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.

Jagodina Library awarded $10,000

In May 2012 Public Library Radislav Nikcevic, Jagodina became a member of NGO Beyond Access funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Therefore, it got a chance to attend the conference in Washington DC and compete for $ 10,000 award.

At the conference Local Alternatives for Global Development: Rediscovering Libraries, at Arena Stage in Washington DC from 1^st-3^rd October there were more than 300 librarians from all over the world, governments and local governments representatives from 35 countries and a lot of officials and organizations involved in funding such as IREX, EIFL, IFLA, MAKAIA, CIVIC agenda, W TECHNOLOGY&SOCIAL CHANGE GROUP, Riecken Community Libraries, READ Global and BILL&MELINDA GATES foundation.

Beyond Access  invited 20 world library  innovators to the conference. The teams were made up of three members-two project participants and a government representative. The aim of the conference was to have financiers,government representatives and librarians in one place and to start a story about the possibilities of library development.

The conference was opened by Deborah Jacobs, director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Beyond Access members were involved in several sessions. They met leading experts in  communication, international funding, new technologies, etc and and discussed issues  important to libraries. After that, the teams explained the ideas of their projects to graphic recorders who presented their ideas on posters . The teams had a task to be next to their posters and sell their ideas for $10,000.  There were four winners. One for each category:

1. Civic participation
2. Economic Opportunity
3. Community Information & Development
4. Public technology & Innovation

Jagodina Public Library was the winner in the category Economic Opportunity and got a chance to continue the realization of the project AgroLib Ja by revitalizing one more village library in the municipality of Jagodina.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia received the team from Jagodina and Jasmina Ninkov, the director of Belgrade City Library , who was awarded by EIFL for the project “Novcici” in Washington. On that occasion the ambassador expressed satisfaction over the success of Serbian librarians in the United States.