The Annual Meeting of the Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia was held on November 11—12, 2020 in the online format. The event was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian National Library and the Russian State Library. The main goal of the meeting is to ensure participation of the heads of federal and central regional libraries in the formation and implementation of the state library policy. The topic of the 2020 Meeting is “The Library Profession and Scientific and Educational Work of Libraries”. The scientific content of the meeting was basically determined by the “Strategy for the development of librarianship in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030”, the draft development of which has been already completed as a whole, but requires the deployment of large-scale research work to form the unified system for monitoring the activities of libraries in the country.

The meeting focused on the following issues: organization of scientific research work in libraries; training of professional staff; modernization of librarianship and the role of information technologies in the modern development of libraries and digitalization. The relevance of these topics was proved in the discourse on the development of higher and further professional education in the library sector, improvement of availability of information in the modern conditions. During the sessions, there were summed up the results of the 7th All-Russian competition “Library Analytics” among the central libraries of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the 8th All-Russian competition “The Best Professional Book of the Year” and the 7th All-Russian library review competition for the best electronic publication on culture and art.

The article is devoted to the memories of the talented work of Eduard Rubenovich Sukiasyan (1937—2021) — the greatest library scientist in Russia, one of the developers and later Editor-in-Chief of the Library Bibliographic Classification (LBC). The author traces his professional path as prominent theorist and practitioner of librarianship. The article presents information about the work of E.R. Sukiasyan in the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR (now the Russian State Library, RSL), as well as the compiler and member of the Editorial Board of the “Dictionary of Library Terms”. The author considers his contribution to the reorganization of the RSL system of catalogues as the Head of the Department of systematic and subject catalogues. Eduard Rubenovich enjoyed the well-deserved love of students of the Academy of Retraining of Workers of Art, Culture and Tourism. E.R. Sukiasyan was an active participant in the public library movement, the member of the Council of the Russian Library Association. He made great contribution to the activities of the International Society for Knowledge Organization, as well as to the work of the Classification and Indexing Section of the International Federation of Library Organisations and Institutions. E.R. Sukiasyan is the author of over one thousand scientific papers.

Digital transformation of the modern world requires any person, including people with partial or complete vision loss, to have new competencies in organizing their own lives. The share of high-tech services is growing in almost all areas of library and information activities.

The process of inclusion of visually impaired people in the world of new opportunities is directly related to the formation of the image of socially active special library. The author analyzes the management decisions and development of the Novosibirsk Regional Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a consumer and participant of the intersectoral and interdepartmental market of rehabilitation industry products. The article reveals the role of assistive (auxiliary) technologies in the expansion of a number of educational services for the interested social and professional groups of the population.

The empirical basis of the article is the results of the information and applied development of the assistive technology sphere by the specialists of the Novosibirsk Regional Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Various social, technical, regulatory and economic aspects have defined the development of the institution over a long period of time. The interdisciplinary nature of the proposed method involves the use of advanced assistive technologies as the basis for expanding the services of special library.

The article considers the proactive approach that takes into account the priorities of the readership as an actual and effective way to develop a system of special library and information services. The author proposes and approves as innovation the idea of using the achievements of the related field of activity — accessibility technologies. Educational and training activities of the library in this context become a targeted tool for informing and motivating specialists of various branches. The article shows the need for additional efforts to organize and coordinate the work in the conditions of different levels of competence of specialists. Advanced development of assistive technologies allows expanding the range of users.

The article is devoted to the art work of the outstanding Russian artist, stage director, theatre figure Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov. Using bibliological, art history and source study methods, the author analyzes the least known works of the master in the field of book graphics and posters, which have been overlooked by most researchers. The article traces the relationship between the stage director’s graphic experiments and his theatrical work. The author disputes the statement that most of Akimov’s covers of the 1920s belong to the “illustrative type”, which is often found in the bibliological literature, and emphasizes the generalized, symbolic, conditional nature of the portraits of literary characters. The examples show the coincidences and differences between the poster interpretation of the characters’ images and their book interpretation. The article considers not only the early works of the master, but also his design experiences of the late 1950s — early 1960s. The author reveals the most significant features of Akimov’s graphics: strongly pronounced fantasy spirit, the artist’s predilection for the eccentric and grotesque, for unexpected angles and lighting effects, distortion of real proportions for the sake of sharpening the character of the image, the inclusion of letters in the structure of figurative compositions.

The article is devoted to the anniversary of the prominent Russian scholar in library science Margarita Yakovlevna Dvorkina, born on April 1, 1936. The author highlights her main positive qualities as a person and scientist. Her exceptional scientific integrity is revealed by the example of M.Y. Dvorkinaʼs clarification over time of the attitude to revolutionary-democratic libraries (the theme of her PhD thesis) and especially to the status of the concept of “library service”. She successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on this topic in 1994. Initially, she confined to the named scope of the concept, then she deemed more correct to consider “information and library services”, and now she inclines to the term “library and information services”. The author assumes that the next round of the scientific spiral should be return on a new basis to the term and to the concept “library service” behind it. The article presents arguments to defend this position.

In 2019, the German National Library of Economics — Leibniz Information Centre for Economics celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation. Despite such a long period of existence, there is little information about it in the Russian literature. In the works devoted to German librarianship, there is not enough attention paid to the specialized libraries. Currently, the collection of the German National Library of Economics holds 4,42 million items. In the professional community of economists, it is known for the EconStor repository, which provides open access to 200 thousand documents on economics and related sciences. The library owes its creation to the German economist, world economy specialist Bernhard Harms (1876—1939), who founded the Kiel Institute for Maritime Transport and World Economics in 1914.

The purpose of the article is to present the professional activity of B. Harms, his role in the foundation of the institute and the library. The sources for studying the scientist’s activities on organization of the library were the publications of B. Harms and his followers (A. Predel and V. Gulich), articles and books by German researchers dedicated to the institute and the library, as well as Internet resources.

The article highlights the main periods of B. Harms’ life path. The author analyzes the “Kiel” period of the economist’s life (1908—1933), when he managed to apply his organizational and leadership abilities to found, in addition to the Kiel Institute for Maritime Transport and World Economics, the subject fields library, the scientific archive, the periodical and the scientific club. The article reveals the activities of B. Harms, little known to Russian readers, as well as to the library specialists, on the transformation of reference library, created at the Seminary of Public Sciences of the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel, into the independent specialized library for economic sciences, which over the years has become one of the largest in the world.

The article considers theoretical development of the problem of the origin and provenance in the 15th — the first quarter of the 19th century of the famous Old Russian book monument — the Zaraysk Gospel. Although it has repeatedly attracted the attention of archaeographers, textologists, paleographers, linguists and art historians, this article is the first experience of studying these issues. Created in 1401 in Moscow, the Gospel, which is parchment manuscript, was purchased in 1825 by K.F. Kalaidovich for Count N.P. Rumyantsev from the Zaraysk merchant K.I. Averin, that determined its name by the place of discovery. The scribe book of Zaraysk in 1625 in the altar of the Pyatnitsky chapel of the St. Nikolas wooden church (“which’s on the square”) in the city’s Posad, recorded the description of the manuscript Gospel, corresponding by a number of features to the Zaraysk Gospel. The connection of the codex with the St. Nicholas church is indirectly confirmed by the drawing of the church placed on one of its pages (f. 156 ver.) with the remains of inscription mentioning St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This allows concluding that the manuscript in the 17th century was in the book collection of the temple. In the 17th century, the ancient St. Nicholas church was re-consecrated to the Epiphany, and the sacristy was moved to the stone St. Nicholas cathedral in Zaraysk. It is most likely that in the first quarter of the 19th century, the merchant K.I. Averin purchased the Gospel from the members of the cathedral’s clergy. The article analyzes the context of the early contributions of the 15th century “to the Miraculous Icon of St. Nikolas of Zaraysk”, one of which, most likely, was the parchment Zaraysk Gospel. The authors assume that this contribution is related to the chronicle events of 1401 or 1408. The study is significant in terms of the theoretical development of methods for identifying ancient manuscripts and their origin.

The study of practical experience of the project activities of the libraries of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of promoting library as a reading centre is relevant at the present stage of formation of digitalization society. Problems associated with the reduced motivation to read are manifested in one way or another in social and economic spheres, therefore the importance of promotion of reading at the national level is recognized in many countries. It resulted in the development of national programmes on support of reading. Despite the fact that all libraries in the world perform one common function — the development of reader competence and sustained interest in obtaining set of knowledge through reading, the experience of using the forms and methods of this activity is extremely wide.

The purpose of the article is to study the trends in the promotion of books and reading in the libraries of Germany for the possible adaptation of examples of specific activities in the libraries of our country. Getting acquainted with international experience allows identifying common and special features in the practice of library activities in Russian Federation and Germany, to determine the achievements and to point out the problems in a broader context. The system of librarianship management in Germany and the typology of German libraries are similar in many respects to the structure of this sector in the Russian Federation, which is an important reason for the possibility of adapting the experience in the domestic librarianship.

The author analyzes the primary sources in German, presented on the websites of libraries and on the pages of professional library journals of the Federal States of Germany. The article considers the experience of working with the target groups of children, young adults, families with children, refugees and migrants. The author describes the national reading program Lesestart 1-2-3, popular forms of promoting reading: “Knowledge Box” (Wissensbox), “Book Cinema” (Bilderbuchkino) and Kamishibai. The article emphasizes that reading aloud is a unique tool, undeservedly forgotten by our libraries. Research by German librarians, psychologists and educators testifies that reading aloud not only promotes imagination, creativity and empathy, but also influences educational opportunities. The author concludes that book and reading promotion events held in the libraries of the Federal Republic of Germany can be used as experience in a number of Russian libraries, considering the specific conditions.

Since 2016, the Russian Federation has been implementing the Concept for the Development of School Information and Library Centres, the main purpose of which is to create conditions for the formation of modern school library as a key tool in the new infrastructure of educational organization that provides modern conditions for teaching and upbringing.

The study assesses the current state of school libraries in the Russian Federation. The authors analyze the regulatory and organizational basis of school libraries’ activities, present in detail the difficulties of implementing the Concept for the Development of School Information and Library Centres, taking into account the norms and requirements for the organization of school libraries space, as well as consider the issues of staffing the activities of school libraries.

The authors conclude that today at least half of school libraries do not meet the requirements of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” and Federal State Educational Standards for their activities; and the heads of educational organizations are not interested in the development of library as it requires serious organizational and financial costs, but does not directly affect the performance assessment of their work.

The updated school library, filled with relevant content, supported by personnel, methodology, technologies and resources, has the ability to update the content of school education, create the necessary modern infrastructure and use effective mechanisms for managing educational activities. The authors propose a number of actions, the implementation of which at the federal and regional levels will increase the effectiveness of further activities for the development of school libraries and information and library centres.

The article considers the content of publishing activities of the Russian State Library (RSL) in the context of the event-communication process of the International Fair of Intellectual Literature Non/fictio№ 22, held on March 24—28, 2021 in Moscow in the Gostiny Dvor complex. The author presents new products of the “Pashkov Dom” publishing house of the RSL, included in the top list of the Fair, as well as the best-selling books, which were successfully sold at the RSL stand during the forum. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the two-volume book “The Great Librarian. To the 120th Birth Anniversary of Margarita Ivanovna Rudomino” as the central event of the RSL participation program in the Fair. This publishing project has been prepared for publication in cooperation with the Margarita Rudomino All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature and is intended to open a book series about outstanding librarians.

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