The purpose of the article is to reveal the role of libraries in preserving and restoring the book cultural heritage during the Great Patriotic War of 1941—1945 and to actualize this activity in modern conditions in the format of an interview with a well-known scholar-librarian and historian of libraries, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences A.M. Mazuritsky.

The main feature of the preparation for the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, celebrated on May 9, 2025, is the synchronicity of the anniversary with the Special Military Operation (SMO) to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, which makes it possible to compare the event series of different chronotypes. The interview uses the comparative-historical method, the method of historical reconstruction and analogy. The discourse allows us to identify similarities in the policy of Hitler’s fascism and the ideology of National Socialism in relation to the cultural values and book heritage of the multinational Soviet state, the actions of the Ukrainian Nazism and the Ukrainian armed forces before the beginning of the SMO and during the hostilities in Donbas, including the territories that became part of the Russian Federation as a result of the referendums of 2022, and in the border regions of our country.

This approach allowed us to actualize a list of the most active forms of libraries’ activities during the Great Patriotic War in search, preservation, restoration, systematization of looted collections and their restoration, as well as other practices of professional and civic activity, which will help the library community to reveal the potential of libraries in the consolidation of modern Russian society.

It is substantiated the necessity to consider this process as a socio-cultural and managerial activity, the main directions of which are revealed in the interview. Some of these activities are currently already being implemented by municipal, regional and federal libraries at the level of the Russian Library Association.

An overview of selective dissemination of information (SDI) services and text mining systems is presented. There are many SDI systems in the world, differing in their tasks and scale. Since the mid-1990s, online SDI services based on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have been developing abroad: SDI, Current Awareness Services (CAS), Alerting Services and etc. A comparative analysis of the services according to a number of criteria is given. It is shown that, firstly, modern digital SDI services have wider capabilities and require less effort than those used by libraries in the past, while text mining systems provide analytical data for decision-making. A comparative analysis of most common SDI services is carried out to identify their advantages and disadvantages. A tale of the tape of the most common text mining services is also provided: MonkeyLearn, Thematic, Lexalytics, Chattermill, QDA Miner, Bismart Intelligent Folksonomy and etc. These tools offer different levels of sophistication and functionality. Choosing the right one depends on the specific needs and objectives of the organization or user. The identified criteria for comparison are: accessibility; interface usability; compatibility with other software tools; functionality. The following methods were used in the study: content analysis of documents to characterize the degree of study of the issue and use in the activities of libraries; typological analysis of the used systems according to a number of criteria; comparative analysis to identify the effectiveness of the analyzed services in library and information activities.

The article considers the representation of mathematics research problems in the Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC), developed and used by two major mathematical review databases — Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH, and in the Library and Bibliographic Classification (LBC), recognized by the National Classification System of Russia.

Proposals for revising the subsection of mathematics in the complex of physical and mathematical sciences are presented to solve the problem of developing the scientific concept of the second edition of the LBC Middle Tables. The peculiarities of literature delimitation within the subsection and between other departments of the LBC Medium Tables are given. Difficult cases of literature separation between mathematics and logic are considered and ways of overcoming these problems are suggested.

The modern treatment of the algebraic system is given. The ambiguity of the term “universal algebra” is considered. To determine the main place of universal algebra it is proposed to exclude the theory of general algebraic systems from the section of mathematical logic, which will be united with universal algebra in the section of general algebra. This will make it possible to build a unified concept of construction of logical and algebraic sections in MSC and LBC.

In probability theory it is proposed to introduce the term “possibility” as an alternative to “probability”. The place for the literature reflecting the application of possibility theory in such a topical area of computer science as artificial intelligence systems is determined.

The literature on mathematical programming, computer programming for creating websites for the end user with no programming training is distinguished.

The issue of relations between the state authorities and religious associations is relevant in the conditions of Russian polyconfessionalism. In our country the state not only interacts with religious organizations, but also contributes to the establishment of interfaith dialogue, remaining a neutral party.

In modern library science much attention is paid to communication between the state and libraries of religious associations. The general term for the libraries of all religious structures in Russia is “confessional libraries”. At the same time, the scientific literature uses other term — “Orthodox libraries”, “Old Believer libraries”, “Islamic libraries” and others. The study of the topic is complicated by the issues of unsettled terminology and poorly developed conceptual apparatus. The best studied in the historiography are Orthodox libraries, followed by Old Believer libraries. Thematically, most of the articles are published on the history of libraries, but there are also works on the formation of collections, the peculiarities of work methods, educational and missionary activities of libraries, etc. All publications necessarily consider the difficult relationship between libraries of religious denominations and the state. The Centers for the study of confessional libraries have been identified. As a rule, the historiography of the study of the topic is tied to the regions of study. Three main centers have been identified: the Volga region, Siberia and the Black Earth region. The direction of studying the interaction between Islamic libraries and the state in different periods of Russian history is singled out separately.

One of the factors ensuring the security of the country is a high level of officer training, which is greatly assisted by purposefully staffed and well-organised libraries of military educational institutions. The use of historical experience of their structure and functioning can be useful today when compiling collections, developing regulatory and legal documentation governing their work, and providing services to readers. Due to the lack of studies on the history of the founding and functioning of libraries at infantry junker schools, this article presents for the first time the history of the founding and organizing of the fundamental library at the Tiflis infantry junker school on the basis of pre-revolutionary sources. The aim of the article is to reconstruct the history of the library of this military school. The following methods were used in the preparation of the article: chronological, source and comparative analysis. In order to achieve the goal, a wide representative source base was collected, including the Code of Military Decrees, catalogues of books and rules of libraries of junker schools, instructions, memos, as well as other pre-revolutionary publications. Regulatory legal documents that determined the procedure of acquisition and work of the libraries of all junker schools, as well as documents developed specifically for the Tiflis school were identified and analysed. Among them are the rules of issuing books to officers, teachers and students from the library and the rules of using the Junkers’ Reading Room, as well as the catalogue of books of the school’s library for 1908.

For the first time the list of educational clerks (inspectors of classes and their assistants) for 1869—1917 academic years, who according to the normative-legal documents were entrusted with the management of the fundamental library of the school, was compiled. The results show that the library of the Tiflis Infantry Junkers School was one of the best among similar libraries in terms of the number of books, book supply of juniors and special military literature, but inferior to them in terms of fiction. This study has broadened the understanding of the libraries of military schools and the history of military librarianship in general.

The article presents the results of the analysis of staffing needs of state libraries of the Russian Federation subjects (central regional libraries — national republican, local, regional libraries), which took part in the All-Russian monitoring of staffing needs in the library sphere, organized by the Russian State Library.

The main method of monitoring was defined as comparative-regional correlation analysis. This method provides for ranking the subjects of the country by relative indicators of libraries’ needs in specialists taking into account their qualification level (secondary or higher education) and education profile (core, non-core, non-core with additional vocational education), the needs in IT-specialists and other professionals.

The analysis of the initial data of the monitoring of personnel needs of central libraries of the Russian Federation subjects was carried out according to the general methodology of the study. It included: 1) transformation of data obtained on the basis of expert assessments of libraries — participants of the monitoring on their needs in library specialists of different qualification levels and education profile, in IT-specialists and other professionals for the period 2022—2023 into absolute and relative indicators; 2) comparative-regional correlation analysis of aggregate relative indicators — estimated indicators of the needs of central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the relevant specialists.

The correlation between the absolute indicators of the total number of library specialists of different educational levels and profiles (with core higher/secondary, non-core higher/secondary and additional vocational education) in central libraries of the Russian Federation subjects and their needs for relevant specialists was identified.

Monitoring of staffing needs of central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation shows the dynamics of the regional library policy and allows us to determine the vectors of human resource development of these libraries in the near future.

In recent years, the library has been actively forming new practices of organizing cultural and leisure activities aimed at meeting the needs of modern people in self-development and self-realization. For this purpose, creative spaces are created in libraries. The article is devoted to the history of creative spaces in libraries and their current state.

The development of creative abilities of users is one of the means of realizing the social purpose of the library, which fulfills its essential functions. The ability to think creatively and act outside the box is a necessary component of the “flexible” skills required in the digital age. Digital technologies expand creative possibilities, help to operate complex mechanisms and devices, experiment with different forms and materials.

An important element of the infrastructure of creative spaces are reference desks, whose staff provide information support for users’ creative activities and information resources as a “key” to mastering tools and technologies. Librarians have the expertise to supervise and guide creative work in collaboration with master professionals. The author’s theories are supported by practical examples.

Creative endeavors offer significant promise for libraries at all levels. Libraries, traditionally perceived only as centers for accumulating, preserving and disseminating knowledge, become a hub of social life, a learning and rehabilitation space, a territory for introducing non-standard ideas, a creative platform for creativity and cultural development.

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