The international conference “Current information technologies and social importance of libraries” was held in Minsk on 29-30 October. The conference was sponsored by the Belarusian Library Association, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Belarus. The conference brought together 362 participants including 355 representatives from Belarus (244 people from the city of Minsk, 18 people from the Minsk region, 9 people from the Brest region, 21 – from the Vitebsk region, 41 – from the Gomel region; 10 – from the Grodno region and 12 - from the Mogilev region), 3 representatives from Russia, 1 representative from Ukraine and 3 representatives from Lithuania.

The opening ceremony and plenary session of the conference were held in the morning on 29 October in the lyceum of the Belarusian State University; the afternoon session involved presentation of the progress reports and elections to the Belarusian Library Association. The exhibition “Information products and services provided by the Belarusian libraries” was open during the whole day.

At the opening ceremony the welcoming remarks were made by Belarus’ Deputy Minister of Culture V.K. Gedroyts, US Ambassador to Belarus George Kroll, Secretary of the Polish Embassy in Belarus Maryan Semakovich, UNDP Coordinator in Belarus Karine Bruce, President of the Belarusian Library Association P.M.Lapo, President of the Librarians’ Society of Lithuania Petras Zurlis, President of the Ukrainian Library Association V.G.Drigaylo and Executive Secretary of the Russian Library Association M.A. Shaparnyova.

The following presentations on the key aspects of work of the Belarusian libraries were made at the plenary session: the report “State management of libraries in the Republic of Belarus” made by V.A.Shishkin, Deputy Head of the Department of Cultural and Folk Art Institutions of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, the report “The National Library in the context of current tendencies; prospects and priorities” made by P.S.Motulsky, Director of the National Library of Belarus, the report “The role of the Belarusian Library Association in improving the image of a library as a social institute” made by P.M.Lapo and presentations summarizing the experience of foreign non-governmental professional organizations and libraries including the presentation “Ways of collaboration between non-governmental association of libraries and the executive authorities” made by Petras Zurlis, the presentation “Formulation of strategy and management of innovative activities of a library” made by V.G.Drigaylo and the presentation “Participation of the Russian Library Association in the establishment of the legislative framework and development of the most advanced information technologies” made by M.A.Shaparnyova.

On 30 October the participants of the conference worked in the following sections:

• “Library as a social institute: priority dimensions» (the section was held in the Minsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after A.S.Pushkin);
• “Network information resources: creation, disposal, coordination” (the section was held in the Republican Scientific Medical Library);
• “The national catalogue management: current status and prospects” (the section was held in the National Library of Belarus);
• “Education in library science; upgrading of librarians’ qualification: quality, experience, problems» (the section was held in the Central Scientific Library named after Y.Kolas of the National Academy of Sciences);
• the round table “Current status and prospects of computerization of the regional libraries of Belarus” (the section was held in the National Library of Belarus).

58 presentations covering all aspects of the library management and training of librarians in the Republic of Belarus were discussed in the sections.

The following organizations, companies and program products were presented at the exhibition which was held within the framework of the conference: the “Amalfeya” Publishing House (Minsk), the “BelComData Information Technologies” Closed-Type Joint Stock Company (Minsk), “Library GrGU -2002» (Grodno), the Library of the Ghote Institute in Minsk, the “DataScan” Open Joint Stock Company (Minsk), the “InterPress-Service” Publishing House (Minsk), the Information Center of the US Embassy, “IRBIS” (Russia, represented in Belarus by BelSXB), the “Krasiko-Print” Publishing House (Minsk), “Mark-SQL» of the “Informsystema” Research and Production Amalgamation (Russia), “The Modern Word” (Minsk), “Electronic Book of the Belarusian State University” (Minsk), “ALIS” JSC of “INEAK” (Minsk).

The closing ceremony of the conference was held in the Minsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after A.S.Pushkin.

For further information about the conference please visit the web-site of the Belarusian Library Association: http://www.bla.by.

Print version