The article analyses the formation and development of ICT competencies when training scientific personnel. It has been shown that the integrated development of science is directly linked to the development of information and communication technologies, regardless of the existing infrastructure for these technologies. The close relationship and mutual influence of science and information technology in different historical periods of human development has been examined. The lists of laws regulating scientific activities have been given, as well as the main principles and definitions of these activities recognized by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. The prerequisites for the formation of competences in the field of information and communication technologies in a scientific environment have been described. The current competencies that are necessary to conduct scientific and/or scientific-technical (technological) research with further commercialization of scientific and/or scientifictechnical (technological) results in the form of implementation of innovative projects aimed at solving economic, social or other socially important tasks have been analyzed. The article presents a list of the main components of the currently adopted pan-European competence framework which have been divided into three groups: instrumental, reflecting the level of development of cognitive and methodological abilities, technological and linguistic skills of an individual; interpersonal, revealing individual skills (expression of feelings, attitude towards criticism and selfcriticism), social skills (interpersonal relationships, teamwork); systemic, enabling the parts of the competences to be seen in their connection and unity. The article analyses the key modern ICT competencies important for research and academic careers that need to be developed and shaped by young researchers.

The article considers a quantitative analysis of the citation of publications by Belarusian authors in subject areas in Scopus in order to present general data for all years and for the last decade. The obtained results were compared to identify possible changes. Subject areas of Belarusian science are outlined; the leading scientific thematic directions are determined both by the number of publications and by the number of citation. Separately, a block is presented concerning the dynamics of citation of publications of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, as the main scientific organization of the republic. The relevance of the study is confirmed by its applied nature, the results obtained can be used as input data by specialists in further research, heads of scientific organizations to make managerial decisions in the field of science policy, to determine the most promising areas of research, etc. It is concluded that the most Physics, Materials Science and Chemistry remain the cited subject areas of Belarusian science in Scopus, but over the past decade, in addition to Physics, Medical and Engineering Sciences have taken a leading position. An annual increase in the number of publications of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in Scopus was noted, their priority thematic focus both in the number of works and in the number of citations to them is Physics, Materials Science and Engineering. Recommendations for authors are given on how to increase the visibility of the results of research activities.

The article presents an analysis of the current state of Russian-Belarusian cooperation in the field of biotechnology for 2011–2021 according to the databases Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. The dynamics of the publication flow, the most active foreign partners and organizations have been determined, priority areas for cooperation have been identified. As a result of the bibliometric analysis, it was found that the most fruitful in joint research are: Ecology, Agriculture, Experimental Medicine, Scientific Technology, Mycology. The directions with highly cited publications were: Nanotechnology, Medical Chemistry, Cytology, Medical Technologies. The most relevant research, which was already cited in the year of publication, dealt with the development of nanocrystals and nanoplates, the study of programmable materials, the genetics of agricultural plants. As a result of the analysis of the keywords of highly cited and rapidly cited articles, it was concluded that the scientific community is interested in works that have a practical orientation. Based on the ratio of the volume of publications and citations in different scientific fields, the authors proposed topics for further cooperation, priority publications for the publication of articles. The results of the work may be of interest from the point of view of administrative policy, further financing of promising areas, organizing joint research, and establishing scientific ties. 

Scientometric indicators are nowadays an almost mandatory element in assessing the scientific activity of a scientist or an academic organization, and scientometric methods are actively used in various studies in the field of science studies, including bibliometric studies. The article analyses the three largest citation systems. The Belarusian publications on agriculture selected from Web of Science, Scopus and RSCI scientometric databases for the period 1991 –2021 have been studied in detail. Articles were analyzed by subject, publishing organizations, authors, year of publication, types of publications, and other parameters. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the number of publications and the number of their citations is growing every year. This indicates the growing publication activity of the authors. However, Belarusian authors prefer to publish in Russian-language editions that are not included articlein foreign information resources. This indicates the need for their further promotion in the world information systems. At the same time, the reflection of publications with the participation of Belarusian authors in international information resources undoubtedly has a positive effect on the status of national science in the system of global scientific communications.

The article considers the methodological principles used in the creation of the Russian-language version of AGROVOC, the multilingual thesaurus of the international information system for agriculture and food of the UN FAO AGRIS. The stages and content of the works on the creation of the Russian version are considered. The results of the work done are presented: studying the lexical composition of the AGROVOC thesaurus; comparative analysis of approaches to assigning the status of a term in the dictionary entries of national thesauri; researching in solving issues of lexical polysemanticism and disambiguate in the AGROVOC thesaurus; analysis of the meaning of synonymy relations; studying the functions of the “Note” field. When creating the Russian-language version, the methodology of translating terms directly by agricultural specialists was used, ensuring thereby a high-quality selection of equivalents to English terms of the English-language version of the thesaurus and with the minimal revision needed. The work started with finding equivalents for the descriptors, then proceeded to translating synonyms. Word combinations and relators were used to eliminate lexical polysemanticism and disambiguate of terms. When selecting an equivalent to an English AGROVOC term, the developers of the Russian-language version were guided by the following basic rules: the undesirability of literal translation; the differentiation of concepts and the use of relators to emendate terms; artificial formation of equivalents when accurate translation was impossible. For precise selection of the Russian equivalent of a term of the thesaurus we analysed all its relationships with the other terms – broader and narrower, synonyms, associated terms, as well as the text of notes, which could indicate limitations of the scope of use of the term, emendation of a concept, etc.

The Belarus Agricultural Library is a branch library which manages the collection of literature on agricultural sciences and related topics. To provide information and library services for science and production, in addition to national documents, the library’s collections are also replenished with foreign documents on paper and electronic media. Sources of acquisition of foreign literature are as follows: subscription to printed periodicals of the CIS countries, international document exchange, subscription to electronic scientific journals on the platform «Scientific Electronic Library eLibrary.ru», purchase of books, acceptance of donations and return of mistakenly withdrawn publications, receipt of documents of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The article provides an analysis of the acquisition of foreign publications in the collection of the Belarusian Agricultural Library over a 5 -year period (2017–2021). The priority sources of acquisition of foreign documents are identified, their type and quantity are examined, and the processes of obtaining documents from each of the acquisition sources are described.

The article presents the history of the creation of the journal "Russian Agriculture", one of the first branch scientific journals. On the basis of the method of bibliometric analysis, the quantitative indicators of articles for the period of publication of the journal, their subject matter, typology, and its composition of authors are determined. Examples of publications of scientists and public figures are given. The article analyses the role of the journal editors: a famous scientist I.A. Stebut and a graduate of the Gorygoretsky Institute in 1860 A.V. Neruchev. The journal is a valuable source of historical information on agricultural science at the initial stage of the emergence of its branches. It is concluded that in the second half of the 19th century in Russia the publication of agricultural journals was increasingly oriented towards a wide range of specialists, and not just large landowners. Scientific knowledge is gradually becoming in demand, and this is the main role of the «Russian Agriculture» journal in shaping this need.

This article analyses how the world's libraries have performed during the pandemic of the new infectious coronavirus disease COVID-19 and the present time. It is shown that each library chooses its own ways and methods of working with users, depending on the epidemiological situation in the country. As the epidemiological situation changes, so do library technologies. The various restrictive and hygienic measures that libraries used both during the COVID-19 pandemic and at present are described. The article presents the results of scientific research on the possible contamination of library materials and computer equipment in libraries carried out around the world, as well as specific recommendations on how to handle library materials and equipment, developed by researchers to minimise the risk of possible virus infection for staff and readers. The article offers an overview of the new library services provided by libraries around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic and the socio-cultural activities of libraries during this period. The results of library work during this period are summarised and it is shown that during the pandemic, library professionals have come to a new understanding of working with digital library resources, requiring the mastery of new principles and approaches, technological solutions, systems and services used in librarianship, as well as coming to the conclusion that the role of the librarian in this process needs to be transformed.