The 10th Congress of Baltic Librarians (CoBaL10)
Libraries in Communities
12–13 October 2015
National Library of Latvia
Mukusalas iela 3, Riga
Working session 2
Virginija Švedienė, Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library
Virginija Švedienė is the Culture Manager for Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library. Virginija is involved in working groups of various projects, par excellence for supporting international qualifications of librarians, seeks for partners in foreign libraries. For the last several years Virginija has been working on researches, presenting Library services and activities in publications. She manages the Library web site and its social media profile.
Virginija Januševičienė, Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library
Virginija Januševičienė is the Culture Manager for Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library. Virginija is involved in working groups of various projects, particularly for cultural activity and cultural heritage. She also provides information for Library website and presents Library activities in local and national press. Virginija arranges and leads radio programme “In Bitė Library”, edits the Library published books and other publications, presents the Library activities at the local and national events.
Cultivating Public Spirit in the Library: from Children Creativity to Government Elections
Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library, as a civic maturity forming space, begins to cultivate civic awareness from the smallest readers, but also finds exciting forms of activity for every age-span of the community.
Most active in this area is the Library unit – Juozas Urbšys Social Thought and Culture Center, where the audience of events is the public, interested in Lithuanian history. Due to the national and regional contests, festivals, organized by the Center, special attention is paid to the education of civic awareness for children and young people. Conferences, organized in commemoration of historical dates of Lithuania, have already become traditional.
Children and Youth Literature Centre of the Library also has made important achievements in this field. One of the latest projects encouraged children’s interest in Panevėžys region writers’ works and inspired publishing their own comic book.
In response to the current problem of emigration, Library invites young talents and the community for debates on how to make the town and the homeland attractive for young people and to encourage educated young generation to the return to their homeland.
In 2015, during the first direct election of mayors, due to the Library as an ambitious moderator, town community had the opportunity to meet all candidates for city mayors and evaluate them through the prism of culture via discussion.
Historical, ethnic self-awareness is strengthened by fellow-countrymen book presentations, by focus on fostering dialects. Feeling of civic awareness is developed through the cultural heritage values and the conference cycle “The Development of Book and Library History of Panevėžys Region“. Library project “Panevėžys Region Culture in a Virtual Treasury” gives public access to local history, significant objects, prominent personalities.
Lāsma Zariņa, Jelgava Scientific Library
Lāsma is the director of the Jelgava Scientific Library since 2014. Jelgava Scientific Library is an institution of cultural, educational and informational significance within the Jelgava municipality; it’s the main library within the region and the largest public library within Zemgale district. The library has three branches – “Miezītes” library, library “Pārlielupe” and children’s library “Zinītis.” Jelgava Scientific library is the consultative and methodological center for 28 municipal libraries within Jelgava and Ozolnieki county; regional training center with a computerized classroom, and interlibrary loan center in the Zemgale district.
Until 2014 Lāsma worked at the Riga Technical University Scientific Library as a system librarian and the head of Information and Services division. She has also participated in the implementation of RFID systems at the Riga Technical University Library.
Lāsma holds a Master’s degree in Library Science and Information from the University of Latvia.
Library within a City. Story of Experience
This is a story of experience about synergy between a library and a city. Active participation of libraries in a city’s life brings huge added value, it not only encourages people to read, but also to feel and explore. If the representatives of a library organize various activities, they are closer to the people and everyone who enters the library feels safer among smart, confident and familiar staff members. This is particularly important for children and young people.
Eugenija Koveckiene, Klaipeda City Public Library
Eugenija is the deputy director at the Klaipeda City Public Library. She holds Library and Information Science degree from the Vilnius University. Since 1991 she works in Klaipeda Municipality Public Library. Her professional interests are in public library theory and she challenges herself to find an answer to the question: “Why librarians are so low assessed by the society, when they do so much?”. Eugenija believes that answer to this question will help to decide the future of libraries.
As the member of Lithuanian library experts’ group she participated in preparing the publication “Naujoviškos viešosios bibliotekos gairės” (Innovative Public Library Guidelines, 2010).
Public Library – medium for the culture to grow
For centuries mankind felt the information hunger. For centuries libraries made efforts to tackle this problem. New information technologies, as a media of old ones, solve a problem in new ways. According Neil Postman – media is medium for the culture to grow. Is this a public library? Identifying the theoretical justification Library practitioner analyzes public library causes of change in the information age, and try to answer still futuristic question: “Will library remain?” This is a modest attempt to see the public library place in the new media context.
Svetlana Sprūža, Valmiera Library
Svetlana works in Valmiera Library since 2007. She started her career as librarian in Children’s department and her main tasks were to organize cooperation with preschools and provide events and programs for preschool children such as the first meeting with the library. In 2008 Svetlana become a Valmiera library Training Center manager. Currently her main responsibilities are to develop and run training programs: *) on information literacy for students of different ages, *) computer training for seniors; *) provide training for professional development of regional librarians.
Svetlana works on publicity material of Valmiera Library: brochures and posters as well she is co-creator and designer of 3 coloring books for children: “Endangered Animals of Europe”, “EU and friends”, “Coloring book of Valmiera” and co-developer of board game “Find yourself in Europe”.
From 2012 to 2015 Svetlana participated in the „International Network of Emerging Library Innovators” which is The Global Libraries initiative (GL) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
From May 2014 till August 2015 Svetlana is project assistant in project of Valmiera library “Read and get followers”. The project received EIFL Public Library Innovation Program support for use of information and communication technologies in order to implement innovative services for children and teenagers. Svetlana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations.
Involving Local Community in the Library Changes
This presentation is based on Valmiera library experience story. It examines how common trainings where participate together librarians and local community members can contribute to personal and professional growth, helps better understand local communities’ needs and serves as great tool for library advocacy.
In 2014 Valmiera library has developed and implemented two projects: “Read and get followers” (EIFL funding) for youth target group and “CreaDream forum in library” (Nordplus Adult funding) for target group 50+. Both projects have the common feature that the librarians along with library customers participate in training program and learn new skills. By making local community members as partners in library service development, we involve them in the library changes and offer opportunity to empower themselves.
Asta Katinaitė-Griežienė, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Library
Asta holds Master of Communication and Information Sciences. Since 2006 she is working in the Library of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
She started her professional career as a librarian in Users Services Department. Now she is the head of Training and Public Relations Department.
How to Find in Library “Green Book” which is Really “Yellow”?
Every librarian could tell sticky situation from library life when student asks some kind of “green books” which the lecturer shown during the lecture. So how to help them and yourself? Library of Vilnius Gediminas Technical presents e. service “Information Bridge: Library – University – Student (BUS)” and seeks to help to find necessary information resources for each lecture.
Ginta Zalcmane, National Library of Latvia
Ginta is the head of the Information Service department of the Reference and Information Centre. She is organizing and accomplishing information services on demand. Her professional activities are connected with leadership and coordination for information literacy program. Her current work focuses on adolescents, to promote their personality development possibilities. The work is related to the library possibilities for significance of identity development and cultivating a sense of purpose during adolescence and young adulthood.
Ginta has acquired the Master’s degree of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Latvia. The Yale University Library Baltic Librarian Fellows Program gave her the opportunity to improve knowledge of the United States Academic library system, as well as encouraged to be more creative in doing everyday library tasks.
By implementing role of the National Library of Latvia as a centre of culture, science and education, avaliable for public use, department of the NLL, the Information and Reference centre carries out activities in the field of information literacy and lifelong learning development.
The Information and Reference Centre of the National Library of Latvia provides training services for different target audiences, including pupils, students and faculty. Training service provides skills and knowledge on the strategies and methods of the search of information – how to find, select, evaluate, manage and use information, therefore advancing the information, media and digital skill development.
The NLL has drawn attention on adolescents. The NLL will open special premises form adolescents from the age of 15. The aim is to make their visit to the library as purposeful as possible and to promote their personality development possibilities. Therefore we are planning to make several purposeful activities, putting an emphasis on the development of professional growth, choice of profession and personality development as such.
Activities of the Information and Reference centre is a support for each user to perceive the library as an avaliable and modern world-class information, education, science, culture and communication centre that provides a positive outcome of the visit of the new building.
Julija Glosaitė, Central Library of Vilnius City Municipality
Julija has been working in the library world for more than 7 years. Starting as a junior librarian in Antakalnis branch library in 2008, apart from customer service, she was also focusing on event organizing and began managing projects. Mostly working with reading promotion projects she was aiming at promoting reading activities to children and youth.
In 2015 Julija started working as a Marketing Manager in a newly built Central Library of Vilnius City Municipality. Since that time her professional focus shifted towards library promotion, ensuring library is a welcoming and attractive space for public. In May 2015 she has conducted a research in Tokyo‘s (Japan) major cultural center Spiral analysing it‘s marketing, event planning, audience building strategies.
Her professional interests include social media, informal education and intersectoral cooperation.
Tautvilė Jurgelevičienė, Central Library of Vilnius City Municipality
Tautvilė is working in library field since graduating in Librarianship and information science in 2008. While working she graduated Vilnius university with a Master’s degree in Information Management. Her first employer was Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Panevėžys County Public Library, which is the main library in the northeast of Lithuania. Now she is Head of Reader Service Department in Central library of Vilnius City Municipality. Newly built library was opened January 2015. It is a fresh, modern 3-floor library, offering a wide variety of services. Tautvilė is responsible for the department’s work in general – collection development, event planning, publicity and promotion of libraries services, project management. After undergoing a training tour in Iceland, Finland and Denmark libraries she is now trying to folow Scandinavian librarianship path.
“Trans E-scouts” is an international project implemented in Croatia, Latvia and Lithuania. The idea of the project is to facilitate the socio-digital inclusion of elderly and youth improving local community life by means of the intergenerational dialogue and mutual support. Project implementers intend to build a learning circle in which the youth supports senior people in ICT usage and, in return, seniors mentor youth in their efforts to access the labor market and to face challenges of adult life, completing in this way a circle of learning, exchange and conviviality. In Lithuania “Trans E-scouts” was implemented by organization “Langas į ateitį”. Central Library of Vilnius City Municipality participated in the project providing e-facilitators from three branch libraries, in CoBaL represented by two – Žirmūnai and Antakalnis branch libraries.