From 20 to 30 August 2023, the National Library of Latvia is organizing the summer school “Library as a Cultural Space for Community” within the framework of the European Commission’s “EU4Dialogue” project “EU4Dialogue: Improving exchanges across the divide through education and culture”. This time its participants are representatives of academic, public and national libraries, as well as representatives of museums and cultural sector non-governmental organizations from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, including the Transnistrian region.

The goal of the summer school is to promote mutual communication, joint learning and unity by sharing the best practices of Latvian libraries and other cultural institutions in order to develop professional skills and competences in four thematic blocks: 1) library information resources and their management; 2) digitization and preservation of cultural heritage; 3) planning and development of services of libraries and cultural institutions; 4) cooperation with various organizations and local communities in the field of culture.

Summer school activities will take place in both Riga and Cēsis in cooperation with Riga Central Library, University of Latvia Library, and Cēsis Central Library. Participants will have an opportunity not only to learn from experience of the National Library of Latvia and other Latvian libraries, but also to get to know the activities of various Latvian cultural sites, community education and involvement methods, as well as activities of the non-governmental sector as they work on cultural projects.

“EU4Dialogue” is an EU-funded multicomponent programme that supports initiatives fostering an environment for dialogue and people-to-people contacts in the South Caucasus and the Republic of Moldova. The aim of this project is to improve exchanges across the divide through education and culture. With a total of seven consortium partners from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia and Poland, a series of short-, medium- and long-term measures are being implemented in a total of four work packages. The planned activities in the areas of schools, higher education and culture include study trips for pupils and students to EU countries, online language courses for teachers, summer schools, guest lectureships, artist residencies and training courses in the areas of cultural management, pedagogy, cultural heritage, theatre and film. More information about the project

The main goal of the National Library of Latvia as a partner is to improve the capacity of the local libraries of the above countries. At the core of all activities is the concept of libraries as cultural places that bring together and provide services to both professionals and communities, involving all groups of society and developing their empathy. As part of the five-year project, by 2025, the National Library of Latvia plans to organize two summer schools, provide a mentoring programme for ten summer school participants and ten individual internships, as well as to support events/seminars in the project regions. The experience gained, the content of the summer schools, examples of best practices from the project regions and the results achieved in practice will be summarized in the final report of the project.

More information

Džūlija Sniķere
Project manager / specialist
Library Development Center of the Development Department
National Library of Latvia
dzulija.snikere@lnb.lv
+ 371 67716050