"Heritage Conservation for a Sustainable Future" Challenges of World Libraries at Conference in Yerevan by Carlo Coppola

Articolo di Carlo Coppola tratto da Bari Connessa

«Ժառանգության պահպանումը հանուն կայուն ապագայի» համաշխարհային գրադարանների մարտահրավերները Երևանում կայացած համաժողովում: Կառլո Կոպպոլայի հոդված. 

The second conference entitled “Heritage Conservation for a Sustainable Future” is dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the National Library of Armenia receiving state status and aims to highlight the key role of heritage conservation in promoting sustainable development and enriching the future of the community.

According to the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On the State Public Library of the Republic of Armenia” adopted on July 4, 1919, the National Library of Armenia acquired the title of State and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Arts of the Republic of Armenia.

The event is scheduled for October 3-5 and will take place under the auspices and in the premises of the National Library of Armenia. In this beautiful location whose original core was designed by the great architect Alexander Tamanyan in 1939, about a hundred specialists from 64 organizations from 20 countries of the world.

The Director of the National Library of Armenia, Anna Chulyan, spoke about this at a press conference held at the headquarters of the Armenian national news agency “Armenpress”. In her speech, she emphasized that the conference aims to unite leading and young specialists in the field from all over the world, and aims to become a platform for the exchange of international experiences in the field of library science, museology, archives, publishing and related fields. But Anna Chulyan goes much further and suggests that in the framework of “Heritage Conservation for a Sustainable Future” current issues should be addressed, experiences and methodologies of innovation should be presented, new formats, management systems and international technologies and innovative best practices should be implemented. "We have traditionally signed cooperation protocols with several national libraries. This year we will sign agreements with the National and University Library of Slovenia and the National Library of Bulgaria, and with this we will lay the foundation for serious and innovative cooperation. In 2022, within the framework of the Assembly of Eurasian Libraries, we signed cooperation protocols with 5 national libraries of the CIS", said the director of the National Library of Armenia.

The plenary session of the conference entitled “Brave New World” will be dedicated to the challenges of artificial intelligence in the creation, implementation and dissemination of knowledge and information.

"Our keynote speakers this year are Chris De Loof from the Kingdom of Belgium, Niels Peter Thomas, Director of Artificial Intelligence Publishing at Springer Nature, Arman Atoyan, Director of Arloopa, and Molly Freeman, Professor at the American University. All the talks will be broadcast online via the Zoom platform, so everyone can follow the proceedings of our conference online as well. In total, there will be 94 speakers, of which 39 are from abroad, 42 are representatives of different institutions of the Republic of Armenia, and 13 are librarians of the National Library of Armenia who will speak."

The conference proceedings include 12 sessions divided into the following areas: preservation and dissemination of Armenian heritage; strategies and initiatives for the preservation and dissemination of Armenian cultural heritage in different countries; preservation and dissemination of national heritage. There will also be broader discussions on the preservation of national heritage across cultures and nations, digital content management; on good practices in the management and preservation of digital collections in libraries and cultural institutions. Other panels will concern management and professional development, the development of managerial skills in libraries and institutions that deal with the promotion of reading. Specific discussions will be dedicated to initiatives and strategies aimed at promoting reading habits and literacy. A space will also be reserved for the management of database preservation and registration.