Donation of Belarusian Books to the Library of Congress

On June 25th Washington hosted a solemn ceremony of donating the best Belarusian books – laureates of national and international literary contests – to the Library of Congress. Director of the National Library of Belarus Roman Motulski handed the books to Chief of Library of Congress European Division Georgette Dorn.

On June 25^th Washington hosted a solemn ceremony of donating the best Belarusian books – laureates of national and international literary contests – to the Library of Congress. Director of the National Library of Belarus Roman Motulski handed the books to Chief of Library of Congress European Division Georgette Dorn.

Addressing the audience R.Motulski stressed that the collection of the best Belarusian books containing comprehensive and unbiased information about our country available in the Library of Congress will further dissemination of knowledge about Belarus among the Americans, which will undoubtedly favour mutual understanding between the peoples of Belarus and the USA.

The Library of Congress gratefully accepted the books presented by Belarus. Senior Representative of the Library noted the importance and timeliness of this initiative, as well as emphasized the interest of the Library of Congress in further development of cooperation between the National Library of Belarus and the Library of Congress.

R.Motulski and D.Dorn agreed on concrete forms of cooperation between principal libraries of Belarus and the United States, including cooperation in the area of international book exchange.

Donation of books to the Library of Congress is the first activity of the project “Belarus Today”. Within the framework of this project, Belarus will annually donate to five largest libraries in the world about one hundred best books of domestic publication, which most comprehensively reflect the socio-economic and political life of our country, its centuries-old history and culture. The collection will include the best literary and art, scientific and popular science publications, as well as encyclopedias, reference books and photo albums.

The sets of books donated by Belarus will mark the beginning for Belarusian collections in the largest libraries of the world and considerably supplement existing collections of publications from Belarus.