On 9-10 April 2024, the anniversary research-to-practice conference ‘Museum Libraries in Modern Society’ was held in the lecture hall of the Moscow Kremlin Museums on Manezhnaya Street. This year, the theme of the conference was ‘Book in a Journey, Journey in a Book’.

The event began with a welcoming speech of Deputy Director for Enlightenment and Museum Popularization O.V. Dmitrieva.

'We have a brilliant topic today, while a book and a journey – are two wonderful notions that are closely linked with each other. This theme could be approached differently: from the existentialistic point of view, philosophic, theological, and historical. I foresee that all these aspects will be touched. Books retain great journeys, starting from the early historical times, the recorded myths with journeys are also preserved. In the Middle Ages, these journeys were allegorical and mystical; in the epoch of Great Discoveries there was a ‘surge’ of literature devoted to journeys in the modern sense - each of these aspects is important and interesting,” she stated.

Further, the Head of the Department ‘Scientific and Reference Library’ S.A. Kostanyan welcomed the audience.

'Both books and journeys are connected in our mind with something pleasant. They both let us, on the one hand, distract ourselves, have some rest, get positive emotions, and, on the other hand, - acquire new impressions and knowledge. The theme of the conference allows us to view these things from different sides, to trace how the book has been changing while accompanying a man on a trip, in what cases it was a follower and in what – a helper and a guide,” she noted.

The representatives of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, Hermitage, Historical Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Ethnographic Museum, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Archive of the Russian Academy of Science, State Russian Library, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian State University for the Humanities and others spoke at the conference. Besides, independent experts shared their opinions. 

At the end of the first day of the conference, the guided tour round the exhibition ‘Amateur Scholars of Russian History. Pavel Karabanov and Moscow Collectors of the 19th century’ was organized for the guests.