Historical evolution and modern trends in the activities of academic libraries

The organization of the world's first library system of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) began in 1800 with the opening of the library of Archive. Collections of libraries organized at scientific institutions were formed from the collections of scientists and the Library of the Academy of Sciences (BAN), which received a "mandatory copy" from 1783. So were organized six library systems of RAS, carrying out information and library support of Russian science for more than 200 years. The reform of the RAS 2014-2019 transformed the system of research institutes and libraries, the subsystem of which they are. Federal research centers have appeared, uniting various scientific organizations and their libraries. State support, including financial support for the acquisition of funds of the Central libraries of RAS and information institutions, has been discontinued. The disbanded library Information Council at the Presidium of the RAS, performing organizational-methodical maintenance and coordination of academic library systems and institutions of information wounds for 105 years (from 1911 to 2016). During the period of the reforms RAS (2014-2019) the management of scientific institutions, including the Central libraries of the RAS, was changed twice, but the state policy and attitude to their activities aimed at "amalgamation" and "downsizing" remained unchanged. Proof of this is the situation around of the Institute of scientific information on social Sciences. After the fire in 2015 the very existence of the Institution remains in question. The paradigm of information support of scientific research has changed. Trends in the system of academic libraries were revealed by the method of comparative analysis of statistical indicators on the example of the activities of the library system of the Siberian Branch of the RAS. These include: a reduction in the number of libraries, the space they occupy, and librarians, whose functional responsibilities are expanding and becoming more complex. The absence of new revenues of scientific publications in the collections of libraries of institutes and providing researchers with access to electronic resources, contributes to a steady decline in the performance of traditional library services, and an increase in the number of users and their appeals in the electronic environment. Thus, the natural evolutionary process of transition from the traditional information support of science to the digital environment is accelerated, in which there are no costs for the purchase of documents on paper, digitized funds do not require space for their storage, and users - reading rooms for working with information. However, contrary to the views of individual experts in the field of training, it will take a long time, money and professional work of librarians to complete this transition without loss.

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