In cooperation of eight European universities (Potsdam, Kraków, Bologna, Athens, Bordeaux, Riga, Copenhagen and Luxembourg) with various cultural institutions, especially libraries and museums, the project aims at developping innovative scientific and pedagogical methods on the field of European cultural heritage. The focus lies on literary sources of cultural heritage, i.e. manuscripts and rare books that are explored in collaboration with prestigious libraries such as the Berlin State Library, the Jagiellonian Library, the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, the Bibliothèque de Bordeaux, the Latvian National Library in Riga and the Greek National Library in Athens. The project is based on a participative approach to European cultural heritage that involves not only researches and experts, but, most importantly, students: They are the primary target group of the project. In three large summer schools and three smaller workshops, more than 128 European students from all involved programme countries will participate. On the summerschools in Kraków 2020, in Bologna 2021 and in Athens 2022, the students explore local sources of European cultural heritage, gain historical and cultural background knowledge and develop practical skills to design and realize exhibition projects. In Kraków 2020 the focus will be on manuscripts that during the Second World War came from the former Prussian State Library in Berlin to the Jagiellonian Library. Supervised by specialists, the students learn the techniques of editing and interpreting these handwritten sources of European cultural heritage and to present them in the collection and exhibition context of a modern research library. On the summerschool in Bologna 2021, literary sources, paintings and photographies are explored and critically examined that tell the pre-history of modern study programmes such as Erasmus+, beginning with the ,grand tour' of erudites in Early Modern Times. These insights are presented in another student exhibition project that involves their own experience of studying abroad. In Athens 2022, the students reflect on how the ancient Greek philosophy and literature was interpreted during the European Enlightenment and how these processes of reception influenced the formation of modern national states such as modern Greece. At the same time, the studens explore and present the young cultural life in modern Athens. Digital representations of all three exhibition projects will be published on the project homepage for a broader European audience. Three smaller workshops aim at further developping the students' scientific and practical skills in working on European cultural heritage. The practical workshop 2020 in Bordeaux helps the students to explore career options on the field of European cultural heritage by gaining insight into the practical heritage work carried out in museums, libraries and cultural institutions - within the project, these institutions offer internships to European students. The master class 2021 in Copenhagen particularly aims at training the capacity of methodological reflexion and historical research on the field of literary sources of European cultural heritage, especially on their materiality, to inspire innovative study and research works that facilitate the transition from BA- to MA- and to further PhD-studies on the field. On the Europe-workshop in Luxembourg 2022, the students discover their multilingualism and interculturality as a creative ressource that can be used for their further study life and professional career. The summerschools and workshops involve more than 64 university teachers that develop excellent research and teaching skills on the field of European cultural heritage, in three long-term teaching assignments and more than 32 short-term training events that involve co-teaching on the field. The teaching and training activites produce sustainable outputs: All courses are integrated into an overarching moodle-course programme on European cultural heritage that is accessible for all involved institutions. A digital stock-market for internships on cultural heritage is developped that interconnects cultural institutions and student apprentices from all Europe. Finally, an international and interdisciplinary study-module on literary sources of European cultural heritage is implemented into the curricula of the humanity faculties at all involved universities. In this way, the project contributes to the development of long-term international cooperation in research and teaching on the field of European cultural heritage. The intellectual outputs of the project, especially digital research projects on literary sources of cultural heritage, are of outstanding value for the international scientific community and will inspire future innovative reserach on the field of European cultural heritage, crossing national and institutional boundaries, especially in the cooperation of universites, museums and libraries.

The aim of the Project “Medical Information Literacy ” is to develop innovative international, professional continuing education programme based on the methods used by andragogy and to develop methodological materials (e-book) addressed to lecturers. The overriding goal of the Project is to increase the level of skills and abilities of the professionals working in libraries and information centre, to enhance their ability to fulfill the public international needs thus promoting the development of educated and knowledgeable society. Results expected during the project and on its completion:1) Innovative international, professional continuing education programme based on the methods used by Andragogy. The programme will be consisted of three parts: the basics of medical and health information searching; special health and medical information resources and evidence-based medicine. The programme will be approbate and evaluated by all partner organizations. The programme, thematic and lessons plans will be available online. 2) Methodological materials addressed to lecturers - e-book will be available online. The Project results would address the following parties: - Various types of library specialists from public, school, college, university and hospital libraries;- Healthcare sector professionals who are interested in reliable information for work purposes;- Health science lecturers who are interested in information for ensuring the study process;- European medical information specialists who plan to develop and/or to teach similar training programmes.Project participants are:1. Rīga Stradiņš University - a coordinator2. National Library of Latvia - a partner organization3. Lithuanian University of Health Science - a partner organization4. Tartu University Hospital - a partner organization5. Tallinn University - a partner organizationDuring the project, the achievements of the MIL project will be reinforced at local, regional, national and European levels through the on-going activities and communication about them ( social media, articles, involvement of experts and industry specialists, professional associations, etc.). Publicly accessible online materials and tools will be available not only in national languages of the participating countries but also in English, which will enable any user on European or international level to apply them. Furthermore, the developed materials could also be adapted to the needs of any other country or region.Project duration: 26 months (October, 2019 - November 2021)Project Total Grant: 141,815.00 EUR

The project will research the history of book in international and transdisciplinary perspectives in Latvia, turning its main attention to the potential of books (and the written word) to promote changes in society, build the identities of communities, and facilitate the transfer and dissemination of knowledge. Over the 500 years, the history of Latvian books has proven and continues to prove that the book has a significant role in the processes of political, social, cultural, economical change. The dissemination of books has been important in the changes of thinking, circulation of knowledge and building the value systems. The perspective through books can increase the knowledge of these processes significantly because it raises the issue of the dynamics of various forms of identity at several levels: both in regional, religious and social groups, and on a wider scale by bringing attention to Latvia’s Western and European cultural orientation. Located on the border between historical Eastern and Western regions, Latvian culture has been subject to various, often competing influences, but has convincingly joined the European cultural space. The project will address the question: in which forms has the development of the printed word influenced this process and does so today.

"During the project ""Re-designing and co-creating innovative cultural heritage services through libraries"", a professional development program, short-term training for employees, as well as the development of an online MOOC course were created for cultural heritage and memory institutions.The project consortium consists of six organizations from which two are libraries (National Library of Latvia and Belgrade City Library), three universities (Tallinn University, Hacettepe University and De Marne La Vallee University) and Stichting Project Realisatie van Initiative door Modulatie van Entrepreneurschap, whose priority is offering innovative teaching methods to both business and cultural institutions to improve and expand their services and attract customers / users.The idea of the project arose due to the lack of innovative approaches and solutions in cultural heritage promotion services in libraries. Hence the aim of the project is to encourage society to become more involved in identification, preservation, and consumption of cultural heritage by developing training programs and educational materials for libraries, using methodologies that are actively used in other industries (IT, business, marketing).The tasks are directly related to the project goal and intellectual results (IO): to identify the situation (IO1), to design the training programme (IO2), to implement the training programme (IO3), to make project results available via MOOC (IO4). IO1 – State of the art report includes general overview and the situation in iTSELF project partner countries - Estonia, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Turkey – regarding cultural heritage in libraries.IO2 – the training programme was developed using less widely used methodology in the cultural field: Agile Framework (SCRUM and KANBAN), Lego Serious Play, Business Model You.IO3 – four short-term joint staff training events which included learning new methodology, designing training programme, toolkit and e-learning platform to develop innovative services.IO4 – MOOC (Masive Open Online Course) was created, allowing a wide range of professionals to get acquainted with the results of the project and use them.These innovative approaches and solutions are further used by Belgrade City Library (promotion of cultural heritage in social networks) and the National Library of Latvia (game design and its potential use in the promotion of cultural heritage among users of different generations). The impact and long-term benefits ar provided by MOOC, giving librarians and other information professionals the opportunity in learning new various modern techniques, methods and tools and developing innovative services."

According to IFLA and UNESCO Public Library Manifest (1994) in libraries people get supported for individual learning and self-education as well as all levels of formal education. It is important to improve the library – librarian – community –connection. It can be reached through: (1) introduction of information and communications technologies (ICT), (2) improvement of andragogical competencies with integrated English language learning aids, including lifelong learning, meta-learning, peer-training, self-learning and collaborative learning skills, (3) employment of all these skills while transferring knowledge to community.Lithuanian, Latvian and Bulgarian libraries during a period of 2006-2001 have strengthened their technical base – high-speed Internet connection, Wi-Fi, computer rooms, other IKT and organisational technology. With a help of previously mentioned subjects libraries are able to provide society with non-formal education and consulting services. Libraries are seeking to establish themselves not only as centres of culture and information but as non-formal education organisations in their communities. Therefore it is essential to stress both qualification and competences of specialists-librarians, working in the infrastructure, if providing non-formal education services. To successfully compete with other participants of non-formal education market librarians need andragogy competences. Librarians must have in-depth knowledge of psychological peculiarities, forms and methods as well as study-flow organising aspects for adult learning, get acquainted with already developed open-source educational resources.Lithuanian, Latvian and Bulgarian librarians day-to-day work problems suppose project‘s goal – to strengthen librarians‘ andragogical competences. This achievement would later allow the libraries to become organisations providing quality non-formal education services in their communities. The goals of the project are:1. To create a virtual andragogy learning environment for librarians who engage in knowledge transfer communication with clients;2. To strengthen educational and andragogy competences of librarians with a use of developed product (e.g. virtual learning environment, study programs) in countries executing the project;3. To apply not yet used and innovative tools for delivery of materials in order to create conditions that would ensure an involvement of participants during the learning process, give opportunity to shape the content of studies, allow to enrich study program with real-life cases, suggestions, allow participants to communicate and cooperate with each other, learn from one another. Thus far andragogy learnings were conducted in fragmentary manner while giving short-term sessions (realized in a traditional way while holding meetings);4. To ensure continuous rise of librarians‘ qualification with a use of virtual learning environment, and motivate librarians to become andragogy mentors for other specialists.After reaching the goals, the virtual andragogy learning environment will be translated into other partner-countries languages and English language, in order to intensify its spread and usage in international community of librarians. In this way also providing an opportunity to learn not only in mother-tongue, but excel in English. Andragogy course and virtual learning environment intend to have tools and functions that would encourage a formation of international librarians‘ andragogy community and sharing of experience, ensure self-learning, lifelong learning and qualification hoisting processes. With a use of professionally developed system librarians would be able to communicate with each other, share their experience, search for partners for andragogy matters, fill information, and share relevant material.The problem, goal and tasks of the project are directly related to interests of target groups:1. Librarians who are interested in obtaining the librarian-andragogist competence, for a purpose of enriching their culture-worker competences portfolio with andragogy competences; 2. It is important for partner-countries libraries to anchor themselves as non-formal education organisations and take the niche market in non-formal adult education; 3. Community as library‘s users have a stakeholder interest to receive free of charge, quality cultural and non-formal education service in every nearby library.The international level in this project allows to share and assimilate specificities of foreign partners operational activities, to take partner-countries libraries‘ and educational institutions‘ experience in an adult education field. The three countries are not equally advanced in andragogy studies field; there is an uneven spread of andragogical practises and application methods from country to country.