Libraries Participation in the Implementation of the Politics of Memory: Theoretical and Applied Aspects

Abstract

The article is devoted to the substantiation of the urgency of separation of the memorial direction in library research and development of library activity, connected with realization of the memory policy, the introduction of the appropriate course in the program of training of future specialists of library business.Emphasis is focused on increasing of scientific attention to the study of historical memory, especially culture memory and identity in the context of the transition to the information society, highlighting the organizational design of this research area in the form of appropriate research centres and the Memory Studies Association. Within the framework of the structuralfunctional method and from the standpoint of the connection between the concepts of “collective memory”, “historical memory”, “cultural memory”, there has been stated libraries participation in the formation and preservation different kinds of social memory through the realization of such essential functions of libraries as memorial, cumulative, informational and communicative. The relevance of the intensification of research into the memory studies within the framework of librarianship is substantiated. Prospective directions of interaction between the Ukrainian Library Association and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory are offered with the aim of comprehensively uncovering commemorative potential of libraries and their more active involvement in the implementation of memory policy.The foreign experience of organizing relevant interdisciplinary programs and training courses for the preparation of master’s students has been revealed. The orientational structure of the course “Culture, memory, identity” for students of master’s level of specialty 029 “Information, library and archives” is offered, the study of which will allow students to analyze, identify, describe the processes of constructing of historical memory and cultural identity, critically to comprehend relevant scientific texts, to identify and critically evaluate approaches to the implementation of memory policies and preservation of spiritual heritage in Ukraine and abroad, to develop effective approaches to memory policy within the library practices.