Slovenia’s Škofja Loka Ivan Tavčar public library has had a long-term sister connection with Lithuania’s Panevezys district municipality public library. In the summer of 2021, a new sister connection was established with the Finish Public library, Pyhäjoen Kirjasto.
The main goal of the sister program is to cooperate and exchange ideas and cultural connections between all involved institutions. For this purpose we came up with the idea of sharing and getting to know folk tales and languages from the local environment of each sisters library’s country.
In February 2022, all three libraries participated in the exchange of folk tales.
Each library chose a folk tale from their country and created a video or recorded a sound of the tale in the language of origin. Folk tales were then shared to sister libraries that then prepared translations, added subtitles to the video or recorded a story in their own language. This is how the idea of creating and sharing bilingual folk tales was created.
Librarian, Lida Žukauskaite, from Lithuania’s Panevezys district municipality public library created a video about The Cat and The Rooster, a national Lithuanian folk tale. (video above)
Heikki Lahnaoja, a Chief Librarian from the public library Pyhäjoen Kirjasto in Finland, recorded a story of How s Bear Lost Its Fur, in Finnish. The story was then brought in Finish and Slovenian in Škofja Loka’s local radio station as well as in the local podcast for children. (video above)
Slovenia’s Škofja Loka Ivan Tavčar public library, in collaboration with local storyteller and craftswoman Karla B. Rihtaršič, created a video of the folk tale Lubnik, which is the story about the two giant brothers who created the mountain Lubnik that rises above the town of Škofja Loka. Video was send to our sister library in Lithania and in Finland. (video above)
Translated folktales in Finnish, Lithuanian and Slovenian are available for children from Škofja Loka to listen to on our website , podcast “S kitkom v svet pravljic” and the library’s Youtube channel.
Text by Neža Hribernik
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