The authors review the professional program of the Twenty Eighth International Conference and Exhibition “International technologies, computer systems and publications for libraries” (“LIBCOM-2024”) held in Suzdal, Vladimir Region, Russia, on November 17–22, 2024. The conference subject scope comprised the following issues: artificial intelligence, open access, library collection development, training professionals for academic and sci-tech specialized libraries in the context of digitalization, status of and prospects for information, computer and Internet-based technologies in the work of libraries, universities, scientific and research organizations, innovations in the modern educational technologies. The authors focus on the key events: the open lecture and discussion panel “Artificial intelligence in science, culture, education: The problems, solutions and privileges”, B. Lensky Eighth Industry Conference “Book publishing and libraries: Vectors of cooperation”, open educational panel “In advance of educational reforms – 2025”, special discussion and information panel “Centralized (national) subscription, foreign and national services to support science and education”, scientific and practical session “Project, research and methodological activities of the libraries: On the way to the library of the future model”, special session “Sci-tech, departmental, corporate libraries and STI centers in the new State System of Scientific and Technical Information (GSNTI)”, scientific and practical session “Ecosystem of science and education: Publishing, statistics, management”, strategy ses- sion of the National Library Association “Libraries of the Future” (NALF), and the fall session of the Permanent IRBIS School. The conference conclusions are made.

The theme of ecology, traditional for the Forum “The Book. Culture. Education. Innovations”, was discussed at the Conference “Green libraries – libraries of the future” (before 2024 – Conference on the current issues of ecological education). The conference program was built around the topic of libraries contribution to ecological education and sustainable development, modern creative approaches, and libraries integration into the creative economy. The theme of the year was: “The green libraries: Eternal values and new trends. Art technologies for libraries of the future”. The conference covered the following subject scope: the key trends in the RF ecological policy and the role of libraries in solving ecological problems; reviewing the experience of Russian and foreign “green” libraries; developing thematic digital collections to promote environmental sciences; literature in ecology and sustainable development in the library collections; projects in creative industries for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and libraries’ activities within creative economy; modern library concepts for the ecosystem of youth creativity; patent information for modern arts, etc. The libraries were discussed as the “green”, sustainable, creative institutions focusing on the urgent problems of the communities and preserving the historical memory. The presented book by Raisa V. Kuznetsova “The fathers’ banners have not fallen. Nikolay N. Kuznetsov – the man always in the forefront (Reminiscences)” [in Russian] is dedicated to heroism of participants of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant disaster mitigation effort.

Within the two conference sessions, 11 papers were presented. The author concludes that the goal of the conference as declared by the organizers – to conceptualize the library of the future as the green and sustainable institution – was achieved.

The studies of interaction between scientific libraries are seen as incomplete and fragmentary. Understanding this phenomenon of library practice would enable to reveal the objective reasons why the ties have weakened, and to predict the conditions for increasing the potential of scientific libraries (SL) in the region. The author discusses the scientific libraries typology, the forms of their interaction, and attempts to introduce the model of their interaction. She describes the scientific libraries practice of cooperation traditional for Krasnoyarsk, with the focus on the Central Regional Library of Krasnoyarsk region, the Central Scientific Library of the Krasnoyarsk Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Siberian Branch (SB RAS) and academic libraries, all as the part of the regional scientific and educational space. The forms of interaction between the Krasnoyarsk scientific libraries made the subject matter of the retrospective study.

The historical research method and the analysis of publications enabled to identify active, unstable, and weakening aspects of SL interaction. The author reviewed the publications by Russian library researchers and Krasnoyarsk academic librarians. The study findings reflect the general picture of interaction between Krasnoyarsk scientific libraries and would enable to foster the efforts to strengthen professional communication.

The authors explore the structural changes in scientific collaborations in Siberian regions applying the method of scientometrical analysis of publications. After many years of growth, in 2022–2023 the scientific cooperation of Russian institutions with those in Europe and North America drastically reduced. The most significant changes took place in Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions that earlier had been leading in international collaborations. In the other Siberian regions the decline is less significant. Every discipline experiences the recession, moreover in many cases the scientific contacts with China and Kazakhstan have decreased, too. Notably, Krasnoyarsk region has upgraded its interaction with India, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, while Irkutsk and Novosibirsk regions have maintained their cooperation with Mongolia. The Siberian regional cooperation has been stagnating under the dominance of the capital city, Novosibirsk region leads less often, and Tomsk region is ranked third. Interaction with the Ural region, i. e. Sverdlovskaya, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk regions, are still intensive and covers the wide range of disciplines, while the ties with the Russian Far East are rather weak.

The article is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Department of the Central Scientific Library (CSL) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences based at the Botanical Garden-Institute (BGI), established in 1974. For the first time, the history of the department evolution from the small sector to division with the vast collection of books on flora in the Far East of Russia is discussed. The collection is highly demanded by scientists and the widest audience representing public and ecological organizations, and nature enthusiasts.

The authors present information on the lifetime publications by Academician Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov, the organizer and first chairman of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who personally brought and mailed to the library the highly demanded science publications, and contributed massively to establishment of scientific organizations in the Far East of Russia.

The Department takes the most active part in the life of the Botanical Garden-Institute, interacts with its administration and the Council of Young Scientists. The authors demonstrate how the library adapts to the financial situation, to the BGI expanding and changing research vectors, to acquiring short-circulation scientific literature.

The authors share the experience of holding the ecological initiative, i. e. “The Rhododendron Day”, which has become the large-scale annual all-Russian conference for schoolchildren with international participation, and which has had impact on the BGI website and book publishing in the CSL.

The open access to scientific information is promoted to the wide range of users in Vladivostok and the Primorsky Kray via the guest displays and ecological educational events based on the scientific books and popular science publications.

The concept of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) is introduced. The author describes the activities of the International Society for the Organization of Knowledge (ISKO), as well as the Basic Register of Thesauruses, Ontologies and Classifications (BARTOC) as the most representative registry of KOS. The KOS typology presented in the International Standard is discussed and a simplified KOS typology is proposed. The state of KOS in Russia is briefly characterized by the main categories: authority files, library classifications, classifications of scientific information, classifications of Internet resources, thesauruses, and ontologies. Conceptual reference models are considered separately as the most promising type of KOS. The main knowledge representation tools on the Semantic Web platform are listed. Tasks related to KOS are formulated within the framework of the Federal Project for the Development of Scientific and Technical Libraries, in particular, acquisition of the database of existing Russian KOS. Such a database, similar to the BARTOC database, will enable to monitor and compare existing KOS, and to decrease duplication of design projects. The “Russian KOS” database has to be designed compliant with the Semantic Web standards as the cloud of linked open linguistic data similar to the international resource. The author proposes the contents and structure of possible KOS for the future integrated system of sci-tech libraries.

Strengthening system of digital transformation (DT) strategic management in the regional aspect, ensuring integrated and even development of the regions, and the balanced responsibilities of regional and municipal authorities and their financial resources, facilitate the balanced digital transformation of the libraries. Various ministries and agencies (RAS, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, etc.) generate their own statistical data on the libraries, however, on the national scale these data are not generalized. The authors insist that all-Russia sociological interdepartmental studies have to be conducted to understand the problems the libraries experience with the digital transformation. The relevance of the paper lies in the visual representation of regional differences in the role of libraries in the DT strategies of the RF entities. Purpose of the study is to analyze in detail the regional strategies of digital transformation of the subjects of the Russian Federation and to identify library vectors within their context. The applied methods are: a) terminological analysis of the problem; b) content analysis of specialized publications; c) textual analysis of regional strategies of the subjects of the Russian Federation; d) comparative analysis. As the main result, the typology of the subjects of the Russian Federation in relation to regional digital transformation strategy is generated. The practical value of the study is that the findings and conclusions may be used in planning digital transformation of libraries in the regions of the Russian Federation.