News

On May 18, the annual meeting of the international organization “Conference of European National Libraries” (CENL) had been held in the capital of Switzerland, Bern. The directors of the National Libraries from 36 European countries attended in the event held in the Swiss Parliament building. At CENL meeting which was held in Baku in 2013, there were representatives from 41 countries and in Moscow in 2014, 22 countries were represented in the CENL meeting. Karim Tahirov, the director of the National Library, and Khayala Ismayilova, the head of the department of foreign literature and international book exchange represented our country in this prestigious event. The vice-president of Swiss National Assembly, Christa Markwalder had opened the meeting. In her speech, she gave information about the Parliament building where the meeting held. She said that the building was built on the 1^st of April in 1902 by Hans Auer, and noted that there were written “one for all, all for one” on the emblem of the building. In addition, noting 22 cantons’ emblem of Switzerland around the dome, he said he was glad that the 29th CENL meeting held in this building. After the speech of Mrs. Christa Markwalder, the director of the Swiss National Library Marie Christine Doffey welcomed the guests. Bruno Racine, the president of CENL continued the meeting with his speech.  First of all, he said that the director of Moldovia National Library had dead, then, he introduced the newly appointed directors of the Czech Republic and Croatia National Libraries, and wished them good luck. Then, the activities of the Electronic Library (TEL) in a year and its future prospects had been presented to the participants of the meeting by Jill Cousinis and extensive discussions were held on this matter. After the speech, the directors of every National Libraries introduced themselves. At the Conference of European National Librarians the proof and the issues of protocol of the 28th annual meeting held in Moscow had been noted. The annual report of the Conference of European National Librarians for 2014-2015 was presented to the participants by Bruno Racine. At this ceremony, representative of the British Library Roly Keating was elected the new president of CENL for 3 years. On this occasion, he congratulated and wished good luck him. At the end of the debate, each country decided to increase the annual membership fees for TEL in order to expand the digital materials. At the end of the meeting, Karim Tahirov, the director of the Azerbaijan National Library congratulated Roly Keating and invited him to the IV Baku International Book Exhibition Fair in September. The meeting will continue till the 19^th o May.