The implementation of innovations in university libraries will be discussed at a republican conference in Vitebsk

May 11, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The implementation of innovations and the problems of improving traditional methods of university library work will be discussed at the republican scientific and practical conference on May 12-13 at the Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by Irina Kachmar, director of the VSU Scientific Library. More than 40 heads of scientific and fundamental university libraries from all regions of the country, the National Library of Belarus, as well as representatives of university library institutions from Russia and Ukraine will take part in the event. During the conference, specialists will exchange work experience in ensuring educational and upbringing work and scientific research activities of universities, consider the problems of forming and preserving library collections, reader services, as well as priority areas for the development of university libraries. Special attention is planned to be paid to the issues of automating library activities and implementing a quality management system in the work of university libraries. The conference materials will be published in the form of a collection, which will be of interest to all categories of library system workers in their practical activities. The conference is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the scientific library of Vitebsk State University, which will be celebrated in 2010. The organizers of the event are the Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov and the fundamental library of Belarusian State University. The VSU Scientific Library was founded in 1910 as the library of the Vitebsk Teachers' Institute. By 1913, its collection numbered about 3 thousand volumes of more than 1.5 thousand titles, mainly textbooks, as well as books on church history and Christianity, theology and religious and moral teachings, and fiction. There were not enough books to support the educational process, so students were required to purchase textbooks with their own money. By 1941, the library's book collection already exceeded 72 thousand volumes, including rare books. During the Great Patriotic War, the collection could not be evacuated from Vitebsk; during the occupation of the city, it was looted and partially destroyed. Today, the VSU Scientific Library is the information and cultural center of the university; the library's collection numbers over 600 thousand information sources in various media. Almost all technological processes are automated. The library serves 42 thousand users, issuing about 1.5 million copies of books and other information sources annually. The collection of rare books numbers over 2.5 thousand publications from the 19th to the first half of the 20th centuries. -0-