Project duration 2020.07.07 – 2024.04.30 (24 months)

Project presentation

The project aims to create an innovative reading promotion tool for students of 5-8 grades (10-15 years old) – a reading related virtual game. The content of the game  will be linked to three book collections shared among the network of public libraries of Panevėžys, Kaunas and Klaipėda regions. While playing this game, students will look for answers and advice in the target literature and thus decide the moves of the game’s hero. The game and the accompanying literature will help children and young people to solve the problems of social relations with the environment, to develop reading habits, and to instill strong values. The virtual game will be downloaded as a free mobile app, and the literature related to the game tasks will be available on special themed shelves in regional libraries and other denoted locations.

The development of the game will involve foreign partners, representatives of the cultural, artistic, scientific and creative industries, as well as youth volunteers. In order to create conditions for the participation of the target group in cultural education activities during the project, expert educators in the libraries will prepare a set of educational-cultural activities related to this project. These educational activities will present reading books as an interesting activity that encourages imagination and creativity, helps to evaluate one’s own and other people’s actions, understand feelings, and more. The game will continue even after the project ends, book collections will be updated and new reading challenges prepared.

Activities planned during the project

1. The research aimed at identifying the reading skills and social relations of the target group.
2. The research aimed at determining the extent to which the availability of cultural activities has increased for children and youth living in municipal districts or rural elderships.
3. Development of book collections for the target group with direct (participating county libraries and the Norwegian Institute of Science and Culture) and indirect (IBIS members, representatives of translators and publishers) partners.
4. Development of a reading challenge game linked to book collections with project partners, youth volunteers, and representatives of the creative industries.
5. Installation of special places for book collections in libraries following the concept prepared by the artists.
6. Presentation of the developed product (game), organized simultaneously in 34 libraries forming the network of public libraries of Panevėžys, Kaunas and Klaipėda regions: 1 regional, 28 municipal level, 5 local level (municipal districts / rural elderships).
7. Educational classes for students of 5-8 grade and older 5, times a month, in 39 public libraries; a total of 1755 sessions.
8. The Reading Challenge Game Participants Award events will be held simultaneously in all the 39 libraries where 117 participants who win the game will be awarded.

Project result

The main activities of the project – the organization of reading challenge game and educational activities – in the network of public libraries of Panevėžys, Kaunas and Klaipėda will develop the accessibility of cultural education activities for students of 5–8 grades (10–15 years old) and increase reading motivation. The book collections linked to the reading challenge will enable the target group of the project to choose the latest publications that best suit their needs. An extensive network of public libraries will ensure that the project activities are accessible to a very large target audience. The Reading Challenge game will aim to attract 880 unique target group participants. Educational activities organized in libraries at the regional and local level will aim to attract 12,285 participants in the target group. The project activities will aim to involve 30% of the target group living in municipal districts or rural elderships, but studying in schools located in the nearest municipal centers. The system for sharing book collections created during this project is an innovative solution for the distribution and availability of books, which in the future can be improved and applied in all regions of Lithuania.

Responsible person in Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library is Raimonda Gvozdienė, Project Manager of the Regional Libraries Strategic Development Department, e-mail: raimonda.gvozdiene@pavb.lt , tel. +370 669 50 674

The project is funded by