Spiritual revival of society and the Orthodox book

On 22–23 May, within the bounds of the ХXI International Cyril and Methodius lectures, the annual science and practical conference “Spiritual revival of society and the Orthodox book” took place.

As all the events of the international forum held from May 21st to May 27th, the conference was on the subject of ”the Orthodox values in modern Belarusian culture. To the 1000th anniversary of Saint Vladimir” .

The conference traditionally took part in the Central Library of the Belarusian Exarchate. The event gathered more than 100 participants: librarians of public, university, church libraries, and also leading scientists-philologists, historians, pedagogues and priests of Belarus.

Doctor of Philology, Professor, head of the chair of Slavic literature of the Belarusian State University (BSU) I.A. Charota presented a plenary report “Actualization of the idea of the Slavic unity”.

More than 40 specialists of public libraries of the Ministry of Culture of Belarus represented six regions of the country.

The Centralized system of children’s public libraries of Minsk was represented by the widest audience. Acting head of the Library marketing department E.N. Berezovskaya presented a report “The effort on spiritually-moral education according to Orthodox traditions in children's libraries of Minsk”.

Head of the Children’s department of the Slutsk Regional Central Library G.N. Shahnovich shared their experience in spiritual and moral education through the development of creative skills in a report “Spiritually-moral education of preschool children through a creative view of the world”.

Librarian of branch № 3 of the Polotsk City Library System O.V. Bakunovich presented a report on the application of Orthodox fiction and spiritual poetry in education.

Employee of the Library marketing department of the Central City Library named after K. Marx of the Centralized System o fState Publi lIbrraies of Mogilev L.A. Ryabova read a paper concerning a topical theme of social adaptation of people with disabilities with the help of libraries.

Standing participant of the conference, director of the Borisov Central Library named after I.K. Kolodeev G.M. Slesrenko

This year the conference gathered more than 15 experts of university libraries engaged in spiritually-moral education of youth. Librarian of the BSU Fundamental Library L.I. Yankovich presented an emotional report sharing their experience in such a kind of work which was hearty welcomed by participants of the conference.

Head of section of the Library science department of the National Library of Belarus O.A. Rynkevich provided data on the first republican contest “The library as a center of spiritual education” arranged by the Belarusian Exarchate of the Orthodox Church.

Deputy head of the International science and educational expedition A.N. Lopata-Zagorsky told about the 20-year experience of the expedition “The way to the sanctuary” which aroused the audience’s interest.

During reports and discussions a wide spectrum of urgent issues was touched: Orthodox traditions as the basis of spiritual culture of the Belarusian people, spirituality and problems of reading in society, spirituality and reading of children; problems of library activity in the field of spiritually-moral education, coordination of libraries’ activity for formation of the spiritual culture of Belarus and many other themes.

The round table “Experience and problems of user service in parish libraries of the Belarusian Exarchate” was heal on the second day of the conference. The event coordinators were S.F. Vinogradova, head of the Central Library of the Belarusian Exarchate and I.D. Yakovchuk (novice Elena), librarian of the St. Varvara Nunnery in Pinsk.

An active dialogue of librarians of parish libraries, libraries of spiritual schools of the Belarusian Exarchate with participation of representatives of public libraries took place. Questions formulated by moderators were asked to participants whose answers reflected sometimes polar opinions. These problems were topical for library experts of all departments working the orthodox literature. Therefore it was decided to carry on discussions online including on the portal “Orthodox libraries of Belarus” .

Participants of the round table came to conclusion that the arrangement of similar events promoted the development of methodological decisions. Operating according to them, the librarian would find a way out in uneasy situations which frequently arose in user service.

On the second day of the science and practical conference “Spiritual revival of society and the Orthodox book” a training on electronic catalog system ABIS IRBIS for church libraries was held (coordinator D. Kuzmicky).

All reports and messages of library experts testify a creative approach, search of innovative forms of work, and a regular and purposeful work on spiritually-moral education of people. All texts of reports and messages of the conference will be published on the portal of the National Library of Belarus and on the site “Orthodox libraries of Belarus”.

Participants of the conference could view an exhibition of new books by the Belarusian Exarchate Publishing House and books from the stock of the Belarusian Exarchate Central Library.

All participants of the conference received as a gift a book by L.V. Levshun dedicated to the 1050th anniversary of the Slavic alphabet and the 1025th anniversary of the christening of Russia (Minsk, 2015). Bishop of Borisov and Marjina Gorka Benyamin gave a blessing to the conference attendees.

The conference programme