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).

            

Business cards for successful farmers

.The AgroLib Ja project has been helping farmers since 2010 to advertise and market their produce and old crafts in the best possible way. This includes registering at online marketplace AgroLib (http://www.agrolib.rs/pijaca/en), free business cards and flyers, etc. This turned out to be a good practice and an effective way for farmers to advertise their products and have easier access to customers, and for us to find new users.

On Thursday, 26 September 2013 in the Jagodina Library, the village librarians got business cards for farmers in their villages. The village librarians distributed the business cards to successful farmers who use AgroLib market services. In a few days we will have farmers' flyers printed

Successful business of Ljiljana Vulic, AgroLib market user

Ljiljana Vulic from the village of Staro Laniste, an AgroLib market user, who produces mats, organized a little celebration of her expansion of production on 23 September 2013. Besides the members of the AgroLib team from the Jagodina library, among the guests were the representatives of the Agency for small and medium enterprises and registered agricultural households, a civic association Etno forma from Jagodina as well as other NGOs and a crew from a local TV station RTJ.

This is a second time that Ljiljana received incentives from the state and used them to build a facility where she would produce and exhibit her products made of reed. In the application process, she got help from the Agency for small and medium enterprises and registered agricultural households, which is a partner of AgroLib project. Receiving the incentives for the second time shows that Ljiljana is serious in her work and her successful manufacturing is a guarantee for her future business.

Ljiljana has a user’s profile on AgroLib website within the AgroLib marketplace (http://www.agrolib.rs/pijaca/ ) and her private business with making mats started improving after she became a user of AgroLib project services. She applied for incentives at the Employment Service Agency and started with the production. In addition to that, she owns a certificate for old craft production. As a successful user of Agrolib services, she got free businesses cards and flyers from the library as a gift.

As Ljiljana says, people usually find her through AgroLib website. Most of them are from big cities like Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad. She sends each order by courier to people’s home address and the customers are very happy with the service and the quality of mats.

“The thing that I find very interesting is that mats are today used for various purposes. For example, as deck chairs, for sun protection, decoration, partition walls, etc. Perhaps, the most popular use today is as protection from geopathogenic radiation and there are more and more people who order mats for this reason”, adds Ljiljana.

Successful visit to blueberry plantation - on-site learning and sharing

The Jagodina Public Library makes efforts to open the library doors to all residents in the local community.  The library modeled itself on libraries worldwide and developed a range of services apart from the traditional ones for non-formal education of residents. By addressing the needs of rural residents in the Jagodina municipality villages, since 2010 the Jagodina library actively participates in information literacy of farmers through the network of rural libraries. The aim is to improve and modernize agricultural production and launch new agricultural businesses.

 The services within the project of Agricultural libraries in the Jagodina municipality are provided during winter when farmers are not working in their fields. During the three years of the project implementation, 43 agricultural lectures have been hosted and 19 lecturers and successful agricultural producers have been the speakers. During lectures, farmers shared examples of good practice, some of them improved their production and some of them started new agricultural businesses.

 The most visited lecture in the previous season was a lecture on blueberries. As a relatively new crop in Serbia, blueberry is insufficiently known about, although it deserves attention for its healing properties. The lifespan of a plant is up to 50 years. Although, growing this plant can make a good profit, it requires a serious investment in its production. Serbia is, thanks to good agro-meteorological conditions, a great place to grow blueberries.

 We decided to leave the library premises and show to interested farmers an experimental field with blueberries. That is an opportunity to exchange experiences and remove all doubts about the cultivation and marketing this fruit.

On Sunday, 22 September, a lecture on growing blueberries was hosted at the farm of Dusan Zivkovic, who started growing blueberries in May 2012. He is a farmer from the village of Lovci. He planted 250 blueberry seedlings on a plot of 15 acres. He planted them for his own needs. After the lecture on blueberries in Bagrdan, he found out that it was possible to sell the entire crop through agricultural cooperative Prima borovnica from Belanovica and learned about the advantages of starting this business. He met lecturers, who were already engaged in this type of business and helped him improve his production. Realizing the benefits of it, he decided to expand his production to another 60 acres of land. He already prepared the field for planting which will occur during autumn.

The transport to Lovci was organized. Farmers expressed interest in such education.  There were 41 of them. Besides the host Dusan Zivkovic, the speakers were Gvozden Dzelatovic and Nenad Petrovic, also blubbery growers who in cooperation with Prima borovnica, participated in all lectures for farmers in rural libraries in the Jagodina municipality, within the project Agricultural libraries in Jagodina.

Gvozden Dzelatovic said after the lecture: „I think that the presentation was very successful since people were listening attentively and asked questions. I saw on people’s faces that they were interesting in finding out more. They asked about land preparation for planting, money needed for a completing the cycle of planting, selling and profit. Some of them very discouraged after hearing the costs of running a business, but there were those who asked about planting a smaller number of plants, and even those like Dr Vesna Jarkin who wanted learn more and is preparing land and everything else for starting the business.

Anyway, it is good to discuss this and similar topics, during lectures through the media.”

„ I am getting ready to plant blueberries and I am preparing land for it. I heard the information regarding the visit to the experimental blueberry field on a local radio station and I immediately signed up for it at the library. I talked with Nenad about the system of drip irrigation. This visit helped me to see the irrigation system on site and find about other details of this fruit cultivation “, said Dr Jarkin.

Jelena Rajic, a librarian and a coordinator of the project, said after the lecture: “This is a good way of educating people. On the bus, on our way back I was very happy to hear the famers making comments and summarizing what they heard and saw at the lecture. Farmers praised this initiative by the library and suggested organizing similar visits to other farmers’ experimental plantations of various crops.

„In Serbia there is a network of 311 rural libraries and only five of them, which are in the Jagodina municipality, are at a service of residents in local communities. The project of Agricultural libraries can be a model how to educate and introduce information literacy to people in rural areas in Serbia. The topic of the IFLA Conference, the biggest library conference in the world, was Future libraries, infinite possibilities. The project of development of rural libraries by the Jagodina library was presented at this conference as an example of the Library of the future”, explained Vesna Crnkovic, the director of Jagodina library.

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AgroLib market member sold 1 ton of pears through online AgroLib marketplace

.Miodrag Jevtic,a farmer from the village of Milosevo is another farmer who successfully uses AgroLib marketplace. The librarian in Bagrdan library was very excited to hear his story of how he managed to sell his pears.

"I have a registered farm-a pear orchard with 963 seedlings on 50 acres that I planted in 2010. I lost my job and that is how I started doing agriculture. I do almost everything by myself. I decided to plant pears because my orchard was not very big and I had to opt for agricultural production that would provide me with decent and economically viable yields. 

I registered on Agrolib marketplace, but did not expect much. I simply could not believe that it would be possible to sell pears through the Internet. One day, there was this man from Krusevac calling me because he needed pears for making brandy. He ordered a ton of pears from me. It was my pleasure to do business with him. There were people who wanted to order 5 wagons of pears, but unfortunately I could not meet their demand because I am still a small producer. In the near future, I will try to expand my production."

Such stories of AgroLib users show that the AgroLib makretplace really meets its purpose. We are sure that there are a lot more farmers who use the online marketplace successfully, but their examples do not reach us.

 

The link to Miodrag's AgroLib profile:

http://www.agrolib.rs/pijaca/korisnik/miodrag

Jagodina agricultural libraries at 79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly

One of the most important events in the library public is 79th IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) General Conference and Assembly, held annually in a country with developed library and information system. Since the previous 78th IFLA conference was held in Europe, in Helsinki, Finland, this year the host of the 79th IFLA Conference was Singapore, the city-state in the southern part of Asia. The Congress lasted from 17-23 August and there were more than 3,000 library workers

from all over the world (librarians, university professors, representatives of library institutions and associations, directors of national and other libraries, delegates, exhibitors and participants who attended 223 sessions, government  representatives, business representatives…) The theme of IFLA Conference was Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities.

The project of the village agricultural libraries network (AgroLib Ja) by the Jagodina Public Library was presented more than once at the 79th IFLA Congress. Also, it attracted a lot of attention at the session Marketing and Management: Marketing on a shoe string, as well as the attention of the delegates and visitors at the Poster Session.

At the 86th Session Marketing and Management-Marketing on a shoe string,

Suzana Tanasijevic, a librarian at the Jagodina Public Library presented the paper New model of library marketing for farmers and promotional creativity in action. The visitors of the session were particularly interested in how the Jagodina Library managed to attract farmers to come to the libraries and what the cooperation with the local authorities was like.

At the Poster Sessions 104 and 135 Vesna Crnkovic, the director of the library and Jelena Rajic, a librarian at the Jagodina Public Library, presented the poster Project AgroLib Ja-Fostering Cooperation between the Library and the Local Community. The poster was noticed by the delegates, librarians and government representatives from around the world. A lot of librarians, not only from the transition countries, but also from the developed ones talked about the problems of the library and information system in rural areas in their countries and asked for promotional material in order to present the example of good practice of the Jagodina Public Library to their local communities.

Also, the representatives of the ministries and authorities from countries around the world were interested to get in touch with one of the representatives of the Jagodina Library so as they could find out more about the AgroLib service and possible application of such model adapted to the needs of different local communities.

For example, Mr Hamidreza Mokhtari Aksi, working in Higher Education Center of Agriculture in Iran, was particularly interested in education of farmers in village libraries and online marketplace for farmers’ produce.

Ms Ugne Lipeikaite, EIFL-PLIP Impact Manager (EIFL, Rome, Italy) at the Session 141: Education and training for agricultural library and information professionals: an international perspective – Agricultural Libraries Special Interest Group presented the

paper Agriculture, libraries and human development: case studies of Europe, Africa and Latin America and talked about agricultural projects funded by EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries).  Ms Lipeikaite highlighted the project of agricultural libraries by the Jagodina Library as the excellent one.

Ms Vilma Jovanova, a senior librarian at the National and University Library Goce Delcev in Stip, Macedonia at the Session 141 Education and training for agricultural library and information professionals: an international perspective – Agricultural Libraries Special Interest Group presented the paper The Library on Wheels, Infobus - A Library at the Will of the Farmers. She talked about the cooperation with the Jagodina Library during the replication of the project AgroLib Ja and adaptation of the services for farmers to their local community.

Beyond Access initiative from the USA invited library professionals, interested in strengthening relationships and services with international partners, to the pilot workshop.  The workshop was led by Ms Zola Madisson from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ms. Susan Schnur from the Illinois University and Mr Ari Katz from IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board). During his presentation of Beyond Access dedicated to the idea that modern public libraries could help economic and social development of the community, Mr. Katz mentioned the Jagodina Public Library as an example of a library that that abandoned the traditional model of work and with the project AgroLib Ja achieved excellent results in economic development. Public libraries in cooperation with governments and non-governmental organizations, according to the program staff of Beyond Access, could contribute to the development of the communities in areas such as: economic development, health, digital inclusion, education and civic engagement.            

Agricultural Libraries in Jagodina, Serbia(The Flyer used to promote poster AgroLib-Ja Fostering Cooperation between the Library and Local Community at IFLA Poster Session)

• With the Articles of Association – the decree by King Peter on 27^th April 1909 – the Public Library in Jagodina (Serbia) was established. The Jagodina Public Library is a modern institution with a long tradition of working with books, nurturing and satisfying cultural and educational needs of the citizens. It is the parent library for the Pomoravski district and it is the hub of library and information system of the region. The Library has won prestigious awards including Surep’s award ( in the eighties of the 20^th century), the highest award in Serbian librarianship and also three international awards for the AgroLib Ja project-by American organization Beyond Access for its originality and innovation, WSIS 2013 Project Prize for excellence and the ERSTE Foundation Honorary Award for Social Integration 2013. It is a member of Beyond Access organization, based in Washington DC, whose tagline is We believe libraries can power social and economic development.
• In addition to determination to improve library services and expand the range of users, the Library made attempts and succeeded at imposing itself as a center of the local community, a sort of information hub. The project AgroLib Ja (Agricultural Libraries in Jagodina) offers entirely new access to revitalization of the rural libraries network and the use of new information technologies. The project AgroLib Ja was launched by the Public Library in Jagodina in April 2010 thanks to the support from the international organization EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries).
• The Jagodina City Council plays key role in the successful development of the project by supporting it. The project partners are the Rural Development Support Network and the Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises and Registered Agricultural Households which provide different trainings for farmers, agricultural expertise and information.

Now, in five villages there are functional libraries with free Internet access.Libraries equipped with modern information and communication technology increase access to information and participate in the development of communities.

• Key outputs

Over 900 farmers, today, regularly visit the village libraries and use the AgroLib-Ja services.

1. Agricultural lectures

2. Sharing best practices

3. Agricultural magazines and literature

4. AgroLib Market

5. Internet access and ICT training

• In three years about 200 farmers were trained to use the Internet– and 87% of farmers say they use the Internet at the library to look for agricultural information. Farmers’ ICT literacy increases through using computers and Internet in the libraries.
• In just three years, over 1.000 farmers attended panel discussions and lecturers. Their agricultural production is enhanced by applying what they read in agricultural magazines and books and hear in agricultural lectures in the libraries; their awareness to available government subsidies and incentives increases with the help of the librarians and the project partners;
• The AgroLib-Ja website www.agrolib.rs , launched by the Library, had more than 90,000 visitors in three years. The financial situation of farmers improves through advertising on the online farmers’ marketplace www.agrolib.rs/pijaca/
• Now, farmers have the opportunity to share best practices in their rural libraries and through the online portal http://www.agrolib.rs/ .
• The AgroLib Ja project and projects by other libraries with similar ideas show that rural libraries should be given a new role in modern librarianship. Rural libraries should become educational, informational, communication and cultural hubs in their local communities.

Rural libraries trigger huge social and economic changes in communities and beyond.

Text by: Vesna Crnković

Translated by: Jelena Rajić

Designed by: Ognjen Stevanović

Printed by: Papir Komerc Jagodina

Glavinci Library Day

   

                                                                                  

                                            The Library Otvorena Knjiga in the village of Glavinci celebrated its patron saint’s day St Stefan, the Archdeacon in the presence of many local residents and visitors.  Children who live in the village and use the library services also celebrate that day with the librarian Ruzica Popovic. It is the third year in a row that they prepare a special program for the Library Day.

There was appropriate cultural and artistic program consisting of recitals, traditional folk songs and sayings by the senior residents. Particular attention was drawn to the girls who were selling handicrafts made of materials stored for recycling.  There were mats, bracelets, doll quilts, linen pillowcases that visitors could buy. All the participants were the users of the village library.

The members of AgroLib market joined the, as well as the members of the Association for herbs and environmental protection of Serbia –Izvor who exhibited wild and cultivated medicinal and edible plants and products based on the said plants. All of the visitors who were interested were informed about the usefulness of this plant.

 Both exhibitions were hosted in front of the Cultural center in Glavinci. Afterwards, there was a cocktail party with the best Serbian lenten dishes prepared by the members of the cultural and artistic society Poselo and the Association of Women. The visitors enjoyed traditional music and dancing so that folk tradition and creativity were not forgotten.