The operating features of the RF regional reference resources are examined; their advancement and place within the flow of sci-tech publications are discussed. During the recent two decades, the new trends emerged: stable interest toward science reference publications in regional studies; publishing of proprietary, subject, thematic and digital reference works in the regions. Initially, these works were prepared by large (republican, regional, municipal) libraries. AS the most recent trend, these publications has been covering the minor territories (district, small town, village). Today many minor Russian libraries promote regional sci-tech information (primarily collapsed, generalized, reference information). The author participates in the project “The regional encyclopedias of Russia” promoted by the Russian National Library. In fact, this is the bibliographic index within the segment of reference resources, namely, science encyclopedias in regional studies (http://nlr.ru/res/epubl/rue/content.html). The resource is supplemented with additional lists comprising other types of reference literature (toponymical, administrative-territorial, biographical and other regional scientific reference publications). It is interesting to analyze these publications from the viewpoint of current innovative processes. The author attempts to formulate the concept of “reference resources in regional studies”, to divide them into a segment within the array of the regional reference sources, to specify the generation principles and problems of functioning, to demonstrate the demand for these publications in modern communities.