The library community took stock of the accomplishments of 2023 at an annual symposium hosted by the National Library of the Republic of Moldova. The Library’s director general Elena Pintilei said that in 2023, the National Library positioned itself as a dialogue and action center for information literacy of the community members, in response to the expansion of misinformation, social and economic changes. The National Library acted based on strategic priorities, such as digitization of library collections, participation in national and international forums, IPN reports.
In the symposium “Librarianship Year 2023”, which this year is held under the theme “Libraries supporting the digital, social and cultural inclusion of community members”, Elena Pintilei pointed out that in 2023 the National Library was concerned with the development and strengthening of institutional management, e-transformation and promotion of documentary heritage, development of e-services in order to improve the quality of life of citizens, as well as enhancement of the value of the cultural institution as a community center for knowledge, education and communication. “We sought to strengthen the position of the National Library as a promoter of the development of librarianship and information science,” said the Library’s director.
Among the achievements, Elena Pintilei mentioned the presence of the National Library on the electronic pages of the Conference of European National Librarians, which ensured its increased visibility at European and international levels. Also, the National Library “kept an eye on” the policies and achievements of the Republic of Moldova in the perspective of European integration. Thus, several institutional projects were carried out with national and international to inform the community about the process of joining the European Union. These events involved European emissaries, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other organizations operating in Moldova, who came to talk to community members about Moldova as an EU candidate state. This range of activities was a new experience for the National Library, with a major responsibility.
Eugenia Bejan, director general of the National Children’s Library “Ion Creangă”, welcomed the close cooperation relations, generous exchanges of ideas between the national libraries and also in the library community as a whole. “In 2023, we launched a program to promote the six fundamental values of the European Union and in 2023 we started with the first value – human dignity. So, we staged a national competition for students - “Human dignity – European value”. We realized that such competitions always require training for librarians, first of all, but also for potential participants. So, I’m glad that we managed to organize a webinar that was conducted free of charge by Cristian Ducu, a doctor and ethics expert from Bucharest,” said Eugenia Bejan.
The 33rd edition of the symposium was attended by 170 representatives of national, public, university and school libraries.
