While this is the official final chapter of the Libraries of Emotions project and we are feeling all sorts of emotions about this, it is definitely not the end for this approach to reading! Our library partners explore what they learned from this experienced and what they are going to be integrating into their activities as a result of this experience. Make sure to check out the Libraries of Emotions in these libraries if you can!
The Anderlecht perspective
After more than a year of collaboration between the different actors in the field (public librarians, facilitator, bibliotherapist) and with the expertise of Public Libraries 2030,” Love for Livres” and thanks to the support of Creative Europe, we were able to develop a new face of our public library in Anderlecht.
A face that is resolutely turned towards fulfilment, sharing, emotions and discovery through books.
Following an initiation of the team members to bibliotherapy, we had the opportunity to raise an awareness of resilience and well-being among children, teenagers and adults through various workshops. We can positively measure the impact of this project both on the institutional level in our practices as book professionals, and on the level of the public concerned, if we take into account the difficult context of the Covid-19 pandemic. With a view towards the future, we will resolutely turn to the reflection and practice of bibliotherapy and the discovery of books through emotions thanks to the fund, which is specially developed and continuously fed to be able to meet the needs of the readers. As a conclusion, we want to say that this is a process that aims at sustainability within our teams and that requires investment and deepening of the subjects, in order to be able to adapt our offer continuously to the demands and needs of the public.
Damjana Pečjak’s (Mestna knjižnica Kranj) experience and final thoughts
Joining this project was a good contribution for our library in many ways. Firstly, the library equipment in adult department mainly consists of grey colour, the Libraries of Emotions brought us some additional colours, that really brightened up the whole place and made it livelier and more personal with emojis. People were curious, they were asking about the new collection and we were able to emphasize the importance of all varieties of emotions we deal with in everyday life and also when we read books.
The bibliotherapy sessions we carried out brought this aspect into practice. I am proud to say that our library has established 22 reading groups led by 26 trained volunteers over the project. They still meet regularly once or twice a month. We used some of them for LoE bibliotherapy sessions. We performed 8 bibliotherapy sessions with different age groups, most of the participants were adult women, middle to old age, we manage to form two groups with high school students and one group with pupils from primary school.
The themes we were discussing were also diverse, from uncertain times due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the societal issues such as internet addiction, grieving, being a woman, etc. The main goal or added value were emotions and the ability to talk about them. The covid situation pushed many of us into isolation. Lots of people were not able to see and sometimes even talk to their closest friends and family, they were scared and alone. Bibliotherapy can help people articulate themselves and to hear that they are not alone with their thoughts that can sometimes be strange and even scary to them. Through focused conversations people can see that we all have similar problems and battles in life. Going to your nearest library can help!
THe Lodz Experience
In February we opened the Library of Emotions in the Otwarta library. The Library of Emotions resources include almost a thousand books that we have prepared for our users. We tried to create a friendly cozy place for both older and younger readers.
In the presence of the press, management, and readers we presented the Library of Emotions room full of books for adults and children.
Since opening The Library of Emotions space enjoys a lot of interest, the readers are curious about the room dedicated to this project. In each book, readers will find a card on which he/she can evaluate the book by using Library of Emotions scores. A new way of assessing books according to the emotions they evoke is an encouragement for readers and often a new perspective on literature.
Our Library of Emotions space is also a great place where we carry out our activities for younger children based on books about emotions. How to recognize them, and how to deal with them. We are planning further meetings with children with whom we will conduct bibliotherapy around books about feelings during regular open classes. The classes will be combined with art workshops, which next to the books are always a great form of expressing emotion
