Abstract: The author starts with two key topics, i. e. digitalization and COVID-19 pandemic that makes impact on every sphere of human life and activity worldwide. The digitalization explosive development to change information, educational and library infrastructure has been not equal to expectations due to the pandemic and turned out to be different. However, the pandemic has stimulated digitization systems, Open access and open science. The author considers stable interest to ward reading, and printed books especially, to be “adigital era paradox”. He also points to stabilizing market of printed and electronic books. The no-less important topic is language ecology, or ecology of language, which cannot be interpreted exclusively as the fight for languagepurity; the author provides several examples of borrowings (Anglicisms) in the Russian language, which is increasingly evident due to digitalization. The modern digitalization facilitates targeted transition toward “the libraries of the future”, drives mainstream trends and goals on this way. The library collections, premises and working conditions during the pandemic are characterized. The pandemic also has exacerbated the problem of copyright transformation in the digital era. The author provides examples of legislative solutions in copyright in several countries and characterizes the Russia’s trends in copyright transformation in the digital world. The author concludes that, in the conditions of expanding digitalization and sustainable development, the libraries find themselves in the avant-garde as they support and effectually implement many sustainable development goals within the nation.

Abstract: The findings of monitoring virtual space of federal libraries: their websites and social media, are interpreted. The author analyzes search optimization indicators, i. e. website quality factor, website adaptiveness for mobile systems, as well as behavior indicators, e.g. average visit time, number of viewed pages per visit, etc. The comparison of these findings with prior research evidences on increasing quality of information resources under investigation. The efficiencyоf the federal libraries’ activity in VKontakte (VK), one of the most popular mass media and digital platforms, was analyzed with Socstat.ru web-analytics. The federal libraries’ VK communities are characterized by: number of subscribers, total number of posts, number of posts for a time period, average post length, and the average number of posts per day. Federal library user activity factors areal so analyzed; number of responses, average number of responses, average community engagement, and average post engagement. The author insists on the necessity of monitoring of library presence in the digital environment through web-analytics for libraries efficient integration into the single cultural information space.

Abstract: The technological solutions in culture and arts increase accessibility of cultural goods and intensity of cultural environment. QR-technologies designed by Denso Wave Incorporated have become digitalization component increasingly popular in library and information services. The mobile access points call for new ways of library and information services. The concept, characteristics and advantages of QR technology are examined; options for QR code application in libraries are suggested. As the majority of library users owns mobile phones, QR technologies provide unique opportunities. MTS (Mobile Telecommunications System) was the first company to initiate the project of using mobile phones to expand library information space: QR-code linking to books were placed in the city public places. Library applications for QR-codes are outlined, e. g. library information advertisement, user services, social events to promote reading, monitoring in the pandemic situation, etc. The opportunities and prospects for this resource are investigated by the examples of RNPLS&T, Belgorod State Universal Scientific Library, V. G. Korolenko Public Scientific Library (Glazov, Udmurt Republic), Centralized Library System (Georgievsk, Stavropol Territory). The author also suggests that QR codes may solve the problem of access to full and reliable information.

Abstract: The author analyzes the state policy of the Russian Federation oriented toward using and developing the potential of senior citizens, in particular its administration in library and information services. She reviews the documents on active ageing and senior citizen participation in economic and socio cultural development, i. e. federal laws, decrees, presidential messages, strategies, concepts, national programs, etc. Special attention is given to the related government programs and legal acts adopted in St. Petersburg. The priorities of the national and regional policy in the area are analyzed. The accomplished projects of Russian and, in particular, St. Petersburg public libraries are characterized. Personality orientation, humanism and social viability make the principles of library senior user services. The key vectors and formats of services are reviewed.

Abstract: In contrast to the sciences, that were formed gradually and in many ways spontaneously, the development of bibliological disciplines was based on their theoretical comprehension without the expectation that they would all arise naturally. The central question remains unclear: is bibliology and its derivatives (library science, bibliography science) a complex of scientific disciplines or a complex discipline? In most cases, their union is limited to separate concepts that unite an established range of problems. This article aims to consider theoretical questions about the book and the bibliography as properties of living systems: what is their purpose, how do they “work” in the body, how do they arise in the course of evolution and how do they behave? Based on the achievements of neuroscience, first of all, on the research of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences K. V. Anokhin and his colleagues, the author considers the book as an external cognitome. It is a complete, alienated system of subjective experience formed in an organism in the process of evolution, individual development and learning. In other words, the book is already in us, it is already “embedded” in the body. The author must not invent it, he must translate it. Therefore bibliography can be viewed as a superstructure over an external cognitome. This is a network over a network, i. e. a hypernet. The main general theory is the understanding of the mechanism of interaction of three elements: books (kniga in Russian – K) and (in Russian– I) a bibliography (bibliografiya in Russian – B) – these stands for KIB, where I (and) is the key element. The article considers the issues of reading as a challenge for the brain and thinking in the digital age. Particular attention is paid to “distant reading” (F. Moretti) by using Digital Humanities. F. Moretti's predecessor was the Russian researcher B. I. Yarkho (1889–1942). It concludes that the general theory of science about a book and bibliography should be based on three components: 1) understanding the mechanism of the relationship between a book as an external cognitome and bibliography as a hypertext (KIB); 2) exploring the study of close and distant reading in the digital age; 3) the formation of the foundations of the theory exact study of bibliography.

Abstract: Librarian competences in the era of digital communication era are determined by the environment and the problems that the librarians have to solve in the nearest future. The librarians have to identify their role and to learn new competences for the digital society based upon digital information when traditional library competences have faded. The author examines various approaches to the concepts of competence, competency and competence approach. The author reviews various ideas of nature, structure and ways of librarian digital competence development; specifies the concept digital competence development and emphasizes its impact on academic libraries.The nature of librarian digital competence implies professionally relevel personal quality manifesting itself in the ability of solving social and professional problems with information and communication technologies, upgrade your skills in digital technologies, and adapting professional knowledge to changing digital society. The model of librarian competences for digital environment was developed by Siberian Federal University Scientific Library; the model is discussed. It comprises soft and flexible skills. The model would enable to solve various problems in staff management, to move the library forward toward strategic goals and to meet user needs and demands.