The Role of Public Libraries in Promoting European Initiatives and Values

Summary

Two librarians from Marko Marulić City Library Split attended a structured course in Berlin, "Explaining the European Union and Its Opportunities". EU citizenship and disinformation are topics rarely addressed by public libraries, yet they found the course so useful that they built on it through several subsequent Erasmus+ projects, in which they continued to embed themes of democracy and civic literacy in activities for adult library users.  

“I would like to commend the programme that gave the 50+ generation a chance to feel valuable in today's society, which thinks little of the elderly. I would like many more similar programmes.”

Topic(s) addressed

• Active EU citizenship 
• Recognising fake news and disinformation
• Media and information literacy 
• EU values, cultural diversity and anti-discrimination 
• Opportunities offered by EU-funded projects for public libraries

Target group(s)  

• Split’s citizens, library users 

Methodologies used

Rather than running a separate workshop, the two librarians folded what they learned into informal meetings with colleagues and, above all, into the library's existing computer workshops for adult users: people who came in to learn digital skills were also shown, informally, how to spot fake news and use source-checking tools. This approach was deliberately informal and inclusive, reaching an older audience with limited computer literacy through a format they were already comfortable with, rather than asking them to sign up for a separate programme.  

Innovation environment

Adults and especially older adults now make up the majority of the library's users, yet until this project almost all structured programming had been designed for children. The mobility gave the library the confidence to develop its first programmes for this underserved majority, paving the way for EU-themed programming and, eventually, a dedicated civic-literacy project for adult users. The project itself also led to collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, which has its own newly established adult education department. 

Teachers’ role

Renata Vojvodić and Maruška Nardelli drove this project from the start. They identified the gap in the library's civic-education offer, chose the course, and defined what they wanted to bring back. Upon returning, they did not just report on the mobility: they pushed hard to establish EU-themed public lectures at the library and later designed and led further mobilities and the ongoing civic-literacy project for adult users. 

Impact and output

Participating staff gained EU literacy, media literacy and fact-checking skills, which they applied directly in library programming for adult users, the same underserved group identified in this application. This impact did not stop with the mobility itself: the same themes were carried into every subsequent project the library ran for this group, from a KA121 group mobility involving 11 older learners with fewer opportunities who travelled to Belgium in 2024, to an ongoing accredited project on civic literacy for adults with fewer opportunities. Both initiatives were built directly on what was learned in Berlin. 

Learn more about the project