The Library is the Home for all Mankind: A Conference Report

Citation

Mozuraite, V. (2002), "The Library is the Home for all Mankind: A Conference Report", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 19 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2002.23919eac.002

The Library is the Home for all Mankind: A Conference Report

The Library is the Home for all Mankind: A Conference Report

Vita Mozuraite

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, is an old city famous for its university, the oldest in Eastern Europe. This was the site of the International Research Conference celebrating the 90th Anniversary of Professor Levas Vladimirovas, 31 January - 1 February, 2002. Vilnius University was founded in 1579 and from that time to date has had a number of famous academic personalities and scholars as members of its faculty, including Professor Levas Vladimirovas (1912-1999). He was an exceptional personality in Lithuanian library science. A prominent book researcher and librarian, a teacher and a scientist, he was the first one of former Soviet Lithuania and Soviet Union librarians to be elected to high standing international positions and was active in international organizations. For 16 years (1948-1964) he was the Director of the Library of Vilnius University. Among his major achievements was the return to Lithuania of 15,000 old library books that had been removed at different times, among them Cathecimus by Martynas Mazvydas, the first Lithuanian book published in 1547.

An outstanding event in the life of L. Vladimirovas was his appointment as Head of the United Nations Organization Dag Hmmarskjold Library on 1 July 1964. He remained in that position until 1970 and made important changes that were recognized by the UN General Secretary U. Tan. L. Vladimirovas worked devotedly in international organizations, such as IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations). In 1970 he was elected secretary of the IFLA Library Education Section, and in 1973, was appointed Chairman of this section. Since 1949, L. Vladimirovas was one of the founders and leaders of library higher education in Lithuania. From 1952 to 1964 he was head of the Department of Library Science and until 1993 worked as the head of the Department of Scientific Information.

In 2002, Professor Vladimirovas would have celebrated his 90th birthday. To commemorate this event, the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University together with the Lithuanian Librarians' Association organized an international scientific conference, "The Library is the Whole World." The theme of this conference was symbolic as Professor Vladimirovas viewed library science as including everything that was linked to and with the life of human beings. The main goal of the conference was to commemorate his accomplishments, but also to testify to its continuity in the context of modern communication and information science and practice.

Professor L. Vladimirovas' legacy includes more than 400 articles, books about the printers Franciscus Scorina and Ivan Fiodorov, and a major work, History of a Book: Ancient Times, Middle Ages, Renaissance; the 16th-18th Centuries (1979). This was his major output on the history of the book. L. Vladimirovas initiated and, together with his colleagues, implemented many original and progressive ideas of library higher education. He was an experienced and capable educator, manager and researcher, and had a vision of librarianship that put him years ahead of his time.

The most significant research articles written by him were collected into a separate volume, Levas Vladimirovas on Books and Libraries, and the majority of the published heritage was recorded in a revised personal bibliography with almost 1,000 descriptions. Both books were prepared by his former students and colleagues and were presented to the public on the first day of the conference.

The conference began with the plenary session and was opened by Dr Benediktas Juodka, the Rector of Vilnius University, Ina Marciulionyte, the Vice-Minister of Culture, and Dr Renaldas Gudauskas, the Dean of the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University. It took place in the University Court Theatre Hall in the main building of the University in the Old Town.

Dr Genovaite Raguotiene (Vilnius University) and Professor Dr Tatiana Aratygina (Moscow State University of Culture and Arts) spoke about the life and works of L. Vladimirovas, and about his influence in the whole library world in Lithuania and in Russia. The plenary session ended up with the opening of the Jubilee Exhibition in the White Hall of the Library of Vilnius University. There one could see photos of L. Vladimirovas and his surroundings, copies of manuscripts, books, and journals along with his publications.

Those were the main subjects in which Professor L. Vladimirovas was always interested. Even the volume of selected articles written by him starts with the articles – "Concerning the origin of the word 'book"' and "Which languages were used for oral and written communication in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th through the 17th centuries?" and ends up with the articles, "Library in the year 2000" (written in 1972) and "Genesis of our profession," written in 1979 for the 30th anniversary of the organization of library studies at Vilnius University. One could compare the changes Professor Vladimirovas predicted 30 years ago with what was achieved and learned in the library field during those years.

The 134 participants and guests of the conference spent two days hearing presentations on the following different sections including:

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  Section I: Prospects of library, information and communication science.

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  Section II: The book and the library in the historical context.

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  Section III: Innovations in library and information services.

A total of 33 papers were presented at the conference. Their authors represented eight countries, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Finland, USA and Lithuania. Not all the authors could attend and participate in the conference themselves, but all the papers of the Conference were published in an issue of Vilnius University Research Papers, Information Sciences (2002, Vol. 20).

A few papers presented in each of the three sections were related directly to the life and works of L. Vladimirovas, covering some aspects of his research in bibliography, about his contributions to library automation and work in the IFLA organization, and about his personal library.

Other papers delivered at the conference were written on the topics:

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  modern theories in library science;

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  evaluation and measurement of library work;

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  libraries in information and learning society;

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  electronic documents and digitization of library collections;

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  personal libraries of famous personalities from the past times;

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  influence of radical social and historical changes over the books and libraries.

Short discussions after some presentations demonstrated that most innovative ideas can be understood yet accepted differently, or that different countries with different historical pasts still face similar problems in library work and try to find common solutions that would help them to work cooperatively in the future, creating one library world.

Among the speakers were former colleagues and students of L. Vladimirovas and included: Professor Dr Klemensas Sinkevicius and Dr Regina Varniene (Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania), Dr Arunas Augustinaitis, Dr Ziedune Zaveckiene, Dr Danute Kastanauskaite (Vilnius University), Birute Butkeviciene (Vilnius University Library), Dr Osvaldas Janonis (the University of Klaipeda). Guests from other countries were Professor Dr Terttu Kortelainen (University of Oulu, Finland), Dr Baiba Sporane (University of Latvia), Professor Dr Anne Laurel Clyde (University of Iceland), Dr Mikhail Glazkov (Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, Russia), Adolf Knoll (National Library of the Czech Republic) and others.

On the second day the conference was concluded at another plenary session again in the University Court Theatre Hall. Dr Audrone Glosiene, the Chief of the Department of Library Science of Vilnius University, summarized all events of the conference, thanked everyone who helped to organize the conference, expressed appreciation to the speakers and invited everyone to take part in the final event, the inauguration of the Professor Levas Vladimirovas auditorium in the Faculty of Communication in the University Campus. Former students, colleagues and friends of L. Vladimirovas shared their memories about the professor.

The conference, "The Library is the Whole World" isn't the only event in Lithuania celebrating the many contributions and the life of Professor L. Vladimirovas. To commemorate this date all Lithuanian libraries and the international professional community continue to organize various events, conferences and exhibitions. A volume of memoirs about L. Vladimirovas is in preparation.

L. Vladimirovas himself wrote these nice words about his profession: "The profession of librarian is judged differently. For some people a librarian is just a book lender, for some a mole nuzzling the dusty shelves all his life and creating catalogues according some strange and complicated rules; others think of a librarian as a Cerberus, custodian of the book kingdom. But some few will believe that this profession can be highly romantic, full of adventures and surprising discoveries". I can testify that it is such by my personal experience as a librarian.

Vita Mozuraite (vita.mozuraite@kf.vu.lt) is a lecturer in the Department of Library Science and a member of the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University in Lithuania.