Inspiration for Innovation
As Samuel Ulman wrote, youth is not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. Indeed, youthful voices are crucial to the overall effectiveness of many programs and initiatives, including library development.
While the twenty-two young librarians from 17 regions participated in the first ever Novateca “Summer School for Young Librarians” may differ on the appropriate age range to ascribe to the “youth category”, after the one-week event on August 8-12, 2016, the Novateca program is confident that they would all agree that “youth is a way of feeling and thinking.”
While some participants were hesitant or skeptical when the event opened, by the end of the week, each of the librarians were deeply inspired to work towards involving local communities and proving that the library is a vital, important and useful local hub.
On the opening day, Evan Tracz, the Novateca Program Director, motivated librarians to benefit from all Novateca opportunities. “When a librarian is changing and gaining new knowledge and skills, that’s a turning point for the library. That’s the moment when the library starts to change itself and become an interesting, attractive and useful institution for local community members,” he mentioned.
On the days that followed, participants were involved in interactive workshops, discussed the most urgent arias needed to be modernized in libraries and the qualities of a successful leader. The concepts of innovation, community mobilization, along with methods for attracting users and engaging reliable partners for implementation of new services. Also, participants were taught how to write powerful success stories and develop social networks connections for the implementation of activities and events, attracting supporters and users. The librarians also had the unique opportunity to take part in a workshop led by renowned Moldovan blogger Geo Lupaşcu, in which each of them created her own blog. The participants beamed with pride when they published their first blog post about their Summer School experience.
Participants also had the opportunity to visit the Chisinau Municipal Library, National Library and National Children’s Library and the Centers for Training and Excellence located in each institution. They were particularly interested by new activities implemented by the National Children’s Library and understood that with dedicated librarians, technologies and inspiration, the library can become an engaging and fun place for kids to come, learn and play.
Daniela Draghici, a former staff member of Biblionet Program in Romania participated throughout the week and shared her passion and belief in the importance of librarian and libraries as community oriented centers, inspired participants to start changing their mindset and behavior towards pro-activity and optimism.
All librarians shared their feedback on the development of the Summer School and looked forward to follow to follow up activities. Mariana Rusu, a librarian from Orhei pointed that “All of us need a renewal for out approaches and thoughts, a bit more motivation that will lead to the appearance of new ideas. I am very happy and deeply moved that I could have the possibility to be part of the journey of this Summer Academy. I am now filled with motivation, passion and dedication, and I am sure now that I can change myself and my library.”
The Summer School opened a new chapter in the stories of the librarians, as well as for Novateca program. Given the enthusiasm and energy of the group and their willingness to experiment and adapt, Novateca has no doubt that the public library community of Moldova has a new generation of leaders that can help continue and enhance the changes and positive trends of the recent years.


















