Aim of the project
Develop general and professional competencies of libraries' staff by improving the activities of Lithuanian libraries and enhancing their attractiveness to users.
Tasks of the project
1. Upgrade general and professional competencies of libraries' staff.
2. Develop professional and organisational competencies of public library leaders.
3. Provide essential basics of librarianship to the staff of Lithuanian libraries who have no professional training.
4. Develop distance learning courses for public libraries' staff and upload them to the existing system and to create a qualification development model using distance learning.
Project duration
May–December 2015
Project promoter
Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania
Project partners
Vilnius University Faculty of Communication, Vilnius County Adomas Mickevičius Public Library, G. Petkevičaitė-Bitė Panevėžys County Public Library, I. Simonaitytė Klaipėda County Public Library, Povilas Višinskis Šiauliai County Public Library, Kaunas County Public Library.
Project coordinator within the NLL (unit, department)
Strategic Project Development Department
Project funding source, value (EUR)
Lithuanian Council for Culture, EUR 35,500
Introduction of the project
Based on the data of the 2013 survey "Integration of Lithuanian municipal libraries into the municipal cultural and social development strategies", the aspects of public libraries' administration and management that were found to have the poorest level of delivery and need to be improved were the provision conditions of library services and improvement of library staff's qualifications. In an attempt to address the issues relating to library staff qualification, the "Library Specialist Training" project has been submitted. This is an ongoing project for regional culture development aimed at increasing qualifications of Lithuanian county and municipal public libraries' staff. The target group of the project: over 70 percent of the target group will consist of the members of municipal public libraries' staff; the remaining portion will include the county libraries' staff and the staff of Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Expected outcomes: more efficient activities of libraries, improved qualifications of librarians, transfer of professional knowledge to library staff. A network of municipal cultural institutions has been established in the regions with public libraries being among the designated cultural centres. The majority of centralized services including project and program coordination, database subscriptions, and qualification development, will be provided to libraries by Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania at a national level, meanwhile 5 county libraries will be the providers of the above services on a regional level. Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will perform the role of the project coordinator.
The "Library Specialist Training" project is aimed at developing the following competencies of Lithuanian public libraries' staff: general specialist competencies including communication skills, critical thinking, legal and financial literacy; professional competencies focused on management, leadership, information processing, its synthesis and organization of information dissemination, technology and information management, knowledge of and compliance with professional conduct; didactic (methodical) competencies (providing training to new employees, preparation of qualification improvement programmes, conducting training seminars, distance learning, consulting, acquisition and application of psychological knowledge).
Responsible person
Irma Vičytė, Project Manager of the Strategic Project Development Department, tel. (+370 5) 239 8631,
e-mail
