29-30 May 2019 in Pinsk (Belarus), took place the 5th International Scientific Conference “Berkov’s Readings: book culture in the context of international contacts”. It was hosted by the International Association of the Academies of Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Yakub Kolas Central Science Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Museum of Belarusian Polesie, Scientific council “History of World Culture” of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal State Governmental Scientific and Publishing Center “Nauka”.
Numerous researchers from different countries (Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, France, Czech Republic, Israel, China) and various fields of research attended this scientific forum.
The sessions and panels that took place in the historical setting of the old Jesuit College building (now the Museum of Belarussian Polesie), were organized in five sections: “The Science of the Book. The role of education in the preservation of the scientific and cultural heritage”; “Book culture and historical knowledge”; “Collections of books, rare books and manuscripts as a part of the cultural heritage of society”; “Reading as communication in the process of globalization. Sociological and psychological aspects of human interaction with sources of information”; “Scientific personalities, their contribution to the book culture and sociocultural development of society. Encyclopedia, biography and bibliographic activities”.
During the Conference, two new publications were presented: “Francysk Skaryna: New Studies” (editor Alexander Grusha, director of the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus); as well as “Cyrillic editions of the seventeenth century: catalog of publications from the collection of the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Vol. 1: 1602-1620” (editors E. I. Titovets, P. D. Skurko, O.A. Gubanova).
The Conference program in Russian
Read about the panel meeting “Book culture and historical knowledge” in Russian here: “Книжная культура и историческое познание“