The article examines the problem of the transformation of modern libraries in the context of the digitalization of society and the development of artificial intelligence technologies, specifically focusing on the organization of library clubs. The relevance of the research is driven by the need to find new forms and methods of library work capable of confirming their significance as information and socio-cultural centers in the context of the proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies. The aim of this work is to develop principles and practical recommendations for the use of artificial intelligence technologies to improve the efficiency of the organization and carrying out of library clubs. The article presents the analysis of existing methodological approaches to the organization of library clubs, generalizes the principles of their functioning, and develops author’s recommendations for the application of artificial intelligence for library club organization. As an example the experience of using artificial intelligence at the Scientific Library of the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) in organizing the music club "Faun’s Labyrinth" is given. The main result of the research is the practically oriented set of recommendations covering the key aspects of library club activities, from planning and organization to carrying on club meetings and effectiveness evaluation. The practical significance of the research lies in providing library staff with tools to modernize club work, enhance its interactivity, and increase user appeal through the introduction of innovative work technologies. 

The aim of the study is to analyze the efficiency of the artificial intelligence (AI) application to library and information service to attract young people. The example of the branch of the MAUK Centralized City Library System of Tyumen Industrial Park "Litera" is used to analyze the main areas of application of AI technologies in the activities of a public library. Particular attention is paid to mass library and information services. An example of the training courses "Neural Networks for Schoolchildren" implemented with the support of the library partners and cultural and educational events is given. Statistical data have confirmed that AI tools make the library more attractive and interesting for teenagers and young people. Using the example of the local history project "Neuro-immersion in Tyumen", the experience of effectively including interactive elements in the event using neural networks is presented, and that have made it possible to influence the emotional level, reveal the creative potential of the participants and, as a result, arise great interest among library users. Photographs of the historical and cultural heritage of the hometown and their creative rethinking play a key role in shaping the identity of the local community. AI offers innovative solutions for working with photographs, allowing not only to preserve, but also to actively popularize local history content. 

The decrease in socio-cultural status of reading and its displacement from the sphere of free time is taking on significant proportions. The purpose of the study is to analyze and display the real picture of reading, in particular teenagers’ one, as well as to identify the possibilities and most promising library projects in the support and development of reading. Special attention in the study of this problem is given to reading in childhood and teenagers (7–15 years), since it is during this period that worldview and mortal guidelines are formed. The level of reading skills development in those ages has a significant impact on the quality of future life. Teachers and librarians are the key figures in solving this problem. The results of the study have shown that the active participation of librarians is an important factor in promoting reading, the library is a decisive factor in organizing and developing reading culture, since it has rich book collections, reliable resources, special projects on reading promotion and professional staff. Updating research initiatives that generate innovative information on the recipient of the text, aimed at understanding the current state of reading culture, determines the practical value of this study, which has made it possible to develop recommendation for libraries seeking to increase reading interest of teenagers and youth audience. 

The paper discusses the technological aspects of acquiring, cataloging, and organizing personal book collections of scientists within the scientific library’s collection. The purpose of the paper is the study of acquiring by the memorial collections at The State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of USSR/Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB USSR/RAS between 1958 and 2022. The experience of the information resources acquisition department in documenting the receipt of memorial book collections of Academician L. V. Ovsyannikov and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences A. I. Fet to the library collection of the SPSTL SB RAS and ensuring the reflection of these collections in the reference and search apparatus of the library is offered. The authors have provided information on the existence of memorial libraries and collections of scientists at scientific libraries in the institutions of SB RAS. They suggest that a unified register of memorial collections should be created to include all such collections held by scientific institutions and universities in Siberia. 

Popular scientific journals have a special part in a wide range of different periodicals due to their popularization targets, large readership varying from pupils to researchers, special design, style and language aimed at making understandable the most complicated information. Therefore, studying popular scientific journals comprises the analyses of their special features, e.g., genre, typography, linguistic, and so on. Much less frequently one uses scientometric tools primarily applied to the study of academic journals. The paper aims at evaluation of possibilities of bibliometrics and altmetrics to studying popular scientific serials using the Russian Science Citation Index database. We took an example of popular scientific journal “Science First Hand” published by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to analyze authorship models, geographical distribution of authors, subject areas, citation rate and usage statistics of published papers. Scientometric approach is believed to be promising tool to evaluate popular scientific journals, as it enables us to detect such features of papers, as their interdisciplinarity, single-author publication model, high level of expertise among authors, as well as good compliance with publication ethics requirements. 

The article is devoted to reference literature printed in Russian in China in the first half of the XX century. Such literature was published in Russian in Harbin, Tianjin, Shanghai and other cities of China and was very important for emigrants in their daily lives or for moving around the country. Attached are examples of informational and professional reference books published by the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). Biographies of authors and publishers are noted: S. M. Fomenko, Ar.-K. Yu. von Landesen, P. V. Shkurkin, N. M. Dobrokhotov, S. T. Ternovsky, G. G. Satovsky-Rzhevsky, N. N. Grozin, M. N. Gordeev and others. All reference books have been reviewed by the author de visu in Russian (Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Abroad, State Archive of the Russian Federation, etc.), foreign (University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco, Hoover Institution Library, etc.) and in private collections. 

Studies of bindings of old printed European books have recently attracted considerable attention of not only book historians, but also art historians. The relevance and novelty of the work are determined by the corpus of sources chosen for the study for the first time. It is the collection of old printed European books of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Mining Plants (KVMP) in the State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS) and its systematization and structuring of modern data on the cover materials of bindings. They are presented in the collection in both one-piece and composite versions. The purpose of the article is to classify the bindings of old printed European books from the collection of SPSTL SB RAS based on the characteristics of the cover materials: paper, leather and their combinations. The topic of the work is in line with the bindings research of the time characterized by the transition from the medieval traditions of their creation to the traditions of Modern times. The main result of the study is the classification, which includes sections corresponding to the names of the identified coating materials.: 1) paste paper; 2) paste paper + unpainted paper; 3) paste paper + leather; 4) marble paper + unpainted paper; 5) marble paper + leather; 6) unpainted paper + leather; 7) lather. The coating methods are noted in the descriptions of the instances optionally. Additional components of bindings – protective, flyleaf, flyleaf, etc. – are mentioned only occasionally in the article, as they require special study. In the collection of foreign publications of the late 17th and early 19th centuries, the predominance of fairly simple but good–quality bindings of the 18th and early 19th centuries is established. from modern materials to the collection of covers – leather and paper. Isolated examples of primitive versions of paper covering material are noted. Bindings that have retained the ownership characteristics of books from private libraries have been identified. Bindings with signs of belonging to workshops of Altai mining plants are presented. The absence of ornate and luxurious bindings in the collection is revealed, which, in our opinion, is due to the role of the book collection of the KVMP as an integral part of the infrastructure of the mining complex of Altai, focused mainly on solving practical problems of mining production. Theoretical and practical significance of the work is as follows. 1) The topic of cover materials of books from the collection/ collection of the KVMP is emphasized in the context of discussing modern problems of characterization, representation and description of bindings of the XVIII–XIX centuries. 2) The proposed classification can be used to describe the bindings of old–print European books from other collections of the KVMP. 3) The results of the study allow us to raise the question of creating a binding database of the entire surviving part – both domestic and foreign – of the KVMP book collection, which it will make possible, in addition to describing the cover materials, to include information on all the components of the bindings, the specifics of their technique and to become one of the key sources for the reconstruction of the composition of this unique library in Siberia. 

The relevance of the topic is connected with the experience of military libraries during the Great Patriotic War and the determination of promising areas of their development at present and future. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the history of the Leningrad Military Library of the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District in 1936–1947, to identify the factors influenced its work during the war and in the post–war period. The analysis is based on the documents of the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, the archive of the Information Historical and Scientific Center of the Military Historical Library of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the materials of the periodical press. The author considers the stages of reorganization, the main areas of activity, the dynamics of the development of the fund and changes in the library staff during the period under study. For the first time, information on new additions to the fund by type of publications, as well as on the financial support of the library, has been summarized and presented. 

The relevance of the topic is due to the importance of the role of the individual in the structure and functioning of libraries. The purpose of the article is to analyze the contribution of A. I. Milyutin to the work of the Tomsk City Public Library (TCPL). It was established that his activities were versatile: he served as secretary of the Committee on TCPL managing, helped in bibliographic work, became a historiographer of the library, and initiated useful undertakings. The results obtained show that he paid special attention to the acquisition, actively collaborated with various institutions in order to receive book donations from them. For the first time, the number of volumes donated personally by A.I. Milyutin to the library was calculated, of which there were more than 250. This study adds to the empirical array of materials necessary to develop theory of subjects of book culture, and can be useful for reconstructing the history of librarianship and charity in this area. 

This article addresses the question of authorship illustrations in the 1929 (Volume I) and 1932 (Volume II) editions of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, published by the Academia publishing house. The objective of this article is twofold: firstly, to determine the identity of the artist responsible for the drawings; and secondly, to elucidate the rationale behind the absence of the artist’s name on the title page of the book and in its bibliographic description. The significance of this research lies in the necessity to examine the historical development of illustrations in Miguel de Cervantes’ renowned novel Don Quixote and, more comprehensively, the practice of illustrating classical literary works by the Academia publishing house. The research undertaken allows us the conclusion that the illustrations are the work of the French engraver and artist T. Johannot, whose drawings first appeared in the Paris edition of 1836. The article proceeds to examine the subsequent history of the publication of Johannot’s authorized illustrations. The author of the article traces the history of the publication of the authorized illustrations determines and discovers that the text in question is absent from the 1866 Russian edition of Don Quixote. It is assumed that the Academia publishing house obtained Johannot ‘s illustrations from the 19th-century St Petersburg edition, in which the illustrator’s name is absent on the title. The question is raised as to why the name of the artist Iriarte appears as the illustrator of Don Quixote in the 1980 Academia catalogue and the 2004 book on the history of the publishing house. The need to correct the error made is justified.