The purpose of the article is to investigate the basic questions of revealing, studying, stocktaking and preserving rare books and book monuments in libraries. The chronological criterion of recognizing a document as a single book monument leaves no place for doubts, but the criterion of social significance (see point 5 of the Order № 1780 ‘On Approval of Regulations on Register of Book Monuments') raises many questions as there are no works analyzing the criterion of social significance.

Only an individual approach to each document will make it possible to explore all the peculiarities of a book creation and existence. The decision for recognizing or not a document as a book monument can be made by a regional council of experts. Libraries use different approaches to technical processing and organizing storing of documents from the category under study (e.g. only the monuments being singled out from the general collection, monuments and rare books being stored together; rare books being a part of the general collection etc.).

The professional community should work out recommendations, which could help to organize properly library collections that include book monuments and rare books.

Preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage, the most important part of which are book monuments, is the main task of libraries and other cultural institutions.

An important achievement in the implementation of the state policy was the consolidation in the Russian legislation of the norms governing the work with book monuments, the formation of the Register of Book Monuments, the creation of the site “Book Monuments” within the framework of the national project “Culture”, being the part of the National Electronic Library.

The article presents the first results of work on the identification, study and digitization of book monuments from the collection of rare books stored in the non-digital collection of the Presidential Library.

The purpose of this article is to introduce researchers to book monuments from the collection of rare books of the Presidential Library, the peculiarities of presenting their digital copies in the library's electronic collection.

A brief description of the documents identified in the collection of rare books with signs of book monuments is given. Among them, there are early printed books; books with autographs, records of scientific, historical, cultural interest; books from personal collections of prominent people, etc. Considerable attention is paid to the description of the rarest and most interesting copies. The basic principles and approaches to digitization and presentation of book monuments in the central collection of electronic documents are considered. Special attention is paid to the experience of the Presidential Library in forming the digital collection “Book Monuments of the Presidential Library”, which includes selected domestic and foreign editions published before 1830.

The Scientific Library of the National Museum of the Komi Republic is one of the oldest libraries in the region. For more than 110 years of its history, a unique book collection has been formed, containing rare printed editions of the mid-18^th - early 20^th centuries from private collections of famous scientists, public figures, writers, teachers, as well as books and periodicals of scientific, educational and other government institutions of both the Komi region and Russia. The purpose of the article is to outline the main stages in the history of the Scientific Library of the National Museum of the Komi Republic collection, designed to identify and expose its unique rare editions for visitors.

The first stage (1911-1919) is connected with the activities of the Ust-Sysolsk local historians and the Arkhangelsk Society for the Study of the Russian North, the second (1920-1930) was conducted by the Society for the Study of the Komi Territory. The third stage is limited by the period of the Great Patriotic War. Archaeographic expeditions for to collect handwritten books and early printed publications became significant for the fourth (1960s-1970s) period.

In 2011, a new stage began in the life of the library, associated with the transfer of the book stock to the building of the Literary Museum named after I. Kuratov, one of the departments of the museum. When creating the space of the Literary Museum, a special place was assigned to the scientific library: the combination of the educational resource of the exposition and the scientific library with the reading room and book storage. Research activity is one of the main directions in the work of the library. Studies are actively carried out aimed at scientific and bibliographic description and examination of rare editions, identification, attribution and cataloging of book signs. Publications covering the results of researches become the concluding summing up both at the regional and Russian levels. The priority direction is a wide demonstration of their collections using computer technologies, which contributes to the expansion of opportunities for public access to rare book collections and allows expanding the list of visitors.

Developing programs of new directions of work with readers in the changing sociocultural conditions is an actual orientation of domestic librarianship policy. The results of studies undertaken in order to reveal modern trends in the service system of SPSTL SB RAS showed, in particular, the growing request for belletristic and mass literature on the part of readers. This tendency of changing information needs deserves more profound study for to perfect both the servicing system and the technology of building the library stock.

The object of the local study, undertaken by the authors of this article, is one of the segments of the large stock of belletristic and mass literature stored in SPSTL SB RAS - the collection of scantily used editions (FMI). Today, FMI is an ever-growing collection of publications that has its own reader, but still is not in demand enough.

Our goal was to use the methods of comparison, analysis, synthesis and observation for to consider the relevance of this collection, its place in the system of other library collections, as well as to identify opportunities to realize FMI potential in meeting new readers' needs.

The involved theoretical material and the analysis of practice allowed the authors to assert that one of the main causes of unsatisfactory rate of this collection usage are organizational and technological contradictions primarily laid at the bottom of its functional capacity, which prevent providing integrity of its managerial system. Increasing the efficiency of FMI use could be facilitated by bringing it closer to the reader “physically” and reflecting the content of the collection in readers' catalogs.

The transition from an information society to a knowledge society gives libraries a chance to overcome the crisis by transforming themselves into educational institutions of a new type, providing quality information and educational services that promote cognitive and creative activities. An important place among them belongs to programs and projects for the creation and promotion of electronic learning resources intended for schoolteachers and students, i.e. for the audience, which directly determines the society we will have to live in the near future. The aim of the article is to consider the experience of major foreign libraries in preparing electronic learning (e-Learning) resources for schools from the perspective of their possible use by Russian libraries in the light of the tasks set to strengthen the role of cultural and educational organizations in the historical and cultural enlightenment and upbringing of the growing generation. The object of the article is the resources of own generation (or created in cooperation with other institutions) of national and regional libraries in the USA, Great Britain, and Australia, related to the methodological support of the educational process in schools. The study of the content of these resources made it possible to identify several main groups with different purposes: training in the skills of working with primary sources; promotion of classical literature and reading; assistance to subject teachers in their work with current social and political issues; development of regional / local history knowledge. Examples explored are electronic learning resources for schools posted in dedicated sections or on the web portals of the Library of Congress (USA, Washington), the National Library of Australia, the British Library, the Florida State Library and Archives, the State Library of Victoria (Australia, Melbourne) the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales. The study has shown that national and regional libraries of the above-mentioned countries place a high priority on the preparation of electronic learning resources for schools. Creation of such resources helps libraries to solve important tasks: to popularize their collections and electronic resources; to expand the circle of regular readers by attracting schoolchildren; to enhance the prestige of the library as an important cultural and educational institution involved in forming the worldview and raising the intellectual level of the younger generation. Due to their social significance, such projects, as a rule, have state or regional funding; grants are widely practiced. The article pays special attention to the interaction between libraries and other cultural institutions in preparing joint electronic learning resources for schools, as well as to the promotion of such resources among the teaching community, primarily through close cooperation with pedagogical organizations.

Smart Libraries and Information Management in Digital Environment. Set of 2 vol. Vol. 1 / edited  by N. Singh, S. Singh. New Delhi : B. R. publ. corp., 2022. 309 p.

Smart Libraries and Information Management in Digital Environment. Set of 2 vol. Vol. 2 / edited by N. Singh, S. Singh. New Delhi : B. R. publ. corp., 2022. 310–647 p.

The results of the All-Russian (with international participation) scientific and practical conference “Book Culture in the Digital Age”, organized by the Department of Library and Information Resources of the East Siberian State Institute of Culture within the framework of the implementation of the comprehensive scientific topic, are summarized. The reports presented at the plenary and sections sessions, panel discussion are characterized, and the recommendations formulated by the participants of the event are summarized.