Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On June 23-24, the Polytechnic University hosted the XXIII conference “Corporate Library Systems: Technologies and Innovations” – KorFor-2025. Participants included library managers and employees, IT specialists, suppliers of electronic databases and equipment for automating institutions.
The conference has been held since 2001, with a break in 2020. This year, more than 250 people participated in person and 500 specialists online from Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Italy. Experts discussed the activities of university, public and departmental libraries. The work took place in the format of discussion panels, strategic and thematic sections.
At the plenary session, the Director of the Information and Library Complex of SPbPU Alexander Plemnek spoke with a report “AI as a driver of the transformation of libraries and librarianship on the horizon until 2035.” He compared the development forecasts that he made at conferences five and ten years ago, showing that many have come true, and earlier than predicted. Alexander Plemnek paid attention to one of the innovations of AI in 2025 – autonomous agents that are able to act independently, without direct human control, to achieve their goals. They resemble digital employees.
The integration of GenAI and autonomous agents doesn’t just add new tools to a librarian’s toolbox; it fundamentally redefines what a library is and what librarians do. The profession is at a crossroads, facing extraordinary opportunities for growth and innovation, said Alexander Plemnek.
Professor Fabio Di Bello, Wiley Client Training Manager, spoke online with a report entitled “Expanding the Possibilities of Academic Librarianship: Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models, and the Future of Knowledge Management.” The expert demonstrated the capabilities of AI in translation. On the screen, a digital double of the speaker, who does not speak Russian, not only recited the text in literate Russian, but also reproduced facial expressions and phonetics of the language.
The expert panel “From the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation to the implementation of the Concept of the federal project “Development of scientific and technical libraries”” became the most important event of the conference. It was attended by the acting Director General of the Russian State Public Library for Science and Technology Natalia Mikhalchenkova, Director of the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University Marina Karpova, Vice President of the Russian Library Association, Director of the Fundamental Library of the Herzen State Pedagogical University Natela Kvelidze-Kuznetsova, as well as representatives of other universities.
Natalia Mikhalchenkova revealed the goals of the federal project aimed at transforming the state system of scientific and technical information to achieve technological leadership of the country. She focused on the project’s tasks in 2025 related to the creation of an up-to-date register of scientific and technical libraries subordinate to various ministries and departments, as well as the development of programs for improving the qualifications of librarians. Representatives of the universities of St. Petersburg and Kazan showed a variety of areas of development of university libraries dedicated to the collection, distribution and recording of scientific resources.
Experts of the section “More than a library” presented a project for promoting and supporting the results of intellectual activity, new digital platforms for interaction with library services in 24/7/365 mode, spoke about events for creating educational video content, organizing a literary club and open lectures.
The strategic session “Vectors of Development of Russian Discovery Systems: What Users Really Need” brought together developers of a modern domestic information search service that has replaced foreign systems, and representatives of universities that use it. A fruitful dialogue allowed us to see the progress over the first year of the system’s existence and discuss development directions based on the results of surveys of service users.
Leading providers of scientific and educational databases shared their vision for the development of online resources and services for integration with university libraries.
At the section “Electronic libraries, repositories, sites and applications” experts presented various options for electronic storage. For example, in the National Electronic Library of the Udmurt Republic – preservation of cultural heritage, in the repository of scientific data of SPbPU – various results of scientific research, including unpublished ones.
The section “New library environment: developing vs. breaking traditions” showed different approaches to transforming libraries, from changing physical premises to introducing new virtual services, using AI assistants for readers and employees. Of particular interest was the report on projects for digital transformation of departmental library activities (using the Bank of Russia library as an example).
At the round table “Practice of using the services of the SuperStat and FEDURUS projects in libraries,” a discussion was held on new forms of access to subscription resources based on a login and password, and the organization of collection and analysis of statistics on the use of online resources in an automated mode.
The expert discussion “Acquisition and new regulatory documents: monitoring the situation, adapting to practice” concluded the conference program. Specialists from the National Library of Russia considered current issues related to the introduction of new regulatory documents that cause difficulties.
On June 25, excursions were organized to the libraries of St. Petersburg, after which the participants became acquainted with the features of digital transformation in the libraries of the Republic of Karelia.
An exhibition was held in the reading room of the IBC SPbPU, where one could get acquainted with the latest generation of book scanners from ELAR, which have improved the digitization and recognition of texts in many languages due to the introduction of AI, and test RFID equipment from various suppliers to optimize reader service.
All speeches and presentations will be made publicly available. The conference materials will be posted in the Electronic Library of SPbPU and indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index.
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