On May 24–25, 2023, Brest will host the VII International Scientific Conference – Berkov Readings. Book Culture in the Context of International Contacts, which is traditionally held by the International Association of the Academies of Sciences (IAAS) and its Scientific Council for Book Culture, Book Publishing and Libraries.

The organizers of the international forum were the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the NAS of Belarus, the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Belarus, the Brest State A. S. Pushkin University, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Scientific and Publishing Center Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The international scientific event will be attended by scientists and leading specialists from academies of sciences, major higher educational institutions, museums, archives, libraries of Belarus and Russia, Azerbaijan and China: historians, philologists, cultural scientists, art historians, psychologists, bibliographers, publishers – representatives of various scientific schools and research areas. It is planned to discuss a wide range of issues related to the development of book culture in the theoretical aspect, the information culture of the individual and society as a whole, text communication, including from the point of view of value and ideological aspects, the history of book and manuscript collections, archival documents, the existence of rare publications, art in the space of book culture. Among the main problems proposed for discussion by the speakers there are questions of the book science in interdisciplinary discourse, historical memory and book culture as a factor of its formation, the role of encyclopedias and biographies in science and historical memory, book collections in the historical and cultural aspect, rarities, their features and existence on the territory of Eastern Europe, reading, its transformation and socio-cultural consequences, the creation of electronic national resources, as well as many others related to the current activities of scientific and library-information institutions, museums and archives.

The conference will be held within the framework of the Plenary Session and 9 breakout sessions. The reports of its participants will be held in offline and online formats. The program of the conference can be found on the website of the Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library of the NAS of Belarus (https://csl.bas-net.by/pdf/2023/berkov-2023-program.pdf)

International Scientific Conference – Berkov Readings. Book Culture in the Context of International Contacts will be held at the Brest State A. S. Pushkin University (21 Bulvar Kasmanawtaw, Brest, Republic of Belarus). The work starts on May 24, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.