On June 7 and 8, the NEWCOMER team congregated in Slovenia for a meeting. On the agenda were talks from libraries across Europe and presentations of initiatives in Slovenian libraries. From understanding the role of the library as a community hub to how libraries support financial and media literacy, we were able to learn much from all the presentations. As one of the project partners, our Director, Ilona Kish, presented PL2030 as well as the NEWCOMER project.
After a first day of presentations, we were able to visit a few libraries around Kranj. Of course first up on our library tour was the Kranj City Library followed by a visit to the newly built intergenerational centre in Bled. This new build hosts a library on the third floor as well as activity spaces across the two floors. From gym classes for mothers with young children to media literacy activities and cooking clubs, this intergenerational centre aims to bring together the citizens of Bled with one common shared space that helps them meet and engage with each other. Finally, we visited a library in Radovljica where we got to see how they integrate accessibility for blind users and promote reading to all age groups.
This meeting was an excellent opportunity to meet other librarians from across Europe and see how they are approaching changes to librarianship. As the NEWCOMER project’s goal is to build a network of community centred librarianship, by exchanging best practices across borders and empowering library staff to develop their expertise, we were able to support social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and draw inspiration from the project’s presented.