Arucas Municipal Library was the first library in Canary Islands (Spain) to join a European project: 

LIBRARY. I LOVE IT! (2013-2015)

Under the the Grundtvig program of the European Commission, it received a grant of 17.000 euros. In the project, libraries from 8 different countries participated: Austria, Croatia, Spain, Finland, Italy, Czechia, Poland and Turkey.

The project was awarded with the “Quality Recognition 2015” by the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE) of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

Sister Library Arucas Municipal Library is the only Spanish library participating in Erasmus+ projects, and now she participates in this one:

MIGRATE TO LIBRARY! (2017-2019)

MIGRATE TO LIBRARY! (2017-2019)

 

 Description of the Project

 One of the challenges of today’s world is the migration crisis in Europe. Amongst the multitudes of people arriving to our continent, there’s people that do it for economic reasons and there’s also refugees.

Libraries can play a very important role to play in this crisis. As institutions that, for many years, have been working in European countries, are naturally interweaved in the local community. They are seen by the society as cultural and educational centres. The staff at the library is commonly linked to the local community and it’s easy to reach them with new proposals.

The project Migrate to Library! seeks to highlight that libraries are institutions that raise confidence amongst the citizens. That they can be seen as active centres of culture and education for all, no matter what age, religion, nationality, disability or social condition.

All the activities in the project are associated with learning to widen knowledge, master skills and competences and develop both professional and personally. This concerns the participants in the project, but also the local communities where libraries develop their work.

The international meetings will contribute the mutual inspiration in relation to the lifelong learning. They’ll allow to collectively reflect, compare and evaluate our achievements in the field of migration.

Goals

General goals:

  • To interchange of good practice and gain skills that’ll be used in the non-formal education, leaded by librarians.
  • To favour the social inclusion of the migrants, promoting the intercultural dialog, acceptance and respect.
  • To integrate the libraries in an environment of European development.
  • To estimulate the commitment of the civil society.

Specific goals:

  • To interchange experiences and work methodologies in lifelong learning.
  • To contribute to the personal, social and professional development of those participating in the project.
  • To develop new fields of activities in the work with migrants.
  • To engage the local community in the activities of the project.
  • To contribute to the functional use of information technologies
  • To create a publication in electronic format that’ll show lines of work and experiences of working with the migrants collective

Participants

Zory Public Library, Poland (coordinator of the project).

Korčula City Library “Ivan Vidali”, Croatia (also a sister library, partnered with Arucas)

Public Library Adam Mickiewicz, from Vilna, Lithuania.

Arucas Municipal Library from Gran Canaria, Spain.

 Budget

The project is granted with 73.975 euros, 20.840 of which are for Arucas Municipal Library

 Results

The results of our work will be visible throughout the 3 years and also at the end of this period. For example, a Graphic Identity Manual has already been designed, This is a contribution from Arucas Municipal Library that the countries involved will use for any communication or promotion activity within the project.

Results expected:

  • Interchange of experiences about the work with migrants.
  • New skills of the participants, that can be used in the daily work and the non-formal education for adults.
  • To improve the educational offer in the library.
  • To improve the tolerance and comprehension of diversity amongst the community.
  • To raise of the motivation and satisfaction in the workplace.
  • To consolidate international cooperation through the association of persons and institutions.
  • To raise the linguistic skills of the participants of he project.

There’s also a plan to elaborate:

  • An electronic publication that’ll show the work with migrants in the countries participating in the project.
  • A video documenting the project

International meetings

In the project timeline there are scheduled 4 international meetings, one in each of the countries participating, aimed to interchange good practice in the migration field.

The first meeting was held in Zory, Poland, 10-13th October 2017. In Arucas we’ll receive the visit of our partners next 12-16th June 2018.

Professional training courses for the staff of the libraries

They’ll be held with the financial support of organizations working on the investigation of peace from Varsovia and Zagreb:

Poland will organize, in February 2018, a course called Stand on multiculturalism (part I), that’ll introduce the complex multicultural issues and will explain the contemporary migration waves and their roots.

Croatia will organize, in April 2018, a course called Stand on multiculturalism (part II), that’ll show the usage of technical skills in the practice of working with migrants.

We invite you to visit the fanpage of the project Migrate to Library! in Facebook (@migratetolibrary), where we will publish news and the actions taken by the libraries participating in this initiative.

 

Loly León

Head of Arucas Municipal Library