VERIA 59132
Τ: 2331-502003
/ ZALOKOSTA 4
ATHENS 10671
Τ. 2155-518150
Press Release
Thursday25August 2016
Future Library INELI-Balkans Innovation Awards
Call for Proposals for New Library Services
Library innovators from the Balkan region gear up for New Library Services Design and Innovation Awards:
a major milestone in the learning “journey” of the INELI-Balkans program!
The countdown has finally begun! After extensive training and just a few months after their 1st Convening in Thessaloniki, librarians from the ancient Illyrian city of Shkodra to the international business hub Zagreb, from the picturesque Pietra Neamt on the Carpathian Mountains to the maritime city of Varna on the Black Sea, from the creative urban pulses of Belgrade to the serene town of Izola on the Adriatic coast are now called by Future Library to submit Proposals for New Library Services!
Selected proposals will receive Innovation Awards and seed funding for their pilot implementation.This is the ultimate challenge of the7-month e-learning phase of the INELI-Balkans training, which kicked-off with live workshops on pursuing innovation and continued in a customized virtual classroom, which has been provided by Google. A special feature of the e-learning coursewas the offer to all INELI-Balkans libraries of a 2-month free trial of PressReader, a state-of-the-art digital service that provides online access to newspapers from around the globe.
Now equipped with a virtual repository of multimedia content and a directory of best library practices, with practical experience in identifying new user needs and with tools for robust strategic planning and management produced by Future Library, INELI-Balkans Innovators embark on designing new user experiences. The Project Plans are to be submitted in September 2016 and the results will be announced at the 2nd INELI-Balkans Convening in November 2016.
The call for new library service designcombined with seed funding is an idea that Future Library has successfully piloted with libraries in Greece. For the first time now, Future Library extends this idea to Innovation Awardsbeyond Greece to itsinternational network, tapping into the remarkable resourcefulness and unique ability of Balkan libraries to design solutions for social and economic revival at the local level.
Stay tuned for the “makings” of the Future Library INELI-Balkans Innovators!
Future Library through theInternational Network of Emerging Library Innovators in the Balkan region (INELI-Balkans) brings together leading library professionals from 11 countries, encouraging them through training, networking and innovation awards, to exchange knowledge, collaborate and experiment with new services. INELI-Balkans is a Future Library project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sponsors
Google, Press Reader
Future Library INELI-Balkans Map
Follow the link below to explore the map of the Future Library INELI-Balkans participant libraries:
Find out more
Contact
Despina Gerasimidou, Future Library Director |
Lida Mantzourani, Future Library Project Manager |
Future Library is a non-profit organization devoted to reinforcing the significance of libraries asunique centers of creativity, innovation and learning. It was established in Veria in 2011. It spun out of the Veria Central Public Library, recipient of the 2010Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation “Access to Learning” Award, addressing the call of the Stavros NiarchosFoundation to contribute to the development of a sustainable network of public and municipal librariesacross Greece. Key donors of Future Library are: the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Welfare Foundation for Social and Cultural Affairs (kikpe.gr), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union (Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program).
FUTURE LIBRARY: INNOVATION •CREATIVITY • SOCIAL NETWORKS