There is presented the history of creation of the Kaliningrad Regional Scientific Library (KRSL), organization and development of librarianship in the Kaliningrad Region in 1946-2016. In 2016 Kaliningrad region celebrates its 70th anniversary. In this jubilee year for the Region and for the Library there will be held in Kaliningrad - the Library Capital of Russia in 2016 - the All-Russian Library Congress: the 21st Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association (14-20 May, 2016).

The article examines the current stage of scientific and methodical development in the field of librarianship. There are identified the new trends in the directions, forms, organizational structure of the methodical work. There is analyzed the methodical practice of federal and regional methodical centres.

The article presents the analysis of the development of bibliography in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). There are considered the main periods of preparation and publication of bibliographic manuals in the period of 1922-2000. There are listed chronologically and by subject specific bibliographic manuals and their authors. There is described the creation of the National library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). A brief historical insight allows to identify the basic factual outline of bibliography events of Yakutia.

Review of educational practical manual “Technology of Analysis and Synthesis of Professional Information” by G.F. Gordukalova, Doctor of pedagogical sciences, Professor of Document Science and Information Analytics Department, St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture and Arts. The history, theory and practice of information analysis and synthesis are considered. Detailed and multidimensional analytical technologies and products of surveys and analytical activity are presented. There are characterized the structure and legal basis, organization and work efficiency of information and analytical services.

The article is based on the revealed by the author and first described findings from the collection of foreign early-printed books of the Department of rare books of the Russian State Library. Among these editions there dominate the books belonging to the trophy cultural values received by the Library upon the end of the World War II. There are the Forty-two Line Bible of Johann Gutenberg from the collection of Heinrich Klemm, books from the collection of book-covers of Jacob Krause and his disciples (Dresden). The article discusses not only the early-printed books, but the manuscript of the 16th century from the collection H. Klemm. The author cites the examples of various errors: committed by the masters-rubricators in manuscript decorations of the books, engravings printed upside down, errors in the dates in the text and on the book covers, etc. These errors are the direct evidence of the work of masters on printing and decoration of the books committed due to the various reasons: inattention, haste. They impart to these books the unique individuality.

The research reveals the features of the development of the German-language book publishing in Samara in the second half of 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries. There was analyzed the publishing activities of certain associations, enterprises and individuals, connected with the Evangelical Lutheran community of St. George. The author proves that the Samara German language book publishing used the printing houses of other regions. There is provided information on book production of Samara Germans, preserved in the holdings of the Russian State Library, National Library of Russia and Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Historical experience of education by the means of books, known as culture of reading, started being weakened in “the age of Internet”. Novelty of the article is in the described process of impact of the book on criminals in the territory of Western Siberia considered through the cultural, historical and psychological aspects. With the use of previously unknown archival materials there are revealed the cure methods of the condemned by using the book, and the relationship to the prison literature of the political prisoners. The personality of prisoners differed by a set of moral qualities, but almost all of them were ready to the perception of people around and themselves through the literature. Illiteracy was the main obstacle in education of the condemned, but the administration of prisons opened prison schools and organized reading literature aloud. The first prison libraries appeared in the 1860-ies and were replenished generally at the expense of philanthropists. F.M. Dostoyevsky’s novels “Crime and Punishment” and “Notes from the Dead House”, fairy tales and poems by A.S. Pushkin were the most popular books: they filled life with romanticism and were a compensation factor. Political prisoners denied any educational methods, preferring to read revolutionary literature. It is impossible to track extent of impact of book on the process of correction of criminals, but it is possible to claim that libraries started forming the atmosphere of book which is the most important condition of education in prisons, and is a necessary prerequisite for correction of a convicted person.

There is considered the scientific-pedagogical activity of M.Y. Dvorkina as an example of perfect library service. The creative contribution of M.Y. Dvorkina to the library science is characterized. There are specified the issues that need further development and study.

The article describes the history of the library of St. Theophan the Recluse, also known as “Theophan Zatvornik” (1815-1894), the famous theologian and spiritual writer of the 19th century, the owner of one of the largest private libraries. Despite the large number of studies on the theological heritage of St. Theophan the Recluse, the history and composition of his library is still not revealed, what determines the relevance of the article. The main objectives of the article are to identify and analyze all the surviving inventories of the library, to explore the possibility of determining the composition and history of the library. The main sources for this task are the memoirs of his contemporaries, published in the periodicals of the 19th century, as well as two inventories of the library, made after the death of St. Theophan the Recluse, by the librarian of the Moscow Theological Seminary N.A. Kolosov and by the unknown author. There was revealed that after the death of St. Theophan the Recluse, his library got into the library of the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, and after the revolution - to the Russian State Library. All the books had Losevs library stamp. Research work on revealing all the editions with Losevs library stamp in the holdings of the Russian state library will allow to determine the composition of the book collection of St. Theophan.

The Russian State Library (RSL) organized and devoted to the Year of Greece in Russia the exhibition, presenting the editions of the world known monument - Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece. Manuscript books, reflecting the motives of the ancient Greek myths, publication of the first translations into the Russian language made by N. Gnedich and V.A. Zhukovsky, scientific studies of the domestic authors were accompanied by the art works from the collections of the Department of Visual Art Publications of the RSL and partner organizations.

Recently there appeared quite a lot of publications on the history of military libraries of pre-revolutionary Russia. There arose the question, how many of them there were and why it was so important to know their quantity? In response to this question, first of all, we can discuss the classification of military libra-ries. Basing on the obtained quantitative data we can determine the eligibility of use of the terms “Military Library System” and “System of Military Librarianship”, applied to the libraries of the Ministry of War. Besides that, considering the number of military libraries, we can compare them with the other book collections. In the article on the basis of the pre-revolutionary sources there is counted for the first time the number of engineer and sapper officers’ libraries in the Corps of military engineers. Reliability basis for counting the number of libraries is made by the “Regulations” of 1838, 1863, 1889, orders of the engineering Department, some catalogues of the books, regimental history, and annual summarized publications of journals on the number of its subscribers. On the basis of the above documents and publications there is consistently analyzed the growth dynamics of the officers’ libraries in the Corps of military engineers.

The article is devoted to the history of publishing activities of the libraries of St. Petersburg Province. There are analyzed the main product types of libraries, marked the libraries, performing publishing activities in the early twentieth century, and there is given characteristics of their publications.

The article presents characteristics of the book “Milestones in the History of the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan” [1], dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the National Library of Tatarstan, founded in 1865 as public library of Kazan. The book consisting of two volumes includes archival documents, articles from the periodicals, documents of Kazan City Duma, and annual reports. These documents reveal the initial stage of formation and development of the Kazan municipal public library - 1837-1915, beginning from the idea of opening the city public library and its implementation in life, up to formation of the library, determination of its place in cultural, scientific, educational life of society. The scientific reference apparatus of the book consists of the author index, historical and chronological indexes, bibliography, references, and notes.

IFLA’s position on Public Lending Right is presented, including issues on e-books licensing in libraries and recommendations concerning introduction or modification of public lending rights systems.

This article is devoted to the formation and development of system of public libraries in India and their place in the educational, social, cultural and informational space of the country. The formation of the library system in India occurred during the complex colonial and post-colonial periods of its history. It took place in the conditions of underdevelopment, the uneven social, political and cultural development of the regions, ethnolinguistic disunity, and mass illiteracy of the population, dominating in the society of caste, religious and gender prejudices. The article demonstrates that public libraries in India, beginning with their appearance in the first half of the 19th century, had a special mission. They were considered not only as repositories of books, but, first of all, as centers of education, aimed to spread the knowledge, fight with ignorance by introducing to the reading, to raise the cultural and intellectual level of Indian society, thereby contributing to its prosperity. The article describes the main stages and directions of state policy of India in the field of librarianship from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century, recounts the history of the founding of the National library, emphasized the role of Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation. In separate section there is considered the contribution to the library and information science of S.R. Ranganathan, the outstanding leader of Indian culture.

One of the important issues being actively discussed at the international and national conferences is determination of the economic essence of basic categories related to the library services. The article considers economic nature of library services as public goods, describes classification of library services (by the level of competitive performance of consumption and the principle of excludability; by the level of use of information and communication technologies; by the form of ownership of manufacturer), shows the active efforts of public libraries in the market of goods and services as real competitors to private entrepreneurs providing market services. The article considered the process of diversification, penetration into the Russian market of library services of publishers, archives and other organizations by means of creation of pure public goods. Special attention is paid to the goods temporarily not belonging to the pure public goods.

The collective monograph by S.Yu. Volzhenina, S.S. Guzner, L.A. Kozhevnikova “Library sector in the socio-economic system of region: methodology and methods of performance evaluation” (Novosibirsk, 2015) discusses the problems of theory and methodology of economics of library activities. The impetus for conducting the study was the need to identify the new approaches to the analysis of the status and development of librarianship in the region in the framework of the subject of the Russian Federation. The book presents the new solutions to one of the most complex problems of librarianship. There are substantiated the new terms: “Library Sector”, “Regional Library Sector”, “Regional Library Cluster”. There is described the model system of indicators and indices for assessing the activity of libraries and the method of determination of assessment of their contribution to the social production of the region. The model is tested and endorsed on the basis of library sector of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region - Ugra.