19th International Library Conference in Sukak

Last week was the 19th International Library Conference in Sudak. Sponsored by the National Library of Russia and held at a beautiful conference center in the Crimean Black Sea resort town of Sudak, this 5-day long conference attracts participants from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, and England. Professional translation is available in several languages, including English, insuring full access to conference workshops and events for all participants.

Since the conference began nineteen years ago, the Gasprinskiy Library has hosted an annual seminar for conference participants from the Turkic-speaking countries. This year the theme of the seminar was "The organization and maintenance of rare and valuable document collections in the national libraries."

A representative from the Republic of Azerbaijan spoke on the necessity for information security in libraries. Representatives from the national libraries of Tartarstan and Kazakhstan described the collections of rare books and manuscripts in their libraries.

Representatives from the Gasprinskiy Library also contributed to the seminar.  Medine Alimova, head of the Archives Department, presented the archival collection program at our library which has become the main repository for the archives of famous Crimean Tatar artists, writers, and political leaders. Our information technology specialist, Lilya Emirova, talked about book digitization and its importance in preserving the literary heritage of the Crimean Tatars.

Medine Alimova from the Archives Department

I also gave a presentation about my work at the library, particularly the acquisition of book donations for the library and the steps I take in that process.

I have a translator!

More than fifty representatives of Turkic-speaking countries attended the seminar. There was much discussion at the end about proposals for future seminars and also about the possibility of creating an organization of libraries from Turkic-speaking countries, an idea which had been proposed before, but this year seemed to be finally taking hold. 

Participants wearing their shawls, a souvenir gift from the library.