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Lithuanian
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Lithuanian
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Three years have passed since December 1995 and the time has come to The main executive persons of the LLA were elected in 1995 - me as the President,
two
We had our headquarters at Lithuanian Technical Library and received great support from this one and some other libraries: Vilnius University Library, Lithuanian Medical Library, Vilnius Pedagogical University Library, Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Lithuanian National Library. We are proud to have 1 412 members in 58 branches of the association (in comparison with 930 members in 36 branches three years ago). I am especially proud of two international members: Mr. Edward Valauskas and Ms. Dale Lukas (both from the USA) joined the LLA in 1998. The list of Honorable members is growing as well:
My dream to compile a database of all the members of the LLA is still a dream as we
have no In conclusion of membership topic, I would like to mention that there are still several districts in Lithuania that have no branches of the LLA. Our membership fee is very symbolic - 1% from a months’ income. Such small budget can not support most of our activities. Most of it goes for the office equipment, to pay telephone and mailing bills and support the activities of the Seigniors. The other activities are based on project funding. One of our main sponsors - the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. Since 1995 this Ministry is supporting projects dealing with culture. Lithuanian Librarians Association is actively submitting proposals and is lucky in getting grants for different projects each year. The possibility to get grants for projects made some of our branches very active and I am very happy about that. We are going to change our regulations and open accounts for all branches willing to take care of their money. Until now only the headquarters of the LLA has the account in the bank. Lithuanian Librarians Association together with the Ministry of Culture were electing the Librarian of the Year. This award is becoming more and more popular and it is not easy for the Jury to nominate the best one. Ms. Genovaite ZIBIKIENE, the Head of Metodics Department of Siauliai County Povilas Visinskis Public Library was nominated The Librarian of the Year 1997. Ms. Vida Kazakeviciene, the Director of Taurage Public Library was nominated the Inducement Award, Ms. Julita Svegzdaviciene, the Head of Information and Bibliography Department of Telsiai K.Praniauskaite Public Library received two nominations, the Inducement Award and Special Award. Ms. Brone Lauciuviene, the Director of Klaipeda Public Library and Irena Atkocaitiene, the Deputy Director of Mazeikiai Public Library were nominated Special Award. The Special Awards were given by our sponsors: V.Staniulis Bookstore, Joint Stock Company Musu knyga, the Library Pool of the Publishing Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. We have slightly changed the rules for the nominations - they are published in our professional journal Tarp knygu. The applications are accepted until 1 March 1999. The working group of Seigniors (retired or elderly still working librarians) are very active - they take care of retired librarians. Many of them are lonely and they are extremely happy to receive a birthday greeting card or to find a subscriptions for the LLA journal in their mailing box. Those who are ill and poor are being visited by former colleagues before Christmas. Of course, Santa brings some presents for them. Seigniors like to organize all sorts of social events: excursions, meetings, visits to theaters. These are not traditional activities of the professional library association, however, since librarians in Lithuania have no trade union, at least part of these activity is be covered by our association. We know that the activities of the Seigniors are very much appreciated by our members. The Professional Development working group organized courses on the use of Internet for
librarians all over Lithuania. The project was funded by the Open Society One of the biggest projects of the year - the establishment of the Martynas Mazvydas Library of the Lithuanian Community in Tilze (Sovetsk, Russia). On the year of 450 anniversary of the First Lithuanian book (1997) the project to establish a Martynas Mazvydas library of the Lithuanian community of Sovetsk was started. It was funded by the Program of the 450th Anniversary of the First Lithuanian Book by Martynas Mazvydas. The LLA is implementing the project together with Vilnius A.Mickevicius County Public Library. Another very important project for everybody who has access to the Internet was the
Homepage of the LLA. The idea to create the homepage of the LLA coincided with the call of
proposals of the Open Society In 1998 Lithuanian Librarians Association joined CECUP (Central and Eastern European Copyright User Platform) project. In 1997 the project of the Lithuanian Librarians’ Association was accepted by IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board). The project’s aim is to compile and publish the directory of Lithuanian publishers. The directory will be published in 1999. It will serve foreign readers and publishers. The project is headed by Dale Lukas (Assist International Inc., USA). Other participants of the project are Vilnius University Library and the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University. Lithuanian librarians are active internationally. For the first time Lithuanian
Librarians’ Association took part in the Warsaw International Book Fair. Group of
the LLA members participated at the international conference Information Society in the
XXI Century: Role of Library Associations, where Dr. Audrone Glosiene presented the
poster session on the activities of the LLA. For the fifth time Lithuanian librarians
participated at the Crimea conference Libraries and Associations in the Transient
World: New Technologies and New Forms of Since 1990 Lithuanian Librarians Association One more international project that Lithuanian Librarians’ Association is going to join is Bibliotheca Baltica. Representatives of the LLA participated at the Fourth International Symposium of the Bibliotheca Baltica in Stockholm. At present the National Library of Lithuania is the only participant at the project from Lithuania. The aim of the project is to share rare and unique collections with colleagues, to develop co-operation among professional librarians in the countries around the Baltic Sea. Lithuanian Librarians Association has two agreements of cooperation signed with Library Association, United Kingdom, and Russian Library Association. In 1998 two librarians from Lithuania (Emilija Banionyte and Ruta Zirgulyte) have visited British libraries. The study visit was extremely well organized and included various activities. We owe special thanks for the program to Jill Martin and Brenda Smith. Lithuanian librarians are looking forward to meet colleagues from the UK in Lithuania in 1999. We had always had strong connections with Russian librarians. We used to visit each
other, write to each other’s professional press. Now we are meeting more often at big
international forums as trips are becoming expensive and we have bureaucratic regime of
visas. Nevertheless we plan exchange of delegations of Lithuanian Librarians Association has established close contacts with Belorus Library Association. Visits between our two countries are limited because of the bureaucratic regime and different economy. We never had agreements with Estonian and Latvian library associations but the contacts with these two countries are the closest. We never miss the events in Baltic countries, organize Baltic Congresses of librarians all together. LLA is partly acting as a trade union, though it is not our direct duty. Because of our activities the Government of Lithuania had issued a law to raise salaries for librarians for 30% since January, 1998. This law does not work in a proper way in some municipalities, schools or universities. Therefore the variety of salaries is still very big. Heads of departments in some municipal libraries are paid much less than librarians issuing books in other municipal libraries. This should be stopped, the difference should not be so big. Some people started talking about the necessity to establish the trade union. I do very much welcome such an idea. Find a leader and go ahead!
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