“I Come from a Heroic Generation”: A Jubilee Symposium Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Librarian, Front-Line Soldier Anatoly Nikolaevich Vaneev

The symposium “I Come from a Heroic Generation” was held on January 30, 2025 at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture (SPbGIK). The event was timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941—1945 and the 100th anniversary of the outstanding scholar-librarian and methodologist, talented teacher of higher education, front-line worker Anatoly Nikolaevich Vaneev (1925—2019). At the solemn opening of the anniversary event there was a demonstration of films dedicated to A.N. Vaneev. The film “A.N. Vaneev. The Beginning of the Way” was made by the Kirov State Universal Regional Scientific Library named after A.I. Herzen, the film “Defender of the Fatherland. Librarian. Pedagogue” — by the Department of Library Science and Theory of Reading of SPbGIK. The welcome speech was delivered by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Rector of SPbGIK A.S. Turgaev and Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Dean of the Library and Information Faculty of SPbGIK V.V. Brezhneva. A special issue of the professional journal “Librarianship” (No. 2, 2025) was prepared for A.N. Vaneev’s jubilee, which included a part of the reports of the symposium participants and several works by A.N. Vaneev related to the programme of the symposium. There was a presentation of the biobibliographical index compiled by N.V. Ponomareva and published for the 100th anniversary of A.N. Vaneev with the support of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The first section of the scientific part of the symposium was “Library Studies: Modern Science and Practice in the Context of A.N. Vaneev’s Scientific Heritage”. The reports were divided into thematic blocks concerning the biography of the scientist, the methodological concept of library and information activity, touched upon historical librarianship in his works, as well as his contribution to the methodology of library science, reading promotion and research activities of libraries. The second section of the symposium contained a theoretical discussion “Object and Subject of Library Science: Towards the Formation of the Methodological Paradigm of Russian Library Science of the 21st Century” based on the report of S.A. Basov, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Vice-President of the St. Petersburg Library Society. He argued his point of view on the object and subject of library science, proposing to consider the first as a library social institute, the second as cognition of regularities of structure, functioning and development of a library social institute; formation of a system of knowledge about the structure, functioning and development of a library social institute. At the end of the forum the grandson of the scientist — A.S. Vaneev, the participant of the special military operation, battles on liberation of Artemovsk (Bakhmut), made a speech with words of gratitude. A.S. Vaneev, like his grandfather, a participant of the Great Patriotic War of 1941—1945, was awarded the medal “For Bravery”.