The discussion club “Gutenberg’s Galaxy” of library science and history of books is an event organised by the National Library of Latvia and Latvian Librarians Association, it has been gathering interested persons at the National Library of Latvia once per month since 1998, this is a continuation of the traditions of the former Committee on the History of Book Sector.

The tradition of the meetings of specialist from the book sector revived on January 13, 1998, during the first meeting of “Gutenberg’s Galaxy”, when Aleksejs Apīnis (1926-2004), the researcher of book history, told about the founding of the Committee of Book Sector and its initial work. Now the range of issues for discussion has expanded – library science, problems of contemporary information world have been added to the problems of the book sector. One of the main tasks of the discussion club “Gutenberg’s Galaxy” is to foreground the printed book as an important cultural value in the age, when the electronic media tend to restrict its development. The objective of the club – to unite specialists of book sector and libraries, friends of “Gutenberg’s Galaxy” in discussions about these issues.

During the almost nine years of its existence, the Secretariat of the discussion club has organised 85 meetings, which were attended by 2550 participants: librarians, specialists from the book sector, writers, historians, lawyers, journalists, other specialists and interested persons.

Thus far mixed themes have been discussed during the meetings, these might be classified as follows: the history of book publishing, the history of libraries, contemporary Latvian book sector, the problems of contemporary libraries, general problems of culture and culture history, the artistic design of books, copyright, issues of mass media, traditions of bibliophily, problems of information society, poetry, books for children, fiction.

All professionals and interested persons are welcome to join the discussion club of library science and history of book sector!

The Secretariat of the Discussion Club:
The Department of Library Research and Information
Institute of Library Development
The National Library of Latvia
75 Terbatas Street, Riga, LV-1001
Phone: +371 67312776
Phone/fax: +371 67312793
E-mail: lnbpn@lnb.lv