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On September 22, the 6th meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Libraries of ECO member countries was held in the National Library of Azerbaijan within the framework of the library's 100th anniversary events.

Director of the National Library of Azerbaijan, prof. Karim Tahirov presided, welcomed the participants and noted that the ECO includes 10 countries, the directors of the national libraries of 8 of them participate in the meeting, and we have the authority to hold the meeting according to the charter. The director declared the meeting open.

At the meeting, C, representative of the General Secretariat of the ECO, Taner Beyoğlu, Director General of the National Library of Türkiye, Asif Iqbal Khan, Director of the National Library of Pakistan, Director of the State Enterprise "National Library" of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Fayzalizoda Jumakhon Khol, National Library of Uzbekistan Teshabayeva Umida Alimjanovna, director of the library, Ospanova Bakitjamal Kairbekovna, director of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, chairman of the Kazakhstan Library Union, Baysakova Nuriyana Raimovna, acting as the director of the National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Kakayeva Altyn Nepesovna, deputy director of the State Library of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan, participated.

First, a short video dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the National Library of Azerbaijan was shown.

Later, several issues on the agenda of the meeting - acceptance of the application to UNESCO at the proposal of the Azerbaijani side; Organization of book exchange between national libraries of ECO member countries; Organization of a single electronic catalog and electronic library of national libraries of ECO member countries; Compilation of an electronic collection reflecting the main indicators of the national libraries of ECO member countries and updating it every year; Discussions were held on the strengthening of mutual relations between the national libraries of ECO member countries, and decisions were made based on voting.

Director of the National Library of Azerbaijan, prof. Karim Tahirov noted the importance of all the issues on the agenda and emphasized that their implementation is particularly important. He stated that meetings should be held frequently, discussions should be held, and proposed projects should be implemented. The professor said that 927 libraries where 4,600,000 books and manuscripts are stored remained in the occupied territories as a result of the military aggression of Armenia and were burned and destroyed. In December 2020, he addressed a letter to the president of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) on behalf of the library directors of the 10 liberated regions, requesting them to organize a mission to assess the situation in the liberated regions on the spot. In his reply letter, the president of IFLA wrote that he shared the information about the destroyed libraries with his colleagues at UNESCO, but prof. Karim Tahirov said that, unfortunately, we have not received an answer to our request about sending a mission. Calling the destruction of cultural heritage during military conflicts inadmissible, he proposed to send a joint application to UNESCO on behalf of the national libraries of ECO member countries, and the proposal was supported and accepted.

During the discussions, Ospanova Bakitjamal Kairbekovna, the director of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the chairperson of the Kazakhstan Library Union, while talking about the organization of book exchange between the national libraries of the ECO member countries, said that there is little old and modern literature in their funds, and she drew attention to the importance of strengthening the works in the direction of updating the fund and implementing literature exchange.

The director of the National Library of Uzbekistan, Teshabayeva Umida Alimjanovna, stated that it is important to ensure the completeness of the fund, taking into account the numerous local and foreign readers, especially researchers, of the National Library named after A.Navai, which has a rich collection, and the fund is not only filled with literary and artistic literature, but also with scientific literature should be formed.

Director General of the National Library of Türkiye, Taner Beyoğlu, spoke about his new projects that will soon be realized - it will be possible to send lists of books they want to acquire from different countries and deliver literature to libraries through the application.

Another issue on the agenda was the issue of organizing a single electronic catalog and electronic library of the national libraries of ECO member countries. Noting that this issue was touched upon in the last meeting, prof. Karim Tahirov pointed out that this case has not yet been concluded.

Director of the National Library of Pakistan Asif Iqbal Khan and Director of the State Institution "National Library" of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Faizalizoda Jumakhon Khol talked about the deep relations between the countries in the cultural field, and their libraries always exchange literature and experience, as well as jointly they expressed that they would be happy with the implementation of the measures.

Prof. Karim Tahirov said that the books brought by the foreign visitors invited to the international exhibitions and fairs have enriched the foreign literature fund of the National Library of Azerbaijan, and also emphasized the importance of strengthening relations in the field of exchange of experience of specialists, mutually creating corners of different countries, mutual despite the existence of memorandums, he stated that efforts should be made to expand these relations in various directions, and he noted that all of these are directly aimed at the development of foreign cultural policy.

In the end, the proposal to hold the next meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Libraries of the ECO member countries in Ankara, Turkey in 2025 was supported by the participating countries, and in order to review the work carried out, it was decided to hold the meeting online twice a year, thus the meeting concluded its work. .