Today, on the 22nd of April we celebrate Earth’s Day, and on this day every year I try to think of what I have done for my environment to make it nicer and cleaner and this is also time for me to remember all my ex-cats and dogs who brought so much joy and happiness into my life with their mere existence around. So thank you all of them for the lovely memories and the time we shared. I have one fantastic cat at the moment, who has a bit of a spoilt personality and is the ruler of our whole house. :-) Thank you, Cirmur, for purring around.
I was brought up in a way that it was natural for me to respect my environment and every living creature be it as an animal, a plant or a human being with its unique and unrepeatable nature. My aim with this blog entry is to ask everybody to think of some little things that everyone can do for their own environment, like providing a loving home for an ownerless cat or simply not throwing around litter.

Public libraries play a major role in making information and the news of opportunities in local communities available, as they provide free reference sources for everyone to find what he or she needs to know. They can serve as basic institutions for many issues as they are organized by the state with a permanent staff, and they are already established so their existence is known by people in their area. This is a huge advantage which assigns more and more tasks to these institutions.

The ’old’ basic role of public libraries is to compile the collection of their documents according to the needs of the community they serve, taking into account the composition of their potential readers according to age range, gender, religion, minority, social and health status ( Braille-books for the blind), constantly monitoring the current situation and thus being able to adapt to changes.

Beside this duty, however, they need to become an institution which is a service-oriented information center rather than collection-based. This means that the emphasis should be on the services customized to the needs of the library user by the librarians who mediate the information, and not on the collection.

Public libraries can achieve the new objective if they:

1. keep up an up-to-date database of documents relating to not only local opportunities but also those related to the whole country.These include the promotion of cultural events, and contact data of organizations/institutions where people can go for advice/help about

- work
- learning
- social and family problems
- health issues
- spare-time activities


The data should be organized into various easily searchable fields for readers.

2. have a well-educated staff ( fluent at least in one foreign language) capable of establishing what exact pieces of information users need on the basis of what they seek and thus guiding the users in the vast amount of information ( on the Internet as well, basically in general topics). The library has to be a friendly place which does not frightens away those people who are illiterate either, or merely not computer literate, and it should not function for the educated only.The librarians are key figures in making people aware of the knowledge they need and putting an end to the isolation of those who cannot ’take in’ written information for any reasons. ( see 4.) The other thing librarians need is the initiative to apply for as many funds as they can and this way develop their institution in every respect.

3. establish a well-equipped library with properly working computers that have an Internet access and other electronic gadgets like fax machine which promote communication. This becomes increasingly important if the library is situated in a tucked-away place.

4. be able to make the institution popular among people in the community by trying to address them at their own level, organize events and initiate projects that set every part of the local community moving. The emphasis must be not only on reading itself, but on using the mother tongue too, and this may be a possible solution to dismiss the fears of those people who feel inferior because of lacking the proper education.
The library activities may include for example :
- folk tale afternoons for children
- if there are illiterate people then they need interesting programms too, and help on where they can study
- writer-reader meetings,
- workshops,
- cultural competitions,
- asking people to collect stuff related to local history, making them interested in the area they live and in knowledge generally,
- inviting persons whose advice can be important to people and who can hold counselling days on issues like youth unemployment, or other topics that the librarians see there is a pressing need to discuss in the community
’Advertising’ these events and the library itself locally is very necessary, for instance, in schools, and collaboration between librarians and teachers, and other people working in the public sector is essential as well as connections with other institutions such as museums and the so-called village halls (if there are any) in the area.
Participating in events people have a chance to learn from each other as well by exchanging their experiences.

5. develop connections with other libraries
- country-wide ( forming library networks, sharing databases, constant information exchange)
- world-wide ( chance of international relations even for the tiniest library)

6. provide free access to :

- Internet
- reference works and information databases in general

In Hungary, we have a law which regulates the work of different types of libraries and incorporates which services in a public library must be provided free of charge. ( 1997. CXL. C. 2.) These include:
- ’visit to the library
- the use of certain collections of the library on the territory of the institution
- using catalogues and other sources related to finding documents in the collection
- general information on the library and local data’

All the other services including library membership, borrowing, and Internet use may be charged for on discretion of the library management.

Since libraries as other institutions in the public sector are in need of extra money all the time in order to maintain the quality of their services, the first two points of charging can be accepted. Internet use should however be free for everyone in every circumstances.

* * *
This piece of writing was written by Eszter Rozsa (Hungary) based on her four years of studies in Librarianship for a BA degree at a higher institution in Hungary. The writer used her experiences gained through working in different Hungarian libraries as a trainee during her studies and tried to adapt them to the needs of the Disha project.
The conclusion of all the ideas mentioned here is that libraries should never be passive institutions that are waiting for people to visit them and borrow books or frequent their programms, but rather have to reach out for users in various ways. The results of this whole process, however, can only be seen after long years of painstaking work.

References

1997. évi CXL. törvény
http://www.1000ev.hu/index.php?a=3¶m=9559

(The relevant part of the law was translated by the writer)

Note: My document may be updated or completed with new information anytime.

Someone on TIG recently asked me how I can relax after a period of time when there are so many things to do or study, and my answer was : Music. Music. Music. Listening to songs that are close to your heart, dancing or exercising at the same time can be the source of great emotional energies, at least for me. When I find it hard to concentrate after hours of monotonous studying or you can feel the same after long working hours, music in any form is what helps to release all the stress and it fills up my soul with motivation for the new tasks. Combined with some sport or yoga, it is more better ! So, just go into your room, put in a cassette and start to live in the world of your favourite songs!!!