On September 14 and 15, the library hosted the International Congress “500 years of the Belarusian book-printing”.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and the National Library of Belarus with the support of the Central European Initiative (CEI), the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States (MFGS), the Programme Mobility Scheme for Targeted People-to-People-Contacts (MOST).
The official partners of the Congress are the Bank BelVEB, the companies Tregross-Info and Vladimir Grevtsov’s Agency.
The International Congress “500 years of the Belarusian book-printing” was held under the patronage of UNESCO. The UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, the IFLA President Gloria Perez-Salmeron and the IFLA Secretary General Gerald Leitner greeted participants of the forum.
The Deputy Chair of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Marianna Shchetkina, the State Secretary of the Union State of Belarus and Russia Grigory Rapota, the Minister of Culture of Belarus Boris Svetlov, the Information Minister of Belarus Lilia Ananich, the First Deputy Chair of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences Sergey Chizhik, the Director General of the Library Assembly of Eurasia Galina Raykova, and the Deputy Chair of the Belarusian Library Association Inna Yurik sincerely congratulated the attendees on the occasion of the jubilee.
Two busy days, pleasant meetings and acquaintances, interesting discussions and discoveries, agreements on cooperation... The forum, which brought together more than 600 reputable experts from 24 countries, is finished and summarized.
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The Congress included a plenary session, during which presentations were made by the director of the National Library of Belarus Roman Motulsky, the deputy director for research and publishing activity of the National Library of Belarus Alexander Susha, the deputy director for information resources of the National Library of Belarus Tatiana Kuzminich, the first deputy director for science of the Center for Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature at the National Academy of Sciences Alexander Lukashenets, and the director of the National Book Chamber of Belarus Elena Ivanova.
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During the two-day Congress seven sections were working: “Francysk Skaryna: the personality, activity and legacy”; “Five years of book-printing”; “The book heritage of Belarus in domestic and foreign collections”; “National documents and collections in libraries, archives and museums and their bibliographical representation”; “The history of librarianship of Belarus and foreign countries”; “Book – reading – library: the 21st century”, and “The book and the arts: from Skaryna to present day”.
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An important event was the international round table "The documentary heritage of the Central European Region: the ways of preservation, exploration and promotion"; the second day of which was held at the National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Nesvizh". The director of the National Library of Belarus Roman Motulsky, the director of the museum-reserve Sergey Klimov and the director general of the Yaroslav the Wise National Library of Ukraine Tamara Vylegzhanina, as well as reputable experts from Moldova, Poland, Slovenia and Montenegro took part in the event.
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The 25th anniversary of the Library Assembly of Eurasia (BAE) was another holiday celebrated in September. On this occasion within the framework of the Congress the 20th general meeting of the noncommercial partnership "Library Assembly of Eurasia" took place. Also the 13th International Bibliological reading and awarding ceremony of the 25th National Competition "The library as a center of national culture" were held.
The meetings conducted during the Congress were focused on the legacy, life and work of Francysk Skaryna, the outstanding figure of Belarus. The large-scale forum, which purpose was to draw the world’s attention to the preservation of the national book heritage and contribute to the global consolidation in this matter, has carried out its mission. Then it’s up to us!
We express our sincere respect and gratitude to the organizers, co-organizers and participants
of the International Congress "500 years of the Belarusian book-printing"!
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See also: the opening and first day of the International Congress “500 years of the Belarusian book-printing”.
