LIBRARY & VOLUNTEERING: POSSIBLE & VITAL SYNERGY Travel Diary /4

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ERASMUS + KEY ACTION 1- MOBILITY PROJECT FOR ADULT EDUCATION STAFF

Lifelong learning centered on key competences …  change management in personal and professional life

September 1st 2014- August 30 2015

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Travel Diary /4

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LIBRARY & VOLUNTEERING:

POSSIBLE & VITAL SYNERGY 

 

 

Interview to the volunteers of the library in Lit

 

 

JOB SHADOWING ACTIVITIES 

April 23 – 4 May 4 2015

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“If we want to know the meaning of life, we have to open a book over there, in the darkest corner of a chapter, there is a sentence written for us; if we multiply, we must act, to escape, to travel to India or Tahiti, but choose a new book in the pages rustling forest that surrounds the walls of our room. “

Pietro Citati

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Monday, April 27 … Meeting with the team of the library in Lit

The visit to the library of Ӧstersund allowed us to become better acquainted with the guidelines that guide the cultural and social policies of the county of Jämtland. Together, we have agreed that

  • people need education throughout life, both in institutions such as schools and universities but also in less formal contexts related to their work and daily life.
  • public libraries are an important reference point for those who came out of the traditional circuit training, because they are structures in which you learn and you learn to learn, but where you are not judged for what they have learned.
  • libraries also play a balancing function in a society in which not all of them have equal opportunities in access to knowledge.
  • all that is appropriate especially for small towns, where the public library is one of the few if not the only cultural presidio

Our activities now continue to Lit, a small town of about a thousand inhabitants, which is 23 km from the city of Ӧstersund. We meet the leaders of the group of volunteers involved in the coordination and management of the activities of the library. To start, let’s ask some questions to better understand the characteristics and specificities of a library that offers its services with the help of staff … Here is the interview to Elisabet and Iren

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interno

(interior of the Library in Lit )

 

 

  • How did you arrive at the Library in Lit? Which is your story?

 Elisabet

I was involved from the beginning. In the spring of 1996, suddenly and unexpectedly, we were communicated the closing of the library in Lit. At the time, I worked as a teacher and with other colleagues we immediately mobilized to establish a working group integrated. We were firmly intended on finding a solution and prevent the closing of the library.

So, we managed to be seated at the same table and to discuss with a group of teachers and carers of the school in Litthe Municipality in Lit and representatives of the County Library in Östersund.

Many meetings and exchanges to seek the best solution … In 1998 we were finally able to find an effective and stable solution, which is what you see active today, after 17 years … The library is located on the school premises in Lit

The limited funds available to the school provides only six hours of weekly activities for the realization of projects and activities carried out in collaboration between school and library. It is essential the contribution of Mona, who works in the library with a part-time, in “service subsidized”.

Without sacrificing its identity and mission of the public library …. two days a week, through the activity of a group of volunteers, it is guaranteed the opening of the library, so that all the inhabitants of Lit can benefit from the service . The group of volunteers consists of 25 people.

After working as a teacher, I retired a year ago. In addition to performing the work of the voluntary to the library, I take care of the organization and coordination of the development of integrated activities between the group of volunteers and the school.

 

Iren

I always thought that the library is a crucial resource for citizens, able to promote participation and culture. I always attended the library in Lit and found normal offer my voluntary contribution to keep the library in the village. I am a member of an association called “LitsStårschan” (girls in Lit), which involved many of its members in the volunteer project in the library. Our training was ensured by courses organized by Studie Förbundet Vuxenskolan of Lit.

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gruppo 4

From left Bodil Henriksson Johansson, coordinator of the mobility of staff Geapolis at Vuxenskolan SV Jämtland, together with the leaders of the group of volunteers of the library Elisabet Eriksson, Sylvia Ivarsson, Iren KBerglund

 

 

  • In your role as a volunteer, what are the tasks?

Elisabet

Shifts are organized by teams composed of two people. I take care of the monthly management of loans and deposits, and I take care of the administration and of shipments. Each volunteer also helps to make suggestions for new purchases and this impels us to be up to date on new books and desires of Readers. Usually, the library is frequented mostly by men, women or children? Elizabeth During school hours are mainly kids to visit the library. At the same time adults can attend. However, it is the evening time that the people of Lit, mainly women, prefer to reserve time in the library.

 

  • You planned  entertainment activities for reading, or you deal only loan books?

Among the activities proposed the most consolidated are:

  • the “cultural evenings” (meetings with authors, musical evenings, thematic analysis …), which always arise much interest.
  • meetings of the “Recommended Books”, where the participants to the group of readers (five / ten people) get together a couple of times a year to share their reading experiences and offer reading tips to visitors of the library.
  • the initiative “Read aloud”: a couple of people in the group of volunteers regularly visit the Häradsgården (retirement home in Lit). The objective is to promote moments of reading aloud for people who for various reasons can not read independently.

 

For further … here are the reviews and book tips that readers have proposed at the last meeting Group “Recommended Books”

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biblo logga vit

Consigli-di-lettura-e-recensioni.pdf (218 download)

Just-nu-la-ser-jag-sv.pdf (225 download)

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Among the different instruments of man, the more amazing is, without doubt the book. The others are an extension of his body: the book is an extension of memory and imagination.

Jorge Luis Borges