The article discusses the possibilities, principles of operation, experience of implementation and application of an Internet library (hereinafter referred to as the Library) of proprietary educational materials for training, retraining, and professional development. The use of semantic-mathematical models and computer information processing technologies makes it possible to implement many options for systematizing Library educational materials divided into topics according to principles – from simple to complex, in chronological order, from known to new, etc. Educational materials in the Library are automatically combined into a dynamic structure – a graph of ordered educational materials. This increases the speed of development of educational materials for training specialists in new specialties and allows each specialist to be trained according to an individual lifelong learning program. Automation of self-monitoring procedures and external monitoring of the level of mastery of the material of each topic can significantly improve the quality of training of specialists. The use of Internet technologies makes it possible to organize multiple simultaneous access to Library materials, which ensures the availability of education and mass training of specialists in various specialties with different levels of knowledge and skills. As a result, the functionality and load on the library increase, and the role of the library in the educational process increases significantly. The creation of an online library of educational materials as a national project will allow the state to take a leading position in the quantity, quality and diversity of specialist training, as well as in the export of educational services.

The article is dedicated to the history of the development of Western European science communication during the Early Middle Ages (V – mid-11th century). The paper provides a periodization of the Middle Ages, analyses the changes in the political map of Western Europe of the considered historical period, shows the stabilization of the political situation in Western Europe by the middle of the 11th century, provides maps of Europe in the middle of the 6th century and in the middle of the 9th century. The formation of the culture of Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages is described. The development of the system of Western European education in the studied epoch is analyzed, the continuity between the Roman school and the school of the Early Middle Ages is shown. The general patterns of development of science during the Early Middle Ages are outlined. The paper analyses the peculiarities of participation in science communication of Martianus Capella, an encyclopaedic writer, philosopher, rhetorician and one of the creators of the system of seven "free arts", which became the basis of education in the Middle Ages. The article also examines the involvement of the famous Roman philosopher and statesman Severinus Boethius, among the most revered teachers of the Middle Ages, whose treatises on arithmetic and music, works on logic and theology, and translations of Aristotle’s logical works became the foundation of the medieval system of education and philosophy.

The article presents the results of a study of the representation of Belarusian periodicals in the international information and analytical systems Web of Science, Scopus, Scimago, Ulrichwebs, DOAJ, and RSCI. In each system the share of open access publications, departmental and disciplinary affiliation, as well as bibliometric indicators of journals (if available in the systems) have been determined. The periodicals of the three leading scientific clusters - the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health - were analyzed. Key bibliometric indicators of the journals have been identified. An analysis of the territorial profile of journal founders in the RSCI confirmed the dominance of the capital region. It has been revealed that the majority of Belarusian open access journals are represented on the DOAJ platform. Depending on the specific analytical system, the predominant subject areas of journals are different. It has been concluded that, taken together, the potential of information and analytical systems can be used for a multidimensional analysis of the representation of the scientific profile of domestic periodicals.

The article deals with the main sources of acquisition of the library collection of the Central Scientific Agricultural Library of the Russian Federation (CSAL). Several main groups of sources have been identified: compulsory free copies of documents, departmental compulsory copies of documents of scientific institutions, gifts and donations from organizations, document exchange, and licence-based Internet resources. It is shown that the compulsory copies are the main sources of replenishment of the collection (80%). A steady decline in the receipt of documents from other sources has been established. The data in dynamics for five years on replenishment of books and journals to the library are presented, indicating the relative stability of enrichment of the collection. It is concluded that the current network system of informing about the industrial scientific publishing products cannot be considered satisfactory. There is a need for a single portal on the Internet, where information resources of all publishing organizations would be presented.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the thematic structure of the incoming national documents to the collection of the Belarusian Agricultural Library by indexing with the terms of the AGROVOC thesaurus the materials of international scientific and scientific-practical conferences of the institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, received into the collection in 2021. Based on the results of indexing 1262 scientific articles from 20 selected sources, conclusions were drawn about the subjects of the analyzed set by highlighting the most frequently occurring terms. The field of agricultural genetics reflected by the term "genetic techniques" was the most popular among the indexed articles; "fertiliser application" and "plant protection" indicate the reflection of farming issues; the term "radioactive contamination" belongs to the topic of ecology; issues related to the food industry were also raised by the authors of the analyzed articles, as indicated by the high frequency of repetition of the term "foods". In the process of indexing of the analyzed set, the lack of some terms to reflect this or that concept was revealed. The conclusions about the effectiveness of using the AGROVOC thesaurus to analyse the thematic structure of national documents in the collection of the Belarusian Agricultural Library have been made.

The article contains biographical data about agricultural workers who linked Smolensk Region and the Republic of Belarus through their activities. The materials were collected within the framework of the international project “Belarusian Smolensk People, Smolensk Belarusians”, initiated by the Library of Smolensk State University with the support of the research and educational centre “Russia and Belarus: History and Culture in the Past and Present” in 2015.