On 11 November 2014, the Novateca Program organized a study visit to the public library “Vasile Alecsandri” from Telenești, for those libraries from the Republic of Moldova that are not yet part of the network. Librarians from 13 public libraries from districts of Criuleni, Rîșcani, Florești, Glodeni, Cantemir, Nisporeni, Cimișlia, Dubăsari, Drochia, Ocnița, Dondușeni, Basarabeasca and Sîngerei benefited from the opportunity to learn from the experience of the most advanced library from the network, the Telenești district public library which was included in the program in its pilot phase. During the event, managers of district libraries and representatives of the Departments of Culture saw how the principles of modern library apply in practice in the daily activities of the Telenești DPL. The guests could also see how a Training Center looks like and how it works. The director of the library presented the activities that were organized in the Center to prepare the local public libraries to join the Novateca network. Librarians shared their secrets of cooperation with local librarians and representatives of the Local Public Authorities, gave them advice on how to convince mayors and experts working for the Departments of Culture to support the modernization of libraries.
Since 2015 will be the last year when Novateca will establish new training centers, the librarians were very interested in how to organize library services that meet users’ needs, to distribute the budget, to train librarians and community members. In the end of the visit, the participants managed to build a strong network of informed librarians, which helped the libraries submit applications to join Novateca.
As a result of this event, already 7 districts submitted their applications through the Online Application System. These are the following districts: Cahul, Cantemir, Cimișlia, Dondușeni, UTA Găgăuzia, Leova and Sîngerei. The districts of Basarabeasca, Criuleni, Drochia, Dubăsari, Nisporeni, Ocnița, Rîșcani, Soroca, Glodeni are in their last phase of submitting their applications. Novateca hopes that such initiatives will motivate the librarians to join the network and benefit from all the opportunities that the program offers both to librarians, as well as to Moldovan citizens. Good luck to everyone!
