Information and communication technologies affect the library performance as a public good, intended to efficient and complete response to the social agenda of various socio-demographic population groups. The digital gap has an impact on a library within the framework of creation conditions for the social well-being of the population. The role of public libraries is increasing in reducing the digital gap, strengthening the material and technical base, technological infrastructure, identifying digitally disadvantaged groups of population that tend to use library computers and broadband Internet more frequently than those who are more advantaged. Attention is paid to digital inclusion which is considered to be the instrument for solving personal, social and professional needs of representatives of various population groups. The effectiveness of digital inclusion largely depends on the professional competencies of library professionals, on their ability to develop programs for library users to help them assess the digital readiness to enter the digital world. The network approach to training library professionals in digital literacy is characterized as the most flexible form that facilitates translation of positive experience to large groups of library specialists. The importance of partnership in promotion the necessity of digital literacy between public libraries with government authorities, universities, research centers and charitable foundations is stressed.

The paper is devoted to the problems of improving the system of training and expertise of scientific personnel in the field of library and information sciences. The relevance is due to the decrease in the quality of dissertation research in library science, bibliography and book studies due to the insufficient readiness of young scientific personnel for research activities. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the competence–based approach as the methodological basis for the theoretical design of candidate exam programs and to offer practical tools appropriate for assessing the level of readiness of applicants for the degree of Candidate of Sciences for scientific work in the specialty 5.10.4 – Library Science, bibliography and book studies. The definition of the candidate’s exam in line with the competence approach is given, a system of competence guidelines in the training of graduate students on the specialty 5.10.4 is formed. The control and measuring materials of the candidate’s examination in the specialty 5.10.4, developed and implemented at the Moscow State Institute of Culture, are presented. They are ready for implementation into educational and expert practices of other universities and scientific organizations.

The article considers the issues of preserving and updating the ethnocultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation within the framework of the activities of museums, houses of folk art, higher educational institutions, academic research institutes. Institutions for which the preservation of cultural heritage is not the main essential activity, but has recently been actively developing, are characterized. These are federal and national universities and research institutes of the Russian academy of sciences. Universities integrate successfully knowledge related to intangible cultural heritage into educational programs. Research institutes have become reference bases in their regions in the study and preservation of national languages as objects of intangible cultural heritage, national literature and ethnography. The prospects for such activities of libraries are considered, a new role of which is given in the Federal Law N 402-FL “On the intangible ethnocultural property of the Russian Federation”. The possibility of digitizing and forming digital collections of objects of intangible cultural heritage recorded in the form of texts and static images in libraries, as well as information objects existing in the form of temporary representation (recording of musical works, dances, folklore) has been identified. Particular attention in digitization in libraries should be paid to funds on national languages, collections of audio recordings of folk music and ethnographic collections. Examples of the practice of presenting intangible ethnocultural heritage on federal and regional portals/sites are given.

Augmented reality (AR) applications are getting popular since they integrate the real world and the virtual world. This paper focusses on AR applications for public and scientific libraries. There exist some projects and sample implementations of AR apps specially designed for libraries, but they are seldom found in practice. To identify whether there is potential for AR apps to be applied in libraries, the results of a qualitative study that has been performed among librarians working in public and scientific libraries in Austria and experts in augmented reality are presented. Searching for media, navigating to the correct location and displaying ancillary information, like ratings, reviews, secondary media, links, etc., has the highest potential for users according to the experts. AR apps for maintaining the bookshelfs of a library provide real benefit for librarians and are awarded high potential as well. Guided tours through libraries using AR-based apps lightens the load of the librarians to introduce new users to the library. The feasibility of an AR app for a library is demonstrated by introducing a prototype that supports library users with additional information on media and the library itself.

In an increasingly interconnected world, understanding of cultures, traditions and systems of different countries is of growing importance. This article aims to acquaint readers of this journal with library systems in Namibia, shedding more light on its goals, history, and various branches such as the National Library of Namibia, the National Archives of Namibia, as well as special, academic, and school libraries. Through statistical data on services offered and user demographics, the author provides insights into the current landscape of libraries in Namibia. Additionally, the article addresses challenges faced by these institutions, ultimately concluding that while the library systems in Namibia has made significant strides since Namibia gained independence, further efforts are required for its continued development and enhancement.

Dissemination and updating advisory bibliographic resources on scientific knowledge, promoting a deep understanding of scientific problems by the public are becoming most important tasks of the library. The purpose of the article is to show the possibility of using messages from the mass media as one of the sources for creating such bibliographic resources. The author presents the results of monitoring 146 Russian media using the Medialogy database (69 federal, 77 regional), conducted in March – April 2023. These analyzed media reports have allowed the identification of objects (organizations, persons, project names) involved in the communication of science and society. As a result of the study, a list of 334 messages served as the most notable informational occasions has been formed. These messages can be the objects of bibliographic description, as well as factual information for creation advisory bibliographic resources (lists, reviews, newsletters, digests, databases, guidebooks) aimed at increasing public awareness of the development of science and disseminating scientific literacy.

The article examines the impact of the new geopolitical and economic realities, in which Russia exists after 2020–2022, on the country’s publishing system. The comparative dynamics of book publishing indicators for the market as a whole and for its main segments in recent years is provided. The ratio of new editions and reprints, as well as books by domestic authors and translated literature is analyzed. The imbalance in the repertoire policy of Russian publishing houses in favor of foreign literary products is shown, and ways to overcome it are proposed.

Assessing the state of the bookselling infrastructure by creating an interactive map of the country’s bookstores in order to identify the potential for its development and search for ways to optimize it is an important factor in improving the information exchange of the book industry. The article analyzes the results of the first stage (2023) of monitoring bookselling enterprises in the Siberian-Far Eastern region within the framework of the project “The map of bookstores of Russia” (“The Cultural Map of Russia. Literature. Reading”). The research methodology is based on a combination of comparative typological analysis of monitoring data and the landscape-reconstructing approach. Statistical data on the number of bookselling facilities and their availability in federal districts and cities of Russia are summarized. The information on the location and number of bookselling facilities in the cities of Siberia and the Far East is studied in detail, leaders and outsiders are identified. The representation of federal, regional, and local network formations and independent bookstores in the region is considered. The activities of leading enterprises operating in the region for many years and recently opened bookstores are evaluated. The all-Russian trends and regional features of the development of the bookselling infrastructure are determined. The analysis of monitoring data for bookselling facilities in Siberia and the Far East showed the following. The modern regional bookselling infrastructure, along with its inherent all-Russian features, is characterized by: expansion and strengthening of the position of the federal bookselling network “The City of Read”; significant growth of the Internet channel due to the ongoing consolidation of the main players and the growing popularity of marketplace platforms. At the same time the bookselling infrastructure has a number of regional features. They are the reduction in the activities of the oldest regional network formations, successful adaptation and expansion of local large and medium-size network formations; the emergence and successful operation of special children’s bookstores-clubs, as wekk as club-backroom format stores.

The purpose of the article is to determinate the role of the external signs in the multi-volume editions in the book marking and to solve the practical problems of reconstruction of the original composition of the book collection of Kolyvan-Voskresensky mining plants (KVMP) for the period of the XVIII^th – early XIX^th centuries. This topic is considered in continuation of such issues as the reconstruction of KVMP book collection, which has already attracted the attention of our predecessors, such as formation of the fund, its cataloguing, redistribution among official Altai libraries and others.
For the first time one speaks not on mechanical fixation of certain features of the copies, but on the study of these characteristics “interaction mechanisms” under the conditions of redistribution of preserved copies among different Siberian repositories. The focus is only on the signs of the early period of the existence of the book collection: stamp imprints, textual and numerical service records, specific features of bindings etc. The emphasis on early signs is due to an appeal to the earliest accounting document – “Inventory of books of Barnaul State Library, compiled by P. K. Frolov” (1809).
This makes it possible to show in detail the connection between the signs on the books and the articles corresponding to these books official document and to determine the original composition of different multi-volume editions or, on the contrary avoid combining volumes that do not correspond to each other into one set. The structure of the article is determined by analysis of numerous details associated with each copy from three state repositories: State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk State Regional Scientific Library, Research Library of Tomsk State University. The main object of the study is records of “ordinary” and “private” copy numbers, official numerical records, handwritten evidences on the inclusion of numerous drawings in book blocks as an integral part of these editions, different styles of crossing out typographical letters with ferrous ink and other signs. The features of stamp imprints are taken into account. In some cases the paramount importance of the binding characteristics is shown. The role of external signs in combining disparate copies as sets of multi-volume editions is recognized as leading. It is concluded that not just recording, but rather a thorough study of the external features of the extant sets and odd volumes of multi-volume editions is one of the basic conditions for the successful reconstruction of the book collection of KVMP. 

Citizen science (CS) is a set of practices for organizing scientific research in a wide range of thematic areas using volunteers at various stages of the research process, them being not professional scientists. The article analyzes the activities of foreign libraries in order to implement CS projects. Both academic, research and public libraries abroad are involved in CS. Libraries (as well as archives and museums) are implementing crowdsourcing projects to create digital collections. Libraries help their readers who have decided to become volunteers navigate CS information resources on the Internet; create on their websites guidelines for using the necessary equipment and software to carry out CS projects; advertise, discuss, visualize and place in repositories the data collected by volunteers for such projects.