The Union of the Belgrade City Library visited the Bagrdan rural library

On Sunday, 13 October, our colleagues from the Belgrade City Library, members of the Independent Culture Union visited the Bagrdan Library in order to learn more about the project-Agricultural village libraries. Also, this was a good reason for farmers, who use AgroLib services, to talk to librarians and share their experiences about the project and showcase their produce. In front of the Cultural Center in Bagrdan, where the library is situated, the users of AgroLib services organized a mini fair. Farmers, representatives of the local community of Bagrdan, librarians from the Jagodina Library, representatives of the City Assembly of Jagodina and the deputy mayor in the City Assembly welcomed the guests warmly.

The deputy mayor in the City Assembly, Ms Snezana Vukasinovic, welcomed the guests and expressed satisfaction because our guest decided to visit Jagodina and the Bagrdan Library. She reminded them what Jagodina had been famous for; she introduced a long tradition of the Jagodina Public Library and pointed out a good cooperation between the Library and the management of the City Assembly. She particularly emphasized the cooperation with the agricultural advisor to the Mayor, Mr Miroslav Cvijetic, regarding the realization of the project of Village agricultural libraries. Her address to the guests was followed with a round of applause.  

The director of the Jagodina Library, Vesna Crnkovic, talked about the development of the Village Agricultural libraries and explained why that project was so successful and the most awarded project in Serbian libraries. She pointed out that the project arouse from the needs of rural communities in the Jagodina municipality and that the Jagodina Library did not have any role model  in the realization of this idea, but it was a role model itself to a few libraries worldwide which adapted the AgroLib services to the needs of their local communities. Also, she informed the guests about the participation in the Beyond Access Asia 2013 event.

Mr Mirko Markovic, the advisor of the director of the Belgrade City Library and the president of the above mentioned Union gave presents to the hosts of the event. They were books! The librarian in the Bagrdan Library, Svetlana Krstic, got books for her library and the project coordinator, Ivana Pesic, due to her efforts during the realization of the project in the previous year, got a present from the Netherlands. Mirko had the opportunity to visit libraries in Rotterdam. Libraries there have special services and books (that can fold, soak in water, chew, etc.) for the younger residents-babies. Our colleague Ivana got a little red case from Rotterdam with books for babies (she will need it very soon).