Dr. Billington and Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole were speakers at an international conference on "Libraries and Reading in Times of Cultural Change," which was held in Vologda, Russia, June 18-22.
The conference gave librarians, scholars and administrators from Russia and the United States an opportunity to exchange information about recent changes in libraries, reading habits and book culture in their respective countries. Representatives from Great Britain and France also participated.
The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation was the principal sponsor of the meeting. Other sponsors included the Vologda Regional Administration, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Open Society Institute-Budapest (SOROS), the Russian State Library, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the American Library Association and the Vologzhanin Bank.
The opening session was held on June 18 in the conference hall of the Vologda Regional Government Building, where participants were greeted by Vyacheslav E. Pozgalev, governor of the Vologda Region; Yury B. Volegov, deputy minister of culture for the Russian Federation; Vladimir N. Zaitsev, president of the Russian Library Association and director of the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg; and Nelli N. Belova, director of the Vologda Regional Library and a member of the conference organizing committee.
"If democratic Russia survives, we shall have excellent libraries. … The future of Russian libraries and their progress depend on the future stability of the Russian nation - and on nothing else," concluded Evgeny Kuzmin, director of the Library Department at the Russian Ministry of Culture, in one of the two opening addresses. During his talk, "Russian Libraries in a New Sociocultural Situation," Mr. Kuzmin outlined the effect of the radical economic reforms in Russia since 1992 on libraries - and the importance of Russian libraries in the economic, cultural and intellectual transformation under way there.
In the second address, Dr. Billington discussed "the unchanging purpose of libraries, especially in times of great and rapid change." He focused on the uniqueness of America's public library system, noting that "as the first Librarian of Congress whose specialty is foreign cultures, I may be more conscious of the uniqueness of our system than others who live in it, take it for granted and assume that other countries do something similar." Through public libraries, he noted, "universal accessibility and openness to knowledge at the community level have been built into our society." (For Dr. Billington's personal impressions of the meeting, see his article "Russian Librarians Host Idea Exchange in Vologda" in the September 1996 issue of American Libraries.)
American Library Association President Betty Turock joined Dr. Billington in extending greetings to conference participants on June 19, when the program moved to Vologda's Museum of History and Architecture. A total of 22 papers were presented on June 19-20 in four sessions: Libraries and Their Fate; Literature and Reading in Social and Cultural Context; Library Materials Selection: Changes of Principles and Approaches; and Different Cultural Groups: Reading Habits and Library Strategies.
All the papers will be published in a future issue of the journal Libraries & Culture; the issue's guest editor will be Pamela Spence Richards of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University and the conference's American organizer. The principal Russian organizers were Valeria D. Stelmakh of the Russian State Library and chair of the IFLA Section of Reading, and Mikhail D. Afanasiev, director of the State Public Historical Library of Russia.
The other conference participants from the United States were Marianna Tax Choldin, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, University of Illinois; Mary Niles Maack, Graduate School of Education and Information Science, University of California at Los Angeles; Shirley Maul, Vassar College Library; Jonathan Rose, History Department, Drew University, and president, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing; Larry E. Sullivan, City University of New York; and Wayne Wiegand, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin. Donald G. Davis of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas was unable to attend; his paper was read by Pamela Richards.
The rich and varied cultural program offered by the proud city of Vologda left a lasting impression on all conference participants. On June 18 delegates were treated to a program of dance, music and folk performances sponsored by the city and regional governments. The next day, they enjoyed a tour and choir performance at the nearby Spaso-Prilutzky monastery; the program of Russian music concluded with special English-language renditions of "Old Folks at Home" and "We Shall Overcome." Later in the week, the group toured the Kirillo-Belozersky and St. Ferapont monasteries north of Vologda; both of these 15th century religious centers are renowned for their architecture and wall paintings.
As a conference followup, the Center for the Book plans to host Valeria Stelmakh of the Russian State Library as a Center for the Book visiting scholar in spring 1997.
Book Promotion Networks Meet at UNESCO
On May 22-24 Center for the Book Director John Cole participated in "INTERBOOK," an international meeting of book promotion networks held at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) headquarters in Paris. Convened by the agency's Book and Copyright Division, the meeting brought together representatives of UNESCO's regional agencies in Africa (APNET), Asia and the Pacific (APPREB) and Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLALC), as well as publishers from Central and Eastern Europe and Canada, and representatives of governmental and nongovernmental agencies from several countries. In all, more than 40 participants took part.
The papers presented emphasized issues relating to developing countries, including national book policies, cooperative publishing agreements, the need for improved communication among all sectors in "the community of the book" and the effect of new technologies on national book policies around the world.
Of special note was a proposal for a worldwide book-sector study, presented by Diana Newton of International Publishing Partnerships in Ottawa. The study would collect consistent information about book production, publishing, education and related topics for all of the countries of the world, updating the information periodically. New funding, it was agreed, would have to be found for such an ambitious - and useful -undertaking. A final report is being prepared and will be issued in the three languages of the conference - English, French and Spanish. For information contact the Book and Copyright Division, UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, 75732, Paris Cedex 15.
Since its creation in 1977, the Center for the Book has actively promoted books and reading internationally. In 1987, in recognition of "its imaginative and practical campaigns on behalf of books and reading," the center received the International Book Award from the Intenational Book Committee, a UNESCO consultative group.
