Open Science” of the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The results of the course show a high degree of development of skills linked to communication and project activities, but further adaptation of the material related to the legal framework is required.

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