The Presidential Library’s representatives have attended the International Library Congress in Minsk

5 to 7 September 2012 in Minsk was held the International Congress “National Library as a Cultural Phenomenon," timed to the 90th anniversary of the National Library of Belarus. The congress was attended by 200 specialists from 30 countries - Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Denmark, the USA, Turkey, Oman and other countries.

In addition to the plenary sessions, the Congress program included a number of thematic lectures and round table discussions. The main subject matter, presented in three sessions, concerned: "The Strategy of Librarianship Development in the Context of Government and Sectoral Programs", "Information Infrastructure and Interlibrary Cooperation", "Management of Library Activities in the Situation of Informatization of the Society."

At the plenary meeting, the Presidential Library’s Information Resources Director, E. D. Zhabko delivered a speech. Her report treated with the efforts of the library to develop the national electronic resource. In her statement was noted that national and regional libraries, Russian archives and foreign partners contribute to the formation of electronic holdings of the Presidential Library.

"Cooperation of the Presidential Library with partner organizations in Russia and abroad, which is actively developing, is not only the basis for the formation of the national electronic resource, but also for other digital resources created in libraries, archives, museums," said E. D. Zhabko.

The UNESCO Regional Consultations on open access to information and the international round table on "Preservation of Historical Book Collections" represented independent thematic sections of the program. Within the Congress were held international bibliology readings "Historical Book Collections in Time and Space", including two sub-group meetings: "Actual Problems of Identification, Description and Study of Historical Book Collections" and "Historical Book Collections in Libraries and Museums."

As part of the Congress, on September 6, the National Library of Belarus hosted a meeting of noncommercial partnership "Library Assembly of Eurasia." It was attended by representatives of national libraries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Udmurtia, Ukraine, as well as the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia and the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.

At the meeting there was presented the information about the activities of the Library Assembly of Eurasia in 2011-2012, discussed the possibility to make amendments to the CIS Model Library Code. Also at the meeting was presented the upcoming anniversary edition, "20th anniversary of the Library Assembly of Eurasia." The meeting participants exchanged views on the issue of coordination of national libraries and libraries of other departments.

The Presidential Library has been a member of the Library Assembly of Eurasia since 2009. The next XV general meeting of the Assembly will take place in September 2013, in Baku.