Despite the stable position of modern information services in the unified structure of library activities, there are a number of problems that need to be addressed at both the theoretical and practical levels. External influences affecting libraries in general and information services (IS) in particular have been identified. This is competition with external organizations working in the field of data integration and service provision; the development of innovative software and technological tools that are not available to Russian libraries; an increase in the number and volume of electronic libraries and digital collections (which users can access independently, reducing the workload on services that provide various types of IS in libraries); and information overload for users. Among the many problems, three have been identified and described: the need to update the forms and methods of service provision of IS, as well as the services themselves; the study of usersʼ information behavior in order to improve the efficiency of service; and the expansion of the resource base of information science by incorporating digital collections into scientific discourse and actively using them. The task of the professional library community is not only to justify the updated philosophy of IS, but also to offer users services that are comparable in level to those provided by commercial companies and organizations through further technological development of forms and methods of service. The article substantiates the need to integrate virtual reference services into the environment of electronic libraries and digital collections, as well as the relevance of creating exclusive information resources for users.

The article presents the concept of bibliography science information and analyzes its sources, including scientific monographs. An array of monographic publications on issues of bibliographic science and practice published in the USSR (1929—1991) and in the Russian Federation (1992—2024) has been studied. For the first time, the composition of the authors and publishers of these monographs is presented comprehensively (in connection with the development of the main thematic areas of bibliographic science in various historical periods). Embodied in documents, primarily in the form of printed book (and now also electronic) editions, monographs are a valuable source of scientific information. The importance of their digitization has been noted: electronic copies of 95 of the 168 editions reviewed in this article are currently available on the National Electronic Library portal, in the Scientific Electronic Library on the eLibrary platform, as well as among the electronic resources of the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, and the websites of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Institutes of culture.

The authors present the main statistical indicators of domestic print books and periodical editions publishing for the first half of 2025. The text and the tables with comments give a clear picture of the number of book titles and brochures, newspapers, journals and magazines, their circulation, themes and the most popular authors in the fields of fiction for adults and children. Particular attention is paid to the problem of interrelations between the publishing of books and periodicals in our capital cities and regions. The comparison of two main statistical figures for book publishing of the first half of 2025 with the same period of 2024 indicates a slight increase: 103,06% for the total number of titles of books and pamphlets and 101,76% for their total print runs. As about periodicals we can see significant differences between segments of newspapers and journals with magazines. The total number of titles for newspapers is shortened from 6129 to 5967 and their total circulation — from 1,6 billion copies to 1,5. At the same time the total number of titles for journals and magazines is increased from 5389 to 5518, though their total circulation is shortened in comparison with the first half of 2024 — in that period it was 295 million copies and now — 281.

Bibliometry is an important tool for assessing publication activity in modern conditions, as it allows us to identify the priority areas of scientific research in higher education (as evidenced by the example of the Orel State Institute of Culture). The article describes the features of using the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) methodology, the freely available Publish or Perish program, which is used to assess citation flows, and explores the possibilities for bibliometric analysis of journals from the White List. The article presents the advantages and challenges of various methodologies and concludes that it is necessary to use a combination of bibliometric tools to obtain reliable results.

The article examines the tradition of the emergence and development of current bibliographic information on bibliography, library science, and bibliology in our country. The first current guide of this kind was the index “Bibliography of Russian Bibliography” by B.S. Bodnarsky. Then, during the Soviet period, the country’s largest libraries, the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin (later, the Russian State Library, RSL), the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the USSR, and the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, carried out long-term work on compiling and disseminating current bibliographic information for book industry specialists. The current bibliographic indexes prepared by these libraries over the years, which have been discontinued in print, have been analyzed. At the same time, most of the collected bibliographic array of all the named libraries continues to exist in the form of electronic databases. An attempt has been made to answer the question of whether it is possible to continue the current information provision in a printed format.

The article is devoted to the correspondence between two outstanding bibliographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, N.M. Lisovsky (1854—1920) and D.V. Ulyaninsky (1861—1918). It is deposited in the personal archive of N.M. Lisovsky in the manuscript department of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The correspondence includes 12 letters from D.V. Ulyaninsky and 5 drafts of N.M. Lisovskyʼs responses, written between 1894 and 1914.

This array of epistolary sources is dedicated to bookdonating, interchange of publications, and discussions of bibliographic works. So, N.M. Lisovsky presented D.V. Ulyaninsky with several of his brochures, one of the issues of the “Russian Periodical Press”, individual issues of the “Bibliographer” magazine and reference supplements, indexes to the “Russian Bibliography” magazine, and a collective photograph of members of the Russian Bibliological Society. D.V. Ulyaninsky handed over to his correspondent his main books — “Among books and their friends” and “D.V. Ulyaninskyʼs Library”, a separate print of the article “Bibliographic note on Pushkinʼs poem “The Groom”, editions released to mark the 200th anniversary of the Russian civil font. The published letters of N.M. Lisovsky highly appreciate the bibliographic works of D.V. Ulyaninsky. Later, this assessment was further developed in his printed works. D.V. Ulyaninskyʼs autobiographical information and details about the composition of his library in 1904 are of significant interest. They were sent to N.M. Lisovsky for the unrealized publication of the “Dictionary of Bibliology and Printing in Russia”. In particular, the true place of birth of D.V. Ulianinsky is being established — the city of Karachev, Orel province.