On April 8-12 the VII International Scientific and Practical Seminar "Document Restoration: Conservatism and Innovation - 2024" was held at the Russian State Library. This is the largest professional forum, the main task of which is to exchange experience and improve the skills of restorers and curators of museum, library and archival collections from different countries.
This year, the National Library of Belarus coordinated the participation in the event of specialists from a number of leading libraries of Belarus: the Gomel Regional Universal Library named after V.I.Lenin, the Brest Regional Library named after M.Gorky, the Republican Scientific Medical Library, the Central Scientific Library named after Y. Kolas of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
The seminar program included plenary and breakout sessions, practical classes and master classes, guided tours of the main building of the Russian State Library and the Book Museum. The exhibitions "Wisdom of the East: a living Tradition" and "Preserving the Priceless" worked.
On March 11, within the framework of the seminar, with the support of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS member States and the Library Assembly of Eurasia, a special section "Preserving the priceless together: conservation and restoration of monuments of writing and old printed books in the Commonwealth countries" was organized with the participation of invited specialists from the largest libraries and restoration centers of the Commonwealth. Diana Muratova, Head of the Department of Restoration and Conservation of Library Documents of the National Library of Belarus, spoke about the aspects of the ongoing methodological work to ensure the safety of library documents in the Republic of Belarus. Elena Kontsovenko, a category 2 restorer at the National Library of Belarus, presented the methods and stages of practical restoration of 4 books that had previously been repaired. Head of the sector of the Central Scientific Library named after Y.Kolasa of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus made a presentation "Restoration as part of library activity: the role of specialists and their training". Tatyana Peshina, Head of the Rare Book Department of the Gomel Regional Universal Library named after V.I.Lenin, presented the report "The Rare Book Department of the Gomel Regional Library: issues of creation and preservation". Elena Golubenko, librarian of the Kolas Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, shared her experience in restoring a book published in 1659.
Participation in the seminar contributed to a deeper study of the experience of colleagues from other countries in the field of conservation of handwritten and printed heritage, allowed them to gain practical skills in document restoration.
The material was provided by the Department of Restoration and Preservation of library documents.
