The Impact of Legislation in the Field of Restriction of Access to Information on Libraries’ Activities

The purpose of the article is to analyze the basic legislative acts that libraries must follow in their activities when restricting access to certain information and to reveal peculiarities of using editions that fall under restrictions in the information sphere. Types of information, access to which is restricted, basing on the legislation acts of the Russian Federation, as well as the mode of storage and use of this information in libraries are considered. The analysis of the modern legislative framework in the information sphere shows that in any democratic state the right to information is recognized as one of the fundamental rights, along with the right to life, liberty and personal integrity. However, the practice of restricting widespread access to publications containing information that is considered “harmful” by the authorities or society according to certain parameters exists in almost all developed countries. The current situation of applying existing legislative norms in practice consists in vagueness and lack of clarity of the requirements established in regulatory documents, which can be interpreted in different ways and therefore raise numerous questions. However, direct recommendations on how to work with publications containing restricted information are established only in relation to extremist materials.