IRCI participated as a supporting organization in the Kazakhstan National Webinar “Kazakhstan Intangible Cultural Heritage: Perspectives of Gaining New Academic Knowledge using the Accumulated Bibliographic and Museum Funds” on 26 June 2023. This webinar was hosted by the Central Academic Library of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, in cooperation with the Kazakhstan National Committee for the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Central Academic Library in Almaty.

In the webinar, experts on ICH and bibliography, including local Kazakh librarians, made presentations and had discussions to review the visibility of the local forms and manifestations of ICH in Kazakhstan and their reflection in local history and academic publications, as well as develop perspectives for the creation of a common online database linked to the existing local library and museum collections. IRCI attended the webinar online with an address by the Director-General of IRCI, and a presentation about the 2003 Convention and the ongoing research projects, in which the experience of building the IRCI Research Database was also shared.

IRCI has been cooperating with the Kazakhstan ICH National Committee in the “Sustainable Research Data Collection for ICH Safeguarding: Focusing on Central Asia and Small Island Developing States” project since last year. Through this cooperation, a large amount of information on existing ICH research in Kazakhstan will be collected to gain a better understanding of research trends in Kazakhstan and in Central Asia. The webinar was an extra effort by the Kazakhstan ICH National Committee to take the opportunity of its collaboration with IRCI on this project with the aim of facilitating the creation of a database specializing in Kazakhstan’s ICH, from which a substantial contribution towards further safeguarding for ICH in this region is expected.