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Unit 5: Organizing

• elimination of structural differences of information access between town and periphery Notes
and offering of equal possibilities for all residents of Lithuania to use information in
order to meet their social and public requirements;
• allowing public libraries to collect, store and disseminate cultural heritage and make it
as accessible as possible.
The programme has been appointed the amount of LTL 313 Mio and is currently under revision;
moreover, the financial expression of library construction and reconstruction, possibilities of
collection acquisition, technology modernisation rates, etc. should be revised this year as well.
80% of expenses for construction and reconstruction of municipality public libraries will be
financed by this programme; whereas municipalities themselves will fund the rest 20%. Considering
the fact how insufficient financing public and especially municipality libraries receive for
acquisition, i.e. renewal of collections, in Autumn 2004 the Lithuanian Librarians’ Association
organised the Act of Candles: in the evening all Lithuanian libraries (almost four thousand in
total) switched the lights off for five minutes and lighted up the candles in order to symbolise
the darkness that was going to swallow the country; thus, it would get behindhand, if the
authorities neglected libraries. The act attracted attention from the press, radio, TV and other
media and contributed to better financing of libraries later.
Another aim of this modernisation programme lays in guaranteeing access to the Internet
and electronic catalogue LIBIS in all public libraries. In early 2006 the Government of the
Republic of Lithuania enacted a resolution regarding the revision of this programme; as a
results, the construction of libraries and renovation of collections in the Lithuanian public
libraries should be accelerated. One of the essential current objectives of the Lithuanian Librarians’
Association is the constant dialogue with the Government and the Seimas of the Republic of
Lithuania in order to solve the most painstaking problem of libraries, i.e. wages and salaries
of library staff. This year the wages of library staff were successfully increased by 20%. It was
a really heavy discussion with the Government and the Seimas that involved even the members
of the EU Parliament. The preparation of a programming document providing all necessary
information about the ways of employment of the EU Structural Funds support and its co-
ordination with the European Commission were one of the essential conditions for Lithuania
to receive support from the EU Structural Funds after becoming an EU member. At present
the Single Programming Document for 2007-2013 has been already prepared. As far as this
paper is concerned it is worth mentioning that the representatives of LLA also participated in
the main working groups responsible for making suggestions to the preparation of this strategic
document. Due to their efforts the funds appointed for culture and education were successfully
increased.

The new programming period will be launched at 2008 and it will be possible to subject any
project related to:
• development of computer infrastructure within cultural institutions;
• creation of e-content and e-services;

• improvement of computer abilities; and
• creation of continuously learning regions on the basis of existing centres.

Another focus of the Lithuanian Librarians’ Association is the National Library Week that
rd
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has been already organised for six times. It always takes place on 23 to 30 of April. This
year the event was dedicated to the promotion of reading and invited to “Read. Cognise.
Enjoy”. A special poster was published on the occasion of the event and distributed to all
libraries.

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