On 30 November and 1 December, the D. Novikov Library of the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy in Gorki, Mogilev Oblast, hosted a meeting with the Belarusian cultural scientists, bibliographer, researcher of Skaryna’s heritage Skaryna, deputy director of the National Library of Belarus, Alexander Susha.
During the event, students and teachers of the oldest country’s academy (it works almost continuously since 1840) familiarized themselves with the efforts of Belarusian institutions of culture, science and education for studying and promoting the national book heritage. Alexander Susha talked about how the image of Francysk Skaryna is used in modern culture of Belarus, and noted the importance of events timed to the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book-printing for the consolidation of the Belarusian society, patriotic education and the strengthening of positive image of Belarus in the world.
The event included a presentation and ceremonial donation of the facsimile Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna to the Academy Library. The international scientific and publishing project on the restoration of the Belarusian printing pioneer’s heritage, initiated by the National Library of Belarus and the Bank BelVEB, has been completed this year to be the highlight of the jubilee events both in Belarus and abroad. The ceremony was attended by Alexander Susha, Academy Vice-Rector Maxim Potapenko, Library Director Larisa Kukhareva and numerous guests.
During the meeting, the Academy Library and the Maxim Goretsky Central Library in Gorki also summed up the results of a large-scale project, "Spiritual potential of book culture", dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book-printing. The meeting attendees were able to visit a large exhibition, "The best books open pages”, presenting the most interesting books of Belarusian publishers from the collections of the two libraries. The centerpiece of the exposition were publications about the life and work of Francysk Skarina and other Belarusian educators. An exhibition section entitled "Books… they are so different" presented the biggest and the smallest books from the two libraries’ collections. A separate section, "Life devoted to books", was dedicated to Damien Novikov, who headed the Academy Library from 1920 to 1976. Books collected in a section "The literary space of Gorki" were especially interesting. Publications compiled in a section entitled "An autograph to remember" were about the people who studied at the Academy, visited Gorki or lived there, or donated a signed book to the library. More than a thousand people visited the project: the Academy faculty and students, schoolchildren and residents of the city.
The BSAA Library is the oldest agricultural library in Belarus. It was founded in 1840, at the Gory-Gorki Agricultural School (since 1848 the Institute). Initially, there were only 163 books, but by 1850 the library had had 4,095 publications so far. A large part of the collection were foreign books. As of 1 January, 2017, the library collection includes 1,290,003 shelving units. The collection of rare and valuable books includes publications from 1772 to the present time (19,782 shelving units). 11,879 users are registered in the library, most of which are students.
Photo by Goretski Vestnik Newpaper, author Mikhail Levtsov.
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