Library History as a Current Topic of Scholarly Discourse

On 23—24 May 2023 the Russian State Library (RSL) hosted the International Scientific and Practical Conference “History of Libraries: New Approaches, Methods, Sources, Results” in a face-to-face format. It was organized by RSL and the Russian Library Association. The aim of the event was to contribute to the development of research work in the field of library history. The conference brought together over 200 representatives of public, academic, higher education and school libraries, institutes of culture, institutes of the Russian Academy of Science and other cultural, education and science institutions from seven CIS countries, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Uzbekistan and 44 Russian regions. According to the results of online broadcasting of the sessions, organised on the YouTube channel of RSL, more than 1280 views were recorded. The conference program included plenary and breakout sessions (“Library as an Object of Historical and Library Studies”, “Library Biography as a Field of Historical and Library Studies”, “History of a Single Library”, “Current State and Prospects of Research in the Field of Library History”). A special conference session was dedicated to the study of library’s history during the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945). A total of 53 reports were presented by full-time and distance participants from Azerbaijan, Belarus and 18 Russian regions. The reports of the Conference discussed the theoretical and methodological grounds for studying the history of libraries as an interdisciplinary scientific field; presented the experience and results of the research conducted both by the largest libraries — centers of library science (national and academic libraries, institutes of culture of Russia, Azerbaijan and Belarus) and other libraries of CIS member states (central regional, city, rural, university and museum libraries).