Visits for the Swedish lecturers

The last day in Tbilisi for the Swedish speakers at the seminar and workshop was a very hot (temperature around 30°C) and intense day, with visitis to three different children's libraries. Librarian Ingrid Källström, children's books writer Eva Susso, professor Lena Kåreland and project manager Marie Oskarsson first visited the school library at School No 1 on Rustaveli, a school with 1.800 pupils. The school librarian showed the library, two big rooms with mostly old books sorted by genre, language and age groups. She told the group that most of the books were donated by a family, since the whole library and all the 23.000 books in it burned down during the civil war. She also gave an idea of the working terms for a librarian in Georgia – her monthly salary is GEL 280, which is approximatly €140, and she works Monday to Friday 09-18.
The group continued to the neighbouring Palace of Youth on Rustaveli, where 7.000 children and young people from all over Tbilsi come every day to take part in cultural activities like dance classes, art school, theatre groups, film project, chess groups. The palace also hosts a library, with an old reading hall and a stock room with high shelves filled with mostly very old books. The passion for books, reading and children was something that quickly started the conversation between the visitors over the language barriers.
And last, the group visited the newly renovated children's department at the Tbilisi City Library. The room was filled with new, brightly coloured furniture, and behind the glass doors in the pink bookshelves you could find only new books, but the manager stated that the biggest problem was to find enough books by Georgian writers.

Swedish librarian Ingrid Källström talked to colleague at Georgian library, despite the language barrier. Librarians can talk "librarian" said Ingrid after the visit.

Voices from the workshop

Salome Dzidziguri, student at the Information Management Program, Lela Tsutskiridze, children’s books author and Nino Chekurishvili, librarian at Library No 33, Tbilisi:

Lela: This is exciting, I have heard so much about Swedish children’s litterature, and so far this has meet all my expecations. There are so many impressions and new ideas.

Salome: I wanted to come out of professional reasons – I am going to work in libraries in the future, so I want to know what they do in other countries. I also have a personal interest, since I have childrens myself and am very interested in reading. I have had so
much inspiration these days, so now I am going home to practice some of the ideas on
my own children!

Nino: All librarians all over the world are kind people, and feel strongly for their work
and do it with joy. These days have confirmed my gut feeling that I am on the right track.
Since I don’t have the opportunity to travel, and only can see what is done in other parts
of the world in internet, a workshop like this is very useful, and it made me think ”yes,
Nino, you think the right way!”.

Nona Bendeliani, head of the Children’s Libary in Kutaisi:

– A day like this is very important, it’s something completely new. It’s very stimulating to do new and exciting things. As from today, I can always relate to both the seminars and this workshop, to how things are done in Sweden, when I talk to the authorities about
what needs to be done. This will help me to persuade the authorities to spend more on the children’s libraries, I haven’t had the arguments before. Now I can say, this has been done before, in other countries – and it worked! I was only supposed to stay for the seminars, but I insisted that I’d get into the workshop as well and stayed in Tbilisi for one more day.

Naira Verulidze, librarian at the Cultural Centre of Kobuleti:

Why did you want to participate in the workshop?

– I wanted to learn more about what’s new in in our occupation, and new ideas to use in our library. We are doing quite a lot of new things today, like activities for families or games for children. We don’t usually do these kind of things.
It’s all new to us. It was really great to do the Dream Library Activity, but we still have to think to much about the money to actually make the dreams come true. But on the other hand, the writing game we tried doesn’t cost anything…

Workshop 29th of May

The atmosphere in the seminar hall was quite different from the previous two days. This
was the day when the children’s books author Eva Susso and librarian Ingrid Källström
were going to have a workshop for Georgian collegues, and people had come from all
over Georgia to participate.

The 30 Georgian childrens’s books authors and librarians started off by drawing and
writing about a Dream Library. The presentations showed visions far beyond today’s
libraries with examples like a tree house in the library, possibilies for children to play in
the library or a library situated in a parc.

During the day the Georgian participants also got new inspiration for activites that could
involve the whole family in the library, like a game where parents and young children
can write a story together.

It was quite a joyful day, with lot’s of laughter and spontanious applauds , as Eva Susso
and Ingrid Källström showed different ways of working with very young children like
infants and involving the whole family in the library activities.

Lecture on the developement of the image of the child in children’s literature by professor Lena Kåreland at Ilya State University

A group af about 30 students, teachers and librarians gathered in the Book Store of
Ilya State University in Tbilisi to attend a two hour lecture by Swedish professor in
literature, Lena Kåreland.

Childhood is just a social construction, and it it therefore something that has been
changing over the years, she stated, and added that the concept of childhood as a special
period in every humans life is quite young. A child’s life and possibility to have a proper
childhood is very much depending on where and when you were born, and this also
affects the subjects and tone of voice for the author of children’s books.

There was a storm of questions on both the sometimes dark and disturbing subjects for
Swedish books for young adults and trend of today with ”non gender specific” picture
books, a theme that accordingto some of the audience would be to provocative in
Georgia and according to others could not be published to soon in their home country.

Voices from the seminar, Monday

Manana Kirikashvili, Head of childrens library in Telavi, Lela Kvinikadze, head of library nr 60, Tblisi, and Ana Kemertelidze, librarian at the same library.
-Do you get any new ideas at this seminar?
-Not really, but it is really interresting to be hear, and we heard a lot about Swedish childrens culture and also the books about Pippi and Nils Holgersson. It is very inspiring that childrens culture is a priority in Sweden.
-It was really interresting to hear about writer Eva Susso's work in the library in Sweden. If it is possible to have more writers in librarys then the it would be a shorter distance between the writers and the children, and children will be more interrested in books and writing