The effectiveness of the socio-cultural activities of libraries depends largely on the professionalism of the staff, their communication skills, creativity and skills in the use of digital technologies. The relevance of the article is determined by the increasing popularity of neural networks, their implementation in various spheres of human activity. The aim of the article is to examine the possibilities of the formation of competences on the use of neural networks in socio-cultural activities in the students of library and information studies, as well as to determine the readiness of students to perceive all aspects of the use of neural network algorithms. In the article, the analysis of publications and express survey was conducted. The latter was performed among the third and fourth year students of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, who are studying on the speciality "Library and Information Activities". An attempt is made to diversify the potential of neural networks for training a competent specialist in the socio-cultural activity of libraries. The results of the study show the following. In training library and information workers on the use of neural networks in socio-cultural activities the key conditions are as follows: study and analysis of the experience of libraries in the use of neural networks in sociocultural activities; introduction into the educational programme of theoretical and practical blocks on the use of neural networks in the sociocultural activities of libraries; accounting and risk management of the use of neural networks. In implementing the above, more attention should be paid to responsible, emotional, creative manifestations of activity in educational and production processes.

The initial data accumulated in the course of research activities is a valuable resource that can become the basis for further study, reinterpretation, revision of results, combining or comparing with other sets of comparable data in a specific field of knowledge, conducting meta-analysis, etc. Providing this data to open scientific access makes it possible to increase the visibility of research results. The article focuses on the form of organization of the initial research data: an online repository. The purpose of the article is to present the repository of the scientific library as an information system providing open access to the original research data for their promotion in the scientific information space. The analysis of domestic and foreign publications on the topic “Research Data Repository” (RID) has shown that there are not enough domestic works on this issue yet, although the range of problems considered by specialists is rather wide: from theoretical understanding of various aspects of the study of RID to the description of practical experience. Foreign publications are marked by a higher level of generalization and theorization of practical experience. The presence of l some Russian repositories of research data on the Internet and their small number registered in the Registry re3data.org suggest that this is a fairly new phenomenon for Russia or not widely spread. The creation of a repository of initial research data at the State Scientific Research Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is one example of the movement towards openness of data sets: it will allow specialists, experts and reviewers to place, store and provide access to the initial data sets to verify the findings.

The idea of web archiving, pioneered in 1996 as a way to preserve web content for future researchers, has remained important in the 21st century. It is evident by the significant number of web archives, the development of web archiving software and tools, and increased awareness of initiatives to preserve the internet-resources, introducing changes in the legislation of some countries to provide access to historical web content. The purpose of the study is to identify web archiving technologies that contribute to the preservation of web content at the global, national and local levels, as well as within the framework of the formation of a wide range of thematic collections. As a result, trends in the development of web archives, approaches to structuring the web archive system for more efficient organization of work with them, as well as stages and methods of implementing web archiving, that allow one to complete the full preservation cycle: collect, save, provide access, distribute and evaluate the results obtained. A conclusion is made, that the prospects for the further development of web archives, taking into account the standards for collecting, preserving and providing long-term access to web content, recommended by the International Consortium for Internet Preservation, including modern web archiving tools (e.g. open source codes). They allow expanding capabilities and the functionality of web archives as sources of searching for open information, obtaining new knowledge, restoring lost information, as well as checking previously published data, that often have great cultural, scientific, educational, artistic and social significance.

The aim of the article is to present an analytical review of the XXVI International Scientific and Practical conference “Skvortsov readings – 2024. Library in New Geopolitical Realities”. It was held on the basis of the Moscow State Institute of Culture on April 16–17, 2024. The key topics of the Conference were librarianship in rapidly changing geopolitical conditions, as well as prospects for the development of digital technologies and their application in library practice. Along with a busy plenary session, a representative Round table “Improving the regulatory framework as a key task of the strategic agenda for the development of librarianship in the Russian Federation” was held on the first day. On the second day of the Conference, three parallel events were held: a round table “Information culture of the digital generation in the context of the tasks of professional training of cultural personnel”, a session of graduate students and applicants “Current problems of library and information research”, for the first time a session of short reports by caring students “A young vision of the relevant in the library profession” was held.

Biblio painting is considered as a segment of the bibliosphere and as one of the areas of world fine art. Genres are identified in which the book acts as an artistic image, that carries an important semantic load, and is also used as a significant element of the composition. These genres include religious, mythological, allegorical, everyday painting, works on literary subjects, portraits and biblio still lifes. The aim of the article is to present the history of interpretation of art book image in the works of religious (Christian), mythological, allegorical painting as well as easel paintings, made on the bases of literary works. It is concluded that the development of biblio-painting correlates with the peculiarities of the transformation of book culture itself, since the interpretation of the artistic image of a book in pictorial genres emphasizes their integration into the bibliosphere as a whole.

The relevance of the topic is due to the wide possibilities of using library funds not only for education and upbringing of an individual, but also for organizing and conducting leisure activities, there providing plays from the fund for amateur performances and special literature to help stage. In some libraries, special theater departments were formed to facilitate the search for such literature. Their study is one of the areas of book culture transformation research in social communications of the 19th – 21st centuries. The purpose of this article is to present the results of identification and analysis of “theater departments” in Siberian libraries of the pre-revolutionary period. This study is based on viewing more than two hundred catalogs of Siberian libraries of the 19th – early 20th centuries, which made it possible to identify six of them that had independent theater departments in the pre-revolutionary period. The results are as follows. Six libraries had such departments. Most of them – 4 out of 6 – were city public libraries. For the first time, the quantitative indicators of the theater departments were calculated: the number of titles of books and volumes in them, their place among other departments according to these two criteria. Most of the titles and volumes were in the theater departments of Barnaul and Nerchinsk city public libraries, less than the rest – in Kurgan. The funds of the theater departments contained mainly dramatic works by Russian and foreign authors. The works by domestic playwrights prevailed. The plays by the famous Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky were widely presented in these departments. Theatrical periodicals written out by Siberian libraries are listed, among which the magazines “Artist” and “Theater and Art” are the most common. The main areas of interaction between libraries and organizers of amateur performances have been identified, which can be mutually beneficial to modern cultural institutions.

The article deals with little-studied issues related to the formation and existence of Russian personal libraries in Turkestan region from the final third of the 19th to the early of 20th century. Its purpose is to identify the main characteristic features of the “Russian personal libraries” of the Turkestan region on the example of N.S. Lykoshin’s personal library. The main research methods are that of historical and book analysis and the modeling. The relevance of the study is due to the urgent need to fill the historiographical gap in the study of Russian personal libraries of the Turkestan region during the period under study. The article presents the biography of N.S. Lykoshin, as well as the history of formation, thematic content and the degree of study of his book collection. This practically unexplored aspect of Russian book culture is considered in a biographical context in order to determine how the range of interests of the owner influenced the main motives of book collecting and the thematic composition of the N.S. Lykoshin book collection. The paper draws conclusions about the importance of N.S. Lykoshin’s personal library as a valuable historical and cultural source for the study of Russian book culture in the region. It has the definite characteristic features peculiar to the Russian personal libraries of the Turkestan region: typology, thematic and specific composition of documents, features of the of publication design, etc.

For the first time, the history of publication of works by A.S. Pushkin is restored in Russian Abroad. The chronology of the periods of publications of the poet in emigration is reconstructed. There, the works of A.S. Pushkin’s works were published in all types of publications – in academic ones, works collections, selected works, publications for adult readers children, for educational purposes. The main attention was paid to the publishing houses that published the books of the great Russian poet in the capitals and in the main centers of the book business of the Russian emigration. In Berlin, the greatest number of the great Russian poet’s works were published by the publishing houses “I.P. Ladyzhnikov”, “Petropolis”, “Slovo”, “Neva”, and “Literatura”. In Paris, it is necessary to highlight the publishing houses of “E. Siyalskaya”, “Illustrated Russia”, “S. Lifar”. In Prague, A.S. Pushkin was published by “Nasha Rech”, “Kremlin”, “Slavyanskoe Publishing House” and “Khutor”. Celebrating the centenary of the tragic death of the great poet resulted in renewal of A.S. Pushkin works publications. The activities of the “Central Pushkin Committee in Paris” are highlighted. The features of A.S. Pushkin publications are explained for emigrants in Estonia and Latvia and the local Russian population. The main centers of the provincial book business of the Russian emigration in Harbin, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires are shown. The emergence of the second wave of Russian emigration contributed to a new period of publication of A.S. Pushkin’s books. The publishing activity of Russian emigrants in camps for displaced persons is studied. A brief outline of the history of DР publishing houses is given.

The aim of the article is to analyze functional possibilities of accessible information sources to solve bibliometric tasks of researchers and scientific organizations based on criteria of “Methodology for accessing the development of interdisciplinary research and the activities of research organizations”, used in the Central Scientific Library of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS). The article considers scientific information search systems as alternative sources of scientometric data in the absence of access to the Web of Science and Scopus. The analysis of the systems is carried out in accordance with the criteria of the above mentioned “Methodology”. The functional capabilities of the systems, available bibliometric indicators, analytical tools and information visualization capabilities for evaluating the activities of research organizations and researchers have been studied. For information systems with the function of a scientific profile, a comparative analysis of quantitative characteristics is carried out on the example of a specific scientific organization and the author (IMASH Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Maidanik Yu. F.). Conclusions were drawn about the prospects for using the analyzed resources, in particular the CoLab system to assess the publication activity of scientific organizations of the UB RAS.

The article analyses the discussion between researchers Vadim Konstantinovich Stepanov and Evgeny Alexandrovich Pleshkevich on the number reduction of libraries in the Moscow region of the Russian Federation. These authors present various approaches to the study of this problem: V.K. Stepanov focuses on the practical aspects of managing and financing the libraries in the Moscow region, while E.A. Pleshkevich considers the problem in a broader sociocultural context, focusing his attention on preserving the traditional functions of libraries. The analysis has made it possible to identify points of convergence and discrepancies in the positions of researchers. V.K. Stepanov has emphasized the need to adapt libraries to digital technologies and their transformation into multifunctional communication and intellectual centers, while E.A. Pleshkevich has defended the priority of the cultural and educational mission of libraries. The article also presents the experience of the Republic of Belarus, where there is a similar tendency to reduce the number of libraries due to technological, socio-demographic, economic and managerial factors. The author proposes a set of practical measures aimed at preventing further reduction of the library network/ They are a comprehensive analysis, development of a long-term strategy, introduction of innovative forms of service, the increase of management efficiency and ensuring stable funding for libraries.