International conference “Book and Reading in the Digital Era” takes place in Bishkek

The conference, which is taking place on 16–17 May, is dedictaed to the 85^th anniversary of the Alykul Osmonov National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic and organized in the framework of the Year of Regional Development and National Digitalization declared by President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sooronbay Jeenbekov and the CIS Year of Book.

The conference brought together heads of national libraries of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine, as well as the representatives of governmental bodies, scientific, educational, art and cultural, communication and information institutions, publishing houses, bookselling companies, non-governmental organizations and the CIS business.

Among the main topics of the conference are the improvement of social efficiency of the projects to promote reading, development of intergovernmental cooperation in this area, support of relevant institutions: libraries, publishing houses, as well as the raising of qualification of the sector’s employees.

The event was organized with the support of the Russian Committee of the “Information for Everyone” UNESCO Program, Inter-Regional Center for Library Cooperation and the Association of Public Libraries of the Kyrgyz Republic. The event is held with financial support of the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic and the CIS Humanitarian Action Fund.