AgroLib – Ja project at the IFLA Conference in Helsinki 2012

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of libraries and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession. It was established in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1927. Now,  IFLA has 1,600 members in about 150 countries all around the world.

The biggest event in the library world is certainly IFLA General Conference, which is held every year in August, in one of member states of IFLA. This year’s 78^th IFLA General Conference was held in Helsinki, Finland, from 11-17 August 2012.

A delegation of distinguished librarians from Serbia participated at 78^th IFLA conference. This year’s IFLA theme was Libraries Now! – Inspiring, Surprising, Empowering.  Some 4,000 participants from over 100 countries attended the conference. Serbian delegation was led by Dejan Ristic, acting director of the National Library of Serbia; other members of the delegation were: Tatjana Subotin-Golubovic, Ivana Nikolic and Tanja Tasic from the National Library of Serbia, Jasmina Ninkov, Mirko Markovic and Predrag Djukic from the Belgrade City Library, Vesna Crnkovic from the Public Library “Radislav Nikčević” in Jagodina, Nebojsa Vasic from the Public Library “Stevan Sremac” in Nis, Beba Stankovic from the Public Library “Ilija M. Petrovic ” in Pozarevac and Vesna Crnogorac from Serbian Library Association.

Director of the Public Library “Radislav Nikčević” presented the project about revitalization of rural libraries in the municipality of Jagodin- AgroLib Ja (Agricultural Libraries in Jagodina) at two sessions.

At the session New directions for public libraries in the developing world, organized by NGO Beyond Access,the director of the Public Library in Jagodina, Vesna Crnkovic introduce the audience with the success and challenges of the project AgroLib Ja, which aims to help farmers, through the network of rural libraries (agricultural literature and new information technologies), to obtain desired information on agricultural production and competitions and subsidies offered by the state.

http://express.ifla.org/node/5888

This project has been implemented by the Public Library in Jagodina in cooperation with the Town Assembly and the Agency for Small and Medium Enterprise and Registered Agricultural Households from Jagodina. The Agrolib Ja project partner was the Rural Development Support Network of Serbia, the project by the Ministry of Agriculture, which ended a few months ago.

The other session the director of Jagodina library, Vesna Crnkovic participated in was Social Networking for Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Service: an International Perspective and presented her paper Agricultural Rural Libraries in the Era of Information Technologies.