Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 24 / Trend I. Isabalayeva /
"The main thing for us is to attract young people in the libraries. If we can achieve this, then libraries will continue to exist", Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev said at the 27th annual meeting of the Conference of European National Libraries (CENL) in Baku today.
According to him, Azerbaijan has full freedom of the Internet.
"People get all the news from the Internet," he said. "But it is essential to increase the number of people reading books. The main goal is to attract the younger generation to the libraries. If we can achieve this then the libraries will continue existing, otherwise young people will prefer discos. We should note that no country can develop without books. Particular attention should be paid to the book as an integral part of our culture."
The minister said that there are 4000 libraries in Azerbaijan and the problems of libraries around the world are almost identical.
Garayev stressed the government is working to improve the functioning of libraries in Azerbaijan.
"Today we can say that large libraries are provided with digital devices and integrated into a single network in all regions of the country," he said. "Small libraries will be integrated into such a network soon."