The 2nd China-CEEC Curators' Forum of Libraries Union was held in North Macedonia in the form of a video conference. The theme of this forum is Libraries as essential in challenging times offer meaningful connectivity: New approaches to library design. It lasted two days and ended on the afternoon of October 14. 59 member libraries from the China-CEEC Libraries Union, as well as 10 non-union libraries including Zhejiang Library, Shenzhen Library and Xiamen Library attended the forum.

On October 13, at the opening ceremony of the forum, Zhang Xu, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, Zhang Zuo, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to North Macedonia, Barbara Lison, President of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), Irena Stefoska, Minister of Culture of North Macedonia, Ljubica Janceva, Chairman of the City Council of Skopje of North Macedonia, and Suzana Danailova, director of PI City Library “Braka Miladinovci” Skopje, delivered enthusiastic speeches successively.

22 directors and experts from the libraries of China and Central and Eastern European countries focused on topics such as What is the next step for library integration in the post-epidemic era, The development of public libraries and the construction of smart libraries, Library development model under the integration of tradition and Innovation, library and digitization and Post-epidemic period and reading promotion, knowledge, globalization and development, and jointly seeked countermeasures to promote the long-term development of the China-CEEC Libraries Union.

A Glimpse of the Forum Roundtable

The directors of Chongqing Library, Hubei Provincial Library, Shanxi Library, Yunnan Provincial Library, Changchun Library, Guangzhou Library, Hefei City Library, Jinling Library, Ningbo Library, and Xi'an Public Library shared their valuable experiences to get the development of contemporary Chinese libraries better understood by the Central and Eastern European library community. Colleagues from the National Library of Poland, Vodice Public Library, The National and University Library "St. Kliment Ohridski" in Skopje, and Faculty of Philosophy also introduced the latest developments in Central and Eastern European libraries.

The China-CEEC Curators' Forum of Libraries Union was initiated by Hangzhou Public Library in 2018. This forum is to implement the specific measures of 2021 Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries Beijing List of Activities. At the closing ceremony of the forum, Liu Dong, Director of Hangzhou Public Library, made a summary report on the union’s work in recent years on behalf of the Union Secretariat, and read out the Action Plan of China-CEEC Libraries Union 2022-2023.