11 – 16 November 2013, in Suzdal there was held 17^th International conference and exhibition “LIBCOM 2013 – Information technologies, computer systems and publishing production for libraries”.

For the first time the conference took place beyond Moscow region, in Suzdal, a pearl of the Golden Ring of Russia.

The organizers of the conference were: the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology, the Ministry of science and education of the Russian Federation, the Russian foundation of fundamental research and the International association of users and developers of digital libraries and new information technologies.

The conference of 2013 gathered heads and leading specialists of largest libraries of the CIS states, together with specialists of library and information profile, teachers of higher education institutions and of other educational establishments, as well as representatives of publishing houses, book selling organizations, scientists, specialists of the spheres of culture and education, world producers of data bases, etc.

The discussions of the conference covered all the diversity of problems of information service for the nation at all the possible levels – from libraries and higher education institutions to publishing houses and book shops. One of the urgent themes was usage of latest computer technologies for enancing information services for citizens.

The conference was opened 12 November 2013 by the performance of folk ensemble “Rosinka” of the Vladimir Regional College of Culture and Art. The director general of the RNPLST Y. Shraiberg  greeted the audience with his speech “Open resources for education and science – reality and prospects”. Afterwards there spoke S. Orlova, governor of Vladimir region, and L. Ogorodova, deputy minister of science and education of the Russian Federation.

 On the first day of the conference the basic place for meetings was chosen, which turned out to be �1 Central platform for discussions “Information and education space and standards: state of affairs, demands and prospects”. The speeches were given a start by Y. Shraiberg who introduced moderators and the main aim of the event – to mark the role and to evaluate the development of the standardization system in the ever – changing information and education environment. Besides, the participants were going to exchange views on the importance and influence of the current and coming standards in library education, education in the sphere of humanities, book sphere and in the sphere of culture and science as a whole.

Then there followed speeches of moderators and other participants with profile reports. The work of the platform was framed in the question – answer mode with free discussions on the set theme.

The speech of A. Oleinik (deputy director of the Department of attestation of scientists and teaching staff of the Ministry of education and culture of the Russian Federation) excited pure interest of the audience. “Electronic educational and scientific resources in the system of state scientific attestation” by Oleinik touched upon such theme as informatization of libraries and system of storage, processing and transferring knowledge, the process of implementation of the system. Besides the speaker gave information on the transformation the system had to go through with the modern information and communication technologies.

A speech of interest turned out to be “Information resources in the sphere of standardization, problems and prospects” by S. Mitropolskaya, a lecturer from the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (Ekaterinburg). Sofya Yurievna spoke on the new directions of priority in the sphere of standardization development.

 13 November 2013 there took place specialized seminar “RFID in Library Workflows”.

The section was presided by Tim Goverdovski, a regional sales manager of the “Bibliotheca RFID Library Systems AG” company (Rotkroits, Switzerland), and I. Timoshenko, the director general of the non – commercial partnership “International centre for technology transfer” (Moscow).

Tim Goverdovski presented the main speech of the seminar “Automation of library processes with usage of RFID technologies – acquiring equipment or a new project?”. The speech was devoted to the advantages of usage of electronic tracers.

In course of the seminar there arose a lively discussion among the representatives of organizations dealing with RFID technologies. The problem in the centre of the discussion was automation of libraries and prospects of introducing national standard “RFID in libraries”.

 The same date was marked by discussions at � 2 Central discussion platform (“Concept of development and future of National Electronic Library”). Among the participants there were the director general of the Russian State Library A. Visly, the councilor of the Minister of culture of the Russian Federation in information policies V. Duda, the director general of the RNPLST Y.Shraiberg and the director of the Department of work with libraries and higher education institutions of the “ELAR” corporation N. Kachina.

Within the framework of the meeting there were analyzed the already developed and planned to be introduced basic provisions of the concept of development of the National Electronic Library. The participants viewed ideas on how to select and form digital resources, how to store them and use. There was also touched upon the problem of a centralized reader pass.

14 November 2013 there was held the third meeting of open session “Organization and access to digital, educational and scientific resources via the Internet”.

The section was presided by N. Avdeeva, head of the Administrative department of managing and monitoring service for clients of the RSL, and E. Lindeman, deputy director general in library and information service of the RNPLST.

The main decoration of the section was acknowledged presentation “Digital resources of the RSL – new possibilities as continuation of traditions” by N. Avdeeva. The presentation was arranged as a fairy – tale, with usage of stylistic images of a well – known Russian artist I. Bilibin. Ms Avdeeva's speech covered the history of the Digital library of the RSL and introduced a new software for viewing electronic documents in the protected mode (“DVS”) which came to take place of the already known “DefView” product. Apart from that Nina Vladimirovna described the “Antiplagiat.RSL” project within the framework of which there were tested texts for plagiarisms. The speaker would also mention certain problems which were likely to arise due to certain peculiarities of Part 4 of the Civil Code RF currently in force.

Other interesting reports were presented by E. Lindeman (“Modern tendencies and problems of usage of information resources in library services”), Y. Chekhovich (“Research on borrowings in texts of dissertations on History stored at the electronic collection of full texts of dissertations of the RSL”) and M. Goncharov (“Access to information and library resources of the sphere of science and education – problems and solutions”).

 The final plenary meeting and the closing ceremony of the conference took place 15 November 2013.

At the meeting there were summed up the results of the conference and given thanks to its organizers. As a part of the tradition there was held a lottery with two certificates as prizes – the certificate of payment in full for participation in the “Crimea 2014” conference, and the 50% - payment certificate.

 In 2013 the “LIBCOM” conference proved once again the importance of events of such level aimed at considering latest practices of work of libraries and other related organizations.

Videos of the main sections of the 17^th International conference “LIBCOM 2013” are available on the official website of the Russian Association of Digital Libraries  www.aselibrary.ru.