Professional Discourses in the Homeland of Immanuel Kant: 20th Anniversary of the International Library and Philosophical School

The International Library and Philosophical School (ILPS) was first organized in 2004 in Kaliningrad, where I. Kant lived and worked. The legacy of the great philosopher became its theoretical basis. In 2024, when the world scientific community was widely celebrating the 300th anniversary of I. Kant’s birth, the 20th Anniversary Session of the ILPS was held. The conceptual idea of the ILPS is to contribute to the scientific search for answers to questions concerning the prospects of libraries in the new socio-cultural paradigm of society development, formed under the influence of global digitalization, as well as to the understanding of the role of information, books and reading in the modern world as socio-cultural phenomena and important channels of social communications in general. The interdisciplinary approach is realized by combining the efforts of philosophers, culturologists, sociologists, psychologists, scientists, ecologists, librarians, book historians, specialists in the field of social informatics and communication studies from different countries. For 20 years of work, the attention of the ILPS participants has been focused on analyzing the modern information space: its genesis, structure and properties, development trends, information socio-cultural interaction in modern society and the role of libraries in this process, as well as the phenomenon of information in the context of historical development of society. A range of broader problems has been covered: meaning-genetic theory of culture, historical continuity of cultures, cultural and social anthropology, etc. Important topics of the ILPS scientific programme also included research of the ontological status of the book in the historical and cultural aspect, analysis of philosophical and cultural models of personal social identity and theoretical foundations of cultural and information competence as basic markers of members of modern society, the role of books and reading in their formation. On the ILPS platforms the following topical philosophical aspects of library science were discussed: social and functional metamorphism as a regularity of historical development of libraries, interpretation of the concept “library” in the modern system of social and human sciences, cognitive function of the library and its role in knowledge management, ontological bases of realization of the memorial function of the modern library in the context of preservation of documentary heritage in the digital age, etc. Over 200 specialists and scientists from various branches of knowledge delivered reports, lectures, presentations and master-classes, which made a significant contribution to the development of research potential of library and information sciences, enriched them in conceptual, epistemological, methodological and heuristic aspects. The ILPS has stimulated interdisciplinary scientific research in the humanities and technology, contributed to the expansion of their problem field.