Topical issues of the library sphere in the context of new challenges and new opportunities and solutions were discussed at the National Library of Belarus.
The first day of the 8th International Congress "The Library as a Phenomenon of Culture" was full of interesting sessions, round tables, master classes and guided tours of the Library.
The plenary session included the reports by Ms Aksana Knizhnikava, Director General of the National Library of Belarus, titled "Shaping the digital library transformation ecosystem" and by Mr Uladzimir Kulazhenka, Director of the Fundamental Library of the Belarusian State University, Chairperson of the Council of the Public Association "Belarusian Library Association" titled "The library's digital collections management strategy: efficiency and sustainability".
Guests from Russia came to share the experience with their colleagues: Mr Yury Cherny, Head of the Centre for the Study of Informatics Problems of the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, made a report "The potential of the structural-functional approach in librarianship in the digital age"; Ms Valentina Brezhneva, Dean of the Library and Information Faculty of St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture presented "The prospects for higher library and information education in Russia".
Ms Umithan Munalbayeva, Director General of the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Ms Krasimira Aleksandrova, Director of the St. Cyril and Methodius National Library (Bulgaria) joined the conference remotely and presented their reports "Library policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan: prospects and priorities" , "COVID-19: A response from the Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library".
On the first day of the congress, a meeting of the Belarusian Council of Libraries for Information Interaction was held, where the priorities for the development of the information infrastructure of our country's library institutions for the near future were defined. Heads and specialists of the National Library of Belarus, national scientific and regional libraries attended the meeting.
The participants of the section "Current solutions for libraries in the context of new challenges" discussed the issues of program and project activities, new formats of interaction, the experience of remote service/user support, formats and models of socio-cultural and scientific activities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues.
During the section "Technological solutions for libraries in the context of digital transformation", participants shared their experience in developing libraries in the context of digitalization, implementation of virtual projects, and practical solutions for the digital transformation of libraries.
The round table "Building digital collections as a way to preserve paper national documents" brought together experts to discuss the selection of documents to be digitized, practical aspects of digitizing retrospective newspapers, organizing preservation measures for documents to be digitized, and other topics.
The congress included a master class on "Digitizing with technical capabilities of scanning equipment". Participants were shown the capabilities of the equipment for scanning national documents.
The workshop "Pre-digitalisation strengthening of documents" showed the processes of straightening and strengthening severely distorted and damaged retrospective newspapers as well as leaf fragments that have fallen out in books. The implementation of these processes allows you to get a high-quality digital copy of the document without the threat of damage during digitization.
There were a number of fascinating guided tours of the country's main library for forum participants.
An exhibition of publishing products, electronic resources and services was on show during the day.
The international congress will continue on Friday 22 October.
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