Libraries in the Vilnius and Alytus counties: different experiences towards the leadership in the local community
Vilnius County Adomas Mickevičius public library is a Methodological center for the public libraries in Vilnius and Alytus Counties. It is a network of public libraries with opportunities to collaborate, exchange experiences or ideas, while strengthening the training of the professional librarians. Vilnius and Alytus counties consist of 13 public municipal libraries with more than 250 branches in smaller towns and distant villages. Pandemic, social, professional and technological changes obviously have a huge impact on the services and activities in all public libraries but working in a municipal library or a smaller library in a village have other important challenges. Professionals of the libraries in Vilnius and Alytus counties face various difficulties and challenges to make readers and visitors of the libraries come back to their „third place“. To understand and evaluate the leadership and visibility of the public library in the local community in Vilnius and Alytus counties a research was made. The aims of the study were: to learn about the specifics of the local communities in the named region, to learn about the libraries’ activities for the community, to evaluate the feedback from the local community (direct and indirect).
The research showed the degree of communities’ involvement, the range of formal and non-formal activities for the community. The forms chosen for the research were interviews with the staff of public libraries and the analysis of the documents.
Žydrūnė Tichanavičienė is currently the Head of the Regional Methodology and Management department at the Vilnius County Adomas Mickevicius Public Library (Lithuania). Žydrūnė is a professional librarian with a Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science and a Master’s degree in Information Services. Žydrūnė has been working at the Vilnius County public library since 2010 and has experience in different library’s activities. She started as a reference librarian and bibliographer, from 2012 to 2021 was managing the services and collection of a new department – Vilnius Jewish Public Library. She has experience of digitization as well as experience of teaching. Žydrūnė is interested in literature and culture, informational behavior, information services and IT. She has a strong vision and plans to improve activities among the Vilnius regional libraries with the main goal strengthening the relations between the libraries.
