Conference “Harmonization of interethnic relations and development of National cultures: Constructive dialogue in the era of Global crises”

On June 29, 2023, the All-Russian (with international participation) scientific and practical conference “Harmonization of interethnic relations and development of national cultures: constructive dialogue in the era of global crises” was held on the site of the Interethnic Library for the seventh time, which was attended by heads and specialists of libraries in Russia and neighboring countries, representatives of ethnocultural socially oriented non-profit organizations.

The conference was held under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture of the Sverdlovsk region and with the support of the section “Library services for multicultural population” of the Russian Library Association.
Thanks to the mixed format, 178 specialists from 15 regions of the Russian Federation, including 10 municipalities of the Sverdlovsk Region, as well as from the Republic of Belarus, took part in the conference.

During the conference, the participants discussed the significant role of libraries in the formation of interethnic and interfaith dialogue in modern conditions. Library specialists from different cities presented their experience in establishing a positive multicultural dialogue in their territories. Successful practices of working with children and youth of different nationalities were shared by colleagues from the Central City Library of Nizhny Tagil, the City Library No. 2 of Revda, the Centralized System of Children’s Libraries of Samara.

Representatives of the Centralized Library System of Naberezhnye Chelny (Republic of Tatarstan), the Centralized Library System of Novosibirsk told about interesting projects in the field of harmonization of interethnic relations.

The role of libraries in the patriotic education of the younger generation and perpetuation of the memory of national heroes were dedicated to the speeches of specialists from the National Donetsk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after N.K. Krupskaya, the Centralized Library System of the Verkhotursky city District, the Central Library named after N.K. Krupskaya. Yanka Kupala of the Centralized System of Public Libraries of Minsk (Republic of Belarus), the National Library of Belarus.

Colleagues from the A.I. Pichkov Nenets Central Library (Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Naryan-Mar), the Municipal Association of Libraries of Yekaterinburg, Lugansk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after A.I. Pichkov told about the experience of promoting national literatures of the peoples of Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and about intercultural projects to preserve and promote the ethnocultural heritage of the peoples of Russia.M. Gorky, Far Eastern State Scientific Library (Khabarovsk).

The director of the Library and Information Center of the Kushva City District, I.V. Begunova, spoke about mutually beneficial cooperation with the national cultural autonomy of Germans and the possibility of attracting additional funding.

The director of the municipal budget institution of culture of the Togliatti city district “Libraries of Togliatti” V. A. Yusupova proposed to a wide discussion the issue of creating model multicultural libraries.

The head of the Representative Office of the Assembly of the Peoples of Eurasia in Yekaterinburg E. G. Samokhina made an interesting project to promote the Russian language abroad. The report of the head of the Center for Cultural Projects and Initiatives “We are Together” S. R. Kulmurzina (Yekaterinburg) was dedicated to cooperation with libraries of the Sverdlovsk region and the Republic of Bashkortostan on the project “BB: Bazhov and Bashkirs”.

Candidate of Historical Sciences O. V. Moreva, Senior researcher at the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, introduced the history of the formation of the Yekaterinburg Muslim Library at the beginning of the 20th century.

The staff of the International Library also presented their experience in library services for the multicultural population of our region. E. S. Kolosov, Deputy Director for Library Technologies, spoke about multicultural libraries as open platforms for interethnic dialogue. The “national” theme in the works of Ural writers was revealed in her speech by the candidate of Philological Sciences, methodologist N. V. Parfenova.

The participants of the scientific and practical conference developed recommendations, including the use of the experience of interaction and cooperation of libraries and public authorities, local self-government, national-cultural public associations, religious and educational organizations, as well as the media presented at the scientific and practical conference in the development of projects, educational programs, etc.

Based on the results of the work, it is planned to publish a collection of materials, which will include the texts of the reports of the conference participants.