Blog translated entirely by volunteers!


Blog translated entirely by volunteers!
coordinated by Stephen Hallstrom, Peace Corps volunteer
and Anamaria Cătănoiu, Center coordinator
Volunteers, highschool and university students: Constantin Drăgoi (București/Bucharest), Ovidiu Panaite (Cluj), Oana Zlatovici (Suedia/Sweden), Olga Unguru, Ioana Tuvene, Alexandra Pădureț (Iași), Mihaela Hăican (București), Liviu Dîrdală, Ioana Cozma, George Georgescu, Alina Rotaru, Andreea Marcu




Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Advocacy for a book




 
Who says that librarians don’t have to fight these days to regain the lost ground in front of the new technology which carried people off from reading? From my point of view, things have turned over and the culture has changed from a bastion facing the new consumerist tendencies to an outpost which has to be retaken. Ironic paradox...and sad reality.  Maintaining culture is a struggle, so you fight to maintain alive the simple pleasure of paging through a book and, more than that, to teach others or to relearn what this pleasure means.

One thing is for sure, you can’t fight alone. There is an old saying, with only one flower there is no spring. But when you have a bouquet? And that’s how we gathered, flower by flower, from the field of libraries, to make a bouquet and to learn to fight for a book.
 
The initiative came from IREX Romania Foundation, which implements Biblionet Program for Romania's libraries. The IREX team organized from 25 to 29 June 2011 a workshop for Communication, Coalition & Advocacy themes and participants represented County Libraries and communities from 5 counties: Buzău, Ialomița, Vrancea, Tulcea and Vâlcea. Each one had to have a team of six representatives: the library manager, Biblionet county coordinator, Biblionet trainer, one local librarian, one attorney from the local public administration, and one representative of ONG or a mass media/business branch.

Vrancea team
Teodora Fîntînaru

County Library Duiliu Zamfirescu” Vrancea
Manager


Liliana Mocanu


County Library Duiliu Zamfirescu” Vrancea

Biblionet Coordinator
South Branch Librarian

Anamaria Cătănoiu

County Library Duiliu Zamfirescu” Vrancea

Advocacy Activities Attorney
Coord. Foreign Language Center

Gabriel Funica


County Library Duiliu Zamfirescu” Vrancea

Librarian, The President of the „Open Books” Association

Tatiana Valea

 Municipal Library Adjud

Manager

Cristea Cornel

County council Vrancea

Inspector


Buzău team
Băsceanu Marius

County Library "V. Voiculescu"
head office, program coordinator

Stan Angela

County Library "V. Voiculescu"
manager, trainer

Irimia Iulia

County Library "V. Voiculescu"
librarian, trainer

Grigore Mihaela

County Library "V. Voiculescu"
librarian township Tisău

Soare Maria Antonina


County Library "V. Voiculescu"

the president of the Asociation "Saint Martyrs Alexandru and Antonina"

Soare Alexandra

County Library "V. Voiculescu"
volunteer, Library


Ialomița team
Gina Vișan


County Library “Ştefan Bănulescu” Ialomiţa

head of department


Carmen Daniela Neagu

County Library “Ştefan Bănulescu” Ialomiţa

trainer

Daniela Drăgoi Panțuru

Township Library „Alexandru Graur” Reviga

librarian

Ilie Cioacă

County Council Ialomiţa

manager

Clementina Tudor

Radio CAMPUS Slobozia

manager

Andrei Daniel Stancu

Volunteer Association “Library Friends”
vice-president CJ Ialomița


Tulcea team
Ghionu Ovidiu

County Library Tulcea
manager

Druncea Marian

County Library Tulcea
trainer, head of public relations- marketing

Nurciu Elena


County Library Tulcea

coordinator, head of the collections development. Local monitor

Cantemir Cadîr

Radio Argus Tulcea

administrator

Ilie Ștefan

A.C.O.R. - Luncavița town hall
president A.C..O.R. Tulcea – Mayor


Vâlcea
Maria Ciobanu
Biblioteca Județeana "Antim Ivireanu" Vâlcea
librarian trainer

And…Romanian Parliament
Elena Mitrea
Senate,Work commission of the social protection
senator

   The workshop was conceived according to the methodology „all the system in a room.” At the workshop all the main representatives from the library and community made a multidisciplinary team to identify the library problems and to solve them with an advocacy approach. The purpose for this type of work system is to create effective communication  methods between the representatives of the community and to improve the techniques and quality of the communication, community mobilization and team work.  In addition, the teams have already been combined, a fact that led to an „expanded and diversified team.” We socialized, we got closer to each other, we got to know each other better, we worked together.

The ultimate goal of the workshop was to help us conceive advocacy action plans about pertinent themes for each district, that have to be implementable and financeable for the grants system which will be given by IREX after the workshop.

Five days I was worse at my job. I attended the military program, from 9 to 6-7 PM, where I practiced the term “interactive” more than I thought. Don’t get me wrong. These are the strong points of our SWOT analysis and appreciative terms, not pejorative. I mean there was seriousness and professionalism from IREX who taught us. It was an all around good mood, fun and included Daniela’s energizers (Drăghici-Advocacy IREX Officer) who danced with us and “beat” us twice a day in Tae Bo activities to wake up and to give us efficiency.

The work schedule was very busy and sessions approached themes like: community relations, the best ways to send messages, how we can attract the ones who don’t use the library, team building, the process of making decisions, achieving consensus, target demographics of the public, the identification of support and opposition, message development, and advocacy action plan.

Nevertheless I thing we all have coped successfully and we were productive in all respects: we got to know each other, we socialized online and offline too, I mean in class and after it (the best business is done away from the official frame!), we shared experiences and we learned from each other and, most important, we all sketched for every district, an advocacy plan on a pertinent theme that I backed up at the end through the agency of a role play.

At the end of the class we all were „diplomaed”. That means rewarded with a participation degree to show that we went through the class and didn’t get the diploma for nothing.

I’m talking now from Vrancea team. We’ve already started to work at our project and we’re taking things seriously because it’s a beautiful project, useful for the community of Vrancea and that’s not all.
And now, at the end, let’s meet the dynamic trainers, because that’s how it’s done. P.S. Don’t be mad because I’ve left you behind. A wise word from the old says that the last ones will be the first. Thank you for your patience you bore us and for your seriousness in doing your job. I’ve really learned many things and we put them into practice.


Irex team which taught and supported us
Luminița Petrescu
IREX România
Grant Manager
Jozsef Szocs
IREX România
Regional Coordinator
Andrei Bogdan Anichiforesei
IREX România
Regional Coordinator
Mihaela Milea
IREX România
Office Manager
Monica Grecu
IREX România
PR Specialist
Daniela Drăghici
IREX România
Advocacy Officer

Article written by Anamaria Cătănoiu – Coordinator Foreign Language Center
Translated by Liviu Dîrdală - volunteer

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