Book museum between the old and the new

Straipsnyje svarstomi tradicinio ir modernaus muziejaus klausimai, nagrinėjama dabartinė Europos knygos muziejų situacija, kai naujo, modernaus, dalyvaujamojo muziejaus reikmė susiduria su įprastinio akademinio pobūdžio knygos muziejų tradicija. Pateikiama persitvarkančių ir nelabai vykusių knygos muziejų praktikos pavyzdžių, aptariama Lietuvos muziejų padėtis, mąstant, ko galėtume pasimokyti ne tik iš knygos, bet ir iš kitų įvairaus profilio užsienio muziejų, kuriuose eksponuojama daug rankraštinio ir spausdintinio paveldo. Ši patirtis galėtų būti pravarti kuriant knygos muziejų Lietuvoje.The article addresses the issues of the traditional and the modern museum and examines the present state of affairs with European book museums, wherein the need in a modern participatory museum clashes with the tradition of the usual, academically-oriented one. We provide examples from practical work of both traditional and restructured (modern) book museums. These examples show that some new technologies applied in museums grow obsolete faster than we would like. The article discusses newly-created European museums exhibiting large collections of manuscript and print heritage, personally visited by the author. Their experience is valuable in starting a book museum in Lithuania. In the today’s world book museums (and this also pertains to the future Lithuanian book museum) can no longer remain such as they were at the acme of their popularity in the 8th–9th decade of the 20th century. The article further expands on a modern museum, whose main purpose is that of communication, and whose displays and exhibitions are based on new museum narratives that educate the visitors, send them a message about various values of book culture and the relationship with the past, and help them orienting themselves in the present