Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus Alexander Susha took part at the 19th meeting of the Belarusian-Polish Advisory Commission for Historical and Cultural Heritage, which was held on April 7–9, 2019 in Warsaw.
The Commission acts on the basis of the Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Poland “On Cooperation in the Field of the Protection of Cultural Heritage” dated March 25, 1995. The Committee meets periodically in the Republic of Belarus or the Republic of Poland. This year the Polish side was the host, and the meeting was held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Belarus Sergei Sheremetyev and State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland Yaroslav Sellin.
The commission consists of Belarusian and Polish experts − specialists engaged in the protection of historical and cultural heritage. The scope of the Commission’s activities includes: book and archival heritage, cooperation in the field of museology, inventorying and preservation of monuments, cross-border entries in the UNESCO World Heritage List, training of specialists in the field of cultural landscape protection, etc.
During the meeting, both sides summed up the results of executed work that continued after the last meeting of the Commission, which took place in June 2017 in Minsk. The projects planned for the coming years, important for Belarus and Poland, were discussed in the course of negotiations. They are related to the activities of libraries, archives and museums, projects for documenting and preserving common heritage monuments (in particular, the Old Castle in Grodno, one of the residences of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), cooperation on cross-border applications to the UNESCO World Heritage List of the August Principality of the Grand Duchy Lithuania, culture of beekeeping, as well as the memorialization of the heritage of prominent figures of the Belarusian and Polish cultures, places of historical memory.
The Polish side told about the National Institute for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad “Polonika”, established by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in December 2017. It represents a special state institution of culture engaged in research, restoration, educational and promoting projects, related to Polish cultural heritage outside the country.
At the meeting, Alexander Susha made proposals for the development of cooperation in the field of library science between the institutions of Belarus and Poland, got acquainted with the results of the work of the Polish side in the framework of international library cooperation. Negotiations with Tomasz Makowski, Director of the National Library of Poland, were held.
In the framework of the meeting positive results of the Belarusian-Polish cooperation in the field of librarianship and the book heritage of both countries were publicly highlighted and recorded.
On behalf of the Belarusian side, Alexander Susha expressed his gratitude to the Polish colleagues for their assistance in organizing the expositions of book monuments from Polish collections in Belarus and expressed hope for an increase of the number of libraries and museums participating in this process. The parties noted with satisfaction the participation of Belarusian librarians in the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, which was held in Wroclaw from 19 to 25 August 2017. It was also decided that the parties would exchange experiences and develop cooperation within the framework of the concept of joint documentation heritage, implementation of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.
The parties supported the digitization of manuscripts important for the history and culture of both countries, old-print and other sources, as well as their presentation on the Internet. The Belarusian side sent a proposal to the Polish side to assist in making copies of the unique documents of the times of the Commonwealth and other periods of the Belarusian-Polish history.
On behalf of the Belarusian side Alexander Susha informed about the development of the State Register of Book Monuments of the Republic of Belarus and suggested undertaking trainings in Polish libraries (the National Library of Poland, Kórnik Library, Jagiellonian Library, etc.) and Belarusian libraries on accounting, description, return to public circulation of books monuments.
The meeting also noted the importance of the work carried out by the National Library of Poland in the field of cataloguing of the extant and lost manuscripts of the Library of the Radziwills of Nesvizh Ordination. Alexander Susha proposed the coordination of joint work on the Belarusian-Polish borderland and the implementation of the scientific and publishing project “Supraslskaya Staradrukі”.
After the meeting of the commission, the chairmen of the meeting solemnly signed a protocol, which included the main proposals in the field of book culture and librarianship. During the signing ceremony, Alexander Susha handed the facsimile edition of the first “Primer” issued by the National Library of Belarus in 2018 to the director of the National Library of Poland.
