Attribution and expertise as focus areas in libraries with retrospective rare and valuable editions

The aim of the work is to prove that the attribution and expertise of rareness and valuableness of retrospective publications and their copies is an important, relevant area of the work in the study of historical and cultural fonds of libraries. Methodological basis of the study is a set of principles of objectivity, historicism, knowledge of the interaction of external and internal, objective and subjective, as well as the application of aesthetic, value criteria for understanding the book as a cultural phenomenon. Scientific novelty lies in the formulation of theoretical issues of attribution and examination of historical and cultural monuments in the retrospective fonds of large libraries, unification of approaches to this, identification of problematic issues of this activity. The priority in this field of scientists of the Institute of Book Studies of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine is emphasized. The reasons for the examination in libraries are revealed, the types of examination are determined, among which, in particular: state examination, which should establish the historical and cultural value and rarity of the book and the possibility of its legal taking abroad; examination of books at the request of law enforcement agencies, individuals, as well as books from library fonds in order to transfer them for display at exhibitions or to establish the damage caused to the institution in the case of theft of a rarity. The difference in the examination depending on its purpose is emphasized, the cases of necessity of attribution of book monuments are given, criteria of rarity of copies of the publication are emphasized. The facts of detection of publishing forgeries during historical and bibliographic researches in the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine are named. Particular attention is paid to the problem of training book monuments experts, both in higher education institutions and directly in libraries. Conclusions. Attribution and expertise are an urgent task of working with historical and cultural fonds in libraries. Thus, in libraries, and in general in the state there is no mechanism of licensing of the corresponding expert activity or, in other words, certification of employees of libraries as books experts.