U.S. experts train Moldovan librarians on how to protect written heritage

Chisinau, 21 March /MOLDPRES/ - Two experts of the Library of the United States Congress, Nancy Lev-Alexander and Alan Haley, train Moldovan librarians at a workshop titled, Policy of Preserving Documents’ Collections, held at the Continuous Training Centre of the National Library (BNRM) on 21-23 March.   

Contacted by MOLDPRES, BNRM director Elena Pintilei, said that the event had been organized within a project, Salvgardarea hrisoavelor basarabene din perioada țaristă (1812-1917) (Safeguarding Bessarabian Charters of Tsarist period (1812-1917), implemented by the National Library, in cooperation with the Education, Culture and Research Ministry, U.S. Embassy in Chisinau, Library of the Congress and the Alexe Rau Librarians’ League of Moldova.     

According to Pintilei, during three days, the two trainers from Washington will share their experience on the preservation of collections from the Library of the Congress. Thus, librarians from Moldova, in charge of the collections of the BNRM’s collections, will be able to discuss and give their opinions in detail on the subject tackled, as well as to learn modern techniques of preserving collections of documents.  

In the context, BNRM deputy director Veronica Bors said that, on the first day of the workshop, the American experts trained Moldovan librarians on how to rescue collections in emergency situations: floods, fires, earthquakes, armed conflict, etc.   

The project, Safeguarding Bessarabian Charters of Tsarist period (1812-1917) was launched in October 2017 and will be held till April 2019. The project is financed by the U.S. Embassy through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Within the project, about 170 heritage documents will be restored – collection of Bessarabian charters of the Moldova’s National Library. The next workshop with the participation of American experts will take place in May 2018.          

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor L. Alcaza)