Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library is the main library in the northeast region of Lithuania. It has accumulated the biggest universal collection of publications and develops various cultural activities.
OUR VALUES: TRADITIONS, HONESTY, OPEN-MINDEDNESS, PROFESSIONALISM AND IMPROVEMENT
WE:
- respect traditions and cherish historical memory by preserving it for future generations;
- welcome everyone, listen to their needs and are open for new ideas;
- benevolently and open-mindedly seek solutions which help to create positive connection with You;
- are professionals who cultivate leadership and are constantly seeking quality and improvement in our field;
- creatively connect different fields and implement new technologies to develop improvements which benefit the community;
VISION
Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library is a modern centre of innovation in the region. It provides an engaging environment and equal opportunities to learn, create and discover something new.
MISSION
The library is a centre of research, coordination, methodological assistance, development of professional competencies of library specialists, interlibrary loan services, bibliography, ethnography and information for all the libraries in the denoted area. It ensures implementation of library development programmes of the state, serves users, provides opportunities to satisfy their cultural, self-educational and educational needs, cultivates traditions of ethnographic regions, improves the expansion of cultural and art services.
٭Mission of counties’ libraries is defined in the Law on Libraries of the Republic of Lithuania as well as in the provisions of Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičiūtė-Bitė Public Library.
Library is the only one of the Lithuanian county libraries to develop storytelling at the strategic level. The goal is - reviving the living tradition of oral teaching, introducing applied storytelling methods into library services and creating narrative-based educational models for children, youth and adult audiences.
Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library is implementing several international projects related to the storytelling:
- Storytelling for the Audiences of Lithuanian Libraries. Partners: The Land of Legends (Sweden), Jelgava City Library (Latvia). 3 storytelling tours created during the projects are presented to library visitors as new services.
- Development of Storytelling Art and Method Model for Lithuanian Libraries
Partners:
-storyteller, educator, project manager Rose-Marie Lindfors (Nordic Storytelling Center, Sweden);
-storyteller, artist Tiril Bryn. She focuses on cultural heritage and storytelling in nature.
During the project, a methodological publication “How to Tell Stories. A Beginner's Guide ”and narrative educations was created.
- International Qualifications for Innovative Library Ideas, 3 5-day courses at The Village Storytelling Training Center (Scotland) for 5 members of library.
Library is a member of the newly established Nordic-Baltic storytelling network and participates in the networking project as a partner:
- Nordic-Baltic Storytelling Network. Project leader: The Land of Legends (Berättarnätet Kronoberg - Sagobygden), Sweden;
Project partners: The Hilmar Alexandersen Foundation (Stiftinga Hilmar Alexandersen), Norway; Storytellers ’Association of Latvia, Latvia;
Library 2020 started to organize International Storytelling Festival SEKAS. It is also planned for 2022 and will be ongoing.
Through various activities, the library purposefully seeks to create a network of storytelling libraries in its region, to unite 13 storytelling libraries.
We aim to involve as many professional European narrators and organizations as possible in the project activities, invite them to the library and to learn from them.
We aim to get to know the widest possible range of high-quality storytelling methodologies.
