The article examines the dynamics of sociocultural changes and continuing differentiation of the regions in the conditions of infrastructure of cultural environment in terms of availability of access of citizens to the cultural values and benefits, described on the example of library network. There considered the issue of the need to identify the relationship between the activities of management institutions in the field of culture and the processes of change in socio-cultural environment of Russian regions taking into account their compliance with the main theoretical provisions, established in the normative legal acts of the Russian Federation as an instrument of state cultural policy. There are analyzed the consequences of transition from the normative standards of sufficient provision of population to the “Road map” optimization activities. Basing on the actual quantitative indicators and statistical data, the authors raise the discussion issues on the reduction of the branch units, the prospects of keeping the users in the rural areas, the relevance of libraries in the modern culture as a whole, and offer their point of view on the development of the field library services. Specific examples reveal imbalances in the formation of library networks in different regions of the Russian Federation. Differences in the assessment of processes in the library area between the experts, institutional authorities and public associations lead, according to the authors, to the challenging contradictions. As a result, the government remains the only responsible entity for the status of cultural environment in the society that does not correspond with the modern vision of multi-stakeholder governance, strengthening of the role of municipal management and the functions of the public sector of civil society.

Relevance of the article is driven by the necessity of using the library science classical heritage to determine the role of books and libraries in the future noosphere. In this aspect, there is analysed the concept of bibliopsychology developed by N.A. Rubakin. The object of bibliopsychology is not a traditional book publishing, but the spiritual sphere of human and humanity in general. Therefore, bibliopsychology is legitimately to be considered a general meta-theory, the object of which is study of general patterns of the semantic communication and creativity. V.I. Vernadsky concept of noosphere develops the definition of noosphere as living environment of man of future (noosphere human), formed by post-industrial civilization and humanistic culture. There is characterized the subject area of noosphere, which includes three directions: philosophical-theological, utilitarian-technocratic, and humanistic. Critical to the formation of humanistic noosphere is forming of a noosphere human — human of a new type. On the grounds of analysis of the basic laws of bibliopsychology and other scientific and methodological generalizations there is made the conclusion on expediency of use of N.A. Rubakin heritage in library-pedagogic activities on forming the noosphere human. It is proposed to transform the outdated bibliopsychology to neocommunicology.

In the modern conditions of expansion of digital environment in the process of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and Document Delivery (DD) services, there arise a number of problems, on successful solution of which will depend the development of sharing the library-information resources, promoting scientific communications. To determine the benchmarks of progression of ILL and DD there are identified the components that can enhance the activities. These include: completeness of acquisition; updating of legislative documents; technological approaches with the use of automation and informatization; organizational and technological issues (regulatory documents, efficient execution of orders, prevention of refusals, optimization of the fee-based services and the availability of statistical indicators of work). There are considered the main ways to facilitate adaptation of ILL and DD departments to the emerging conditions of the electronic environment and the subsequent update. Attention is drawn to the need of establishing interaction between the ILL and DD departments with the National Electronic Library, compliance with the legal norms in the process of digitization of documents and the accessibility of electronic documents to the users of ILL and DD. It is proposed to develop a new State Standard on ILL and DD, to secure uniform normative periods of order processing, to control the efficiency of their performance and to develop preventive actions to eliminate delays. The efficiency of DD necessitates the creation of a unified list of the refusal formulation, the relaunching of the procedure of redirecting the refusals due to the reason: “A single copy cannot be used for ILL” from one contractor to another. Fees for refusals should be recognized unjustified, because the customer has not received the required document. The collection and availability of the statistical indicators of ILL and DD activities will allow obtaining and studying the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the activity. The proposed actions are targeted at the optimization of ILL and DD in the Russian Federation.

Significant growth of the number of electronic (digital) information resources, the increase of their share in the total structure of the sources of information is a modern trend. The term “resource” is becoming a replacement of the terms “document”, “publication”, including as the objects of bibliographing as well. There should be allocated the following groups of network information resources: firstly, web sites, web portals, electronic libraries, collections of documents, various web services and databases — multifunctional, multi-component systems of various documents, files, services, etc.; secondly, electronic documents (online media and publications, including the “networked self-publishing”). It is important to distinguish original network documents, digital copies and versions (analogues) of paper documents. Electronic information resources, including networked, now presented in a variety of bibliographic sources, can be an independent object of bibliographic reflection, however, the main trend — is the inclusion of information on the networked information resources along with the printed editions and publications in practically all types of bibliographical production. Together with the original electronic editions and publications, available only in the information and telecommunication networks, primarily in the Internet, it is advisable to include information on the available in the free remote access electronic copies or versions (analogues) of the printed documents, reflected in the generated catalogue, index, database, etc.

There is an overview of the specific features of creation of bibliographic publications in the Russian State Library, based on synthesizing of the statistical data and review of their subject matter over the last twelve years. In the study carried out in the course of execution of the major research project “General Universal and Local Lore Bibliographic Resources as the Source for Creating the National Bibliographic Repertoire of Russia”, on the basis of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the bibliographic resources of 2006—2017, there were revealed the regularity patterns and preferences in the preparation of different types of bibliographic publications. The essential component of the research was exploration of data on the imprint of bibliographic resources of various formats, which arbitrarily were divided into printed, digital and duplicated. Aside, there was an overview of issuing of the publications on general and special bibliography, as their creation was based on the alternative approaches. The two main tendencies were revealed in the research process: drastic decrease of the amount of bibliographic resources of the Russian State Library and alteration of their publication structure due to the reduction of special bibliography resources, which are characteristic to the vast majority of the Russian libraries, reflecting the adverse development trends of bibliography and librarianship in our country. The results obtained during the research allow making the preliminary conclusions about the trends and tendencies of the development of bibliography at the current stage. It is hoped that further implementation of the project “General Universal and Local Lore Bibliographic Resources as the Source for Creating the National Bibliographic Repertoire of Russia” will provide more thorough image of the status of bibliographic resources in the Russian Federation, but above all, will bring them closer to the user.

There is considered the activity of the outstanding historian of science Timofey I. Rainov (1890—1958) as bibliographer and librarian. In the work, based on the archival materials, for the first time introduced into scientific circulation, there is reconstructed the first period of his work as bibliographer, which took place in 1923—1935 in Moscow in the Library of Socialist/Communist Academy. At that time he accomplished several major bibliographic projects, including those published as separate book editions “Bibliographic Materials on the Heavy Industry Second Five-Year Plan with inclusion of the Materials on the 1932 Year Plan. Annotated index” (Moscow, 1933) and “The Ural-Kuznetsk Industrial Complex. Issue 1: Abstract Bibliography of the Literature, 1927—31” (Moscow, 1933).

The article presents an overview of the activities and brief biographical information on E.I. Yatsunok (1946—2017), devoted many years of her life to the research work in the Scientific research Department of Rare Books (Museum of Book) of the Russian State Library (RSL). There is described her role in formation of modern vision of such basic concepts of bibliology as “rare and valuable book”, “book monument”. Acknowledged her contribution to the theoretical and methodological areas of bibliological science, and her key role in creating and developing the electronic All – Russian Code of Book Monuments — the national cultural project, having no global analogues, now supported by the RSL. There is characterized the scientific component of the printed catalogues, created with the participation of E.I. Yatsunok in the Scientific research Department of Rare Books (Museum of Book) of the RSL, methodical recommendations for work with rare and valuable books, book monuments, as well as the activity in the field of professional training of specialists for work with rare books in our country and promotion of national book heritage.

The results of scientific research provide a rewarding experience on arrangement and operation of libraries, and reveal their role in the life of individual and society. This article involves a wide range of sources, information from which had not been taken at a full extent by predecessors. The Society for Promotion of Rural Free Libraries-Reading Rooms in the Tomsk Province existed from 1901 to 1919. P.I. Makushin was initiator of its creation and its permanent Chairman. It acted only on the territory of the Tomsk province. The dynamics of opening of libraries by years is presented in the article, and organizational activity of the Council of Society for Promotion is characterized, as well as disclosed the forms and methods of its work. The first library was arranged in late 1902. In 1919, there were already about 600. More than 70% of them were placed in the buildings of rural schools, the rest — in the volost boards, and rarely — in private houses, church buildings and tea charitable institutions on national sobriety. The libraries were mainly managed by teachers of local schools (more than 70%), as well as volost clerks, clergymen and individuals. The considerable part of the circle of reading of visitors focused on fiction and spiritual and moral literature. The books on history, geography and ethnography were also of demand.

In the 1960-ies, there continued the reforming of the country’s economy. Production growth resulted in the increase of the number of scientific and technical libraries. In the conditions of intensive economic development of the region, the population began to devote more time to the production and professional reading. In the article on the basis of the archival sources and publications there revealed the main trends and specific features of the work of scientific and technical libraries in Volgograd region during the 1960-ies and 1970-ies. Based on the analysis of documentary material, there was identified that the intensive development of the industrial enterprises of the city influenced the growth and development of scientific and technical libraries. In Volgograd region in 1965 there were 309 technical and scientific libraries, in 1976 the number had increased to 380. There is disclosed the basic principle of work of the factory technical library — to bring the book to each production area, to each employee. There are identified the basic directions of activity of the scientifictechnical and technical libraries and considered the forms and methods of work in the context of state cultural policy. There is demonstrated the efficiency of operations of libraries that had an impact on production processes of the major industrial enterprises of the city.

Copenhagen Libraries are in the middle of a large redesign of their mission and their services. Rather than being a place that provides access — mostly to physical media — we are transforming part of our core services into deconstructed, modular and open learning facilitation and embedding it in Copenhagen environments as diverse as school and kindergardens, gymnasiums and other secondary education institutions, sports and cultural centres — even showing up at for example people’s allotment gardens with inspiration for online research into botany and garden designs — and, yes, the traditional library space as well. Our goal is to become an integral part of public, urban space as a ubiquitous cultural and learning resource whether you choose to use us where you are, where we are or in virtual space. A primary driver behind our efforts is the concept of “equal opportunity.” As a public library we strive to help our patrons bridge the socioeconomic gaps by providing an opportunity to acquire reading and digital competencies and experiences regardless of background. We are opening the traditional library space not only through extended self-service hours, but also through open events in immediately accessible spaces. When you walk in the Copenhagen Main Library, you’re likely to find a lecture going on in front of you that you can join, or seminars on dealing with fake news, participatory democracy, Big Data, surveillance and other hot-button issues. Throughout the city you will find not only traditional branches, but also libraries developing into cultural centres and library run institutions such as fablabs and literary makerspaces as well as library employees using the city as both background and primary subject matter for thematic tours.

The overview considers the results of sociological research of the organizational culture of the Shandong Provincial Library (Jinan), conducted by the Chinese experts in the framework of the target project of the National Social Science Foundation of China. The history and modern development of the institution, included in the top ten largest and oldest public libraries of the country, are described. Based on information from personal interviews with employees, there are characterized the attractiveness factors of the profession of librarian, the collective attitude towards the personnel policy of the library, to the fulfilment of job duties, working conditions and the management system. Much attention is paid to the external factors that affect the daily life of the Shandong librarians and form their perception of the organizational culture (social culture, traditional culture of the region, which is the birthplace of Confucianism, the mentality of the local population). There is made conclusion on the importance of such studies for the successful development of libraries.

The main directions of the regional cultural policy implemented in the Krasnodar region in the field of the formation and use of its human resources in the system of information and library activities are highlighted. The main attention is paid to the theoretical and methodological foundations and organizational mechanisms of the regional cultural policy, to the specific features of its formation and implementation in the information and library activities. There are considered the issues of the condition of resource potential and workforce capacity of the public libraries of the Krasnodar Region by the results of 2016, the problems of leadership in the library environment, and the key positions of the personnel assessment. Strategic directions and main tasks of training and professional development of library personnel in the region, realization of socio-cultural policy in the field of librarianship are formulated.

Economic and socio-cultural changes occurring in the life of Russian society make high demands to the professional competence of employees. The problem of improving, supporting and developing the system of additional vocational education (retraining and advanced training of library staff) is among the priority directions of State policy in librarianship in Russia. In the conditions of libraries modernization, the changes affecting the types of library activity are inevitable. In this regard, of particular importance are not only the development of new forms of customer service, acquisition, organization and preservation of library collections, the technology of maintaining library catalogue system and card files on traditional and machine-readable media, but also work aimed at skill improvement of specialists and strategy development of personnel potential. The activity of the Federal Libraries of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation in promotion and development of additional professional education of library personnel through qualification upgrading courses and other forms of continuing education is considered.

There are highlighted the results of the All-Russian Library Congress: the 22nd Annual conference of the Russian Library Association (RLA), held on 14—19 May, 2017, in Krasnoyarsk — the “Library Capital of Russia” in 2017. The Congress theme “The Role of Libraries in the Cultural Policy of Russia” brought together about 1,350 experts from over 60 regions of the country. The participants focused their attention on a wide range of issues: from global development prospects of Russian libraries in the context of the state cultural policy to the specific achievements and key innovations in the work of libraries of different types. The program of the Congress included 13 joint sectional meetings, 30 meetings of Sections and RLA Round tables on the activity directions and types of libraries, 11 special events, professional visits to the libraries of Krasnoyarsk for the exchange of experience and other events. Within the frames of the Congress there was opened the 18th Exhibition of publishing products, new information technologies, goods and services, presented by over 45 organizations-exhibitors. One of the key events of the Congress was election of the RLA President for 2017—2020 and the members of the RLA Board. At the plenary session there was announced that M.D. Afanasyev, Director of the State Public Historical Library of Russia, was elected the President of the Russian Library Association. The status of the Library Capital of Russia in 2018 got Vladimir; the city will also be hosting the All-Russian Library Congress next year.