Audio recordings of abstracts and discussions of the international scientific conference “Publishing and the Nation” have been published on the “Klausītava” channel of the National Library of Latvia. They are available on the Spotify and SoundCloud platforms in Latvian and English.
The conference “Publishing and the nation” was held at the National Library of Latvia on 7–8 December of 2023 as part of the series of events “500 Years of Latvian Books”. It was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the prominent publisher Ansis Gulbis (1873–1936) and encouraged discussion about book publishing as a cornerstone of the nation’s culture, paying special attention to the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the professional book publishing of the nations of the Baltic Sea region began to be established.
In the opening lectures of the conference, Meelis Friedenthal and Pēteris Bankovskis spoke about the importance of the book in strengthening the nation. Researchers Viesturs Zanders, Kristina Papule, Mārtiņš Mintaurs, Piret Lotman, Melinda Simon, Loreta Vinclovienė, Veronika Girininkaitė, Andreas Hedberg, Kristiāna Ābele, Signe Raudive, Piret Pärgma and Kārlis Vērdiņš presented the results of their research work on various aspects of the importance of book publishing.
Three discussions took place at the conference – a discussion led by Gustavs Strenga “Big ideas, big projects, big men? Translation, encyclopaedias and patronage”, a discussion led by Dagnija Baltiņa “100 years later. New challenges and tasks”, as well as a discussion led by Gustavs Strenga “Transformations of ideas. Texts as different forms of art and communication”, in which representatives of the fields of culture, history and publishing took part.
The conference was organized by the National Library of Latvia as part of the series of events “500 Years of Latvian Books” with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and the State Culture Capital Foundation.
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