12 November 2019

15 November: The centenary conference “21st Century Libraries: Traditions and Innovations“

On the occasion of its centenary, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania is organizing an international research conference. At the conference’s main session, Luiz Oosterbeek, Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal and Secretary-General of the International Council of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) UNESCO, France, will share his insights and experience regarding critical reasoning and flexibility; Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian of the British Library will speak about collaborating to advance knowledge and mutual understanding among librarians, partners and leaders; and Dr. Jānis Krēsliņš, Senior Academic Librarian for Research Affairs at the National Library of Sweden, will be giving the presentation “Memory in a Time of Digital Inattentiveness: an Institutional Perspective”.

The conference’s introductory presentation “Life Library as a Model” will be given by the Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas. In the words of the National Library’s executive, the impressive anniversary of the Library presents a favourable opportunity to evaluate the gained experience and continue the Library’s success story during the second century of its existence with new energy and ideas.

Among the participants of the Discussion, there will be the executives of four national libraries: the Director General of the National Library of Estonia Janne Andresoo, the Director of the National Library of Latvia Andris Vilks, the Director General of the National Library of Poland Dr. Tomasz Makowski and the Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas. The participants will be discussing on issues regarding the importance of partnerships and their potential, the impact of change of spaces within buildings on the origination of new activities and the news from the life of the professional communities from the neighbouring countries and their vision of the developments of libraries in the 21st century. The Discussion will be moderated by the musicologist Gerūta Griniūtė.

The conference guests and participants will be addressed by the Chair of the National Library’s Scientific Council and Head of the Department of Political Communication at Vilnius University Prof. Dr. Andrius Vaišnys.

The conference will be broadcast on the National Library's Youtube channel.

The information partner of the commemoration of the National Library's anniversary is the Lithuanian National Radio and Television.