Project activities of libraries: forms, methods, stages of development and examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Today, there are no libraries left in the country that would not create various projects, would not take part in various competitions, because it is the project activity of the library that improves the financial condition of the institution, and strengthens its role in the area. Thus, the quality of services improves, and readers are satisfied. The project activity of libraries allows you to acquire your own image and make it much better. This is how new perspectives appear in the work.

What are the projects

The nature and targets of a project can be completely different. For example, a pilot project. This is the first, trial stage of implementation, which will make sure that the chosen system of actions is effective and easy to apply. At the same time, the entire working group of employees involved in the project is trained. The forms and methods of the project activities of the library are determined, the needconfiguration of the work system, plan of organizational and technical measures. All this gives a pilot project already at the first stage of implementation. Costs are significantly reduced, and at the same time, the implementation of the project at full scale is accelerated. The duration of the pilot version of the project is limited to thirty days.

The information project is prepared purely according to the wishes and needs of users. The innovative and design activities of libraries include projects based on significant changes, changes in familiar formats, the use of modern technologies and innovations. Innovative projects always attract a lot of attention from users. The marketing project is designed for the widest possible connection with the public of the area, and this connection must be mutual. A strategic project is a long-term activity with distant prospects. Organizational design is always directed to a more complex level. For example, people come together to solve very complex problems and develop a project that is much larger.

A business or partnership project is based on an agreement between individuals and legal entities, where rights and obligations are absolutely equal. The economic project is drawn up in a long-term form, where the priority tasks of the library are solved. Deadlines, however, in this type of project are always set precisely. Educational projects are most often used in the project activities of children's libraries, since the directions here can only be training, improving skills, knowledge, and general education. The social project is usually intendedone category of people and is aimed at helping, improving their lives.

The cultural and leisure project is very popular everywhere, in any rural library project activities are based on this form of work. Here the library acts as a leisure center, such events are usually very spectacular: these are musical and literary evenings, theatrical performances, presentations, festivals, public holidays, creative evenings, and various exhibitions. The professional development project is implemented within the team of employees and is aimed at improving, improving the special skills of library employees.

Mega and monoprojects

There are an unusually large number of project classifications. Separately, they can be considered in terms of scale and divided into international, interstate, regional and interregional, national, sectoral and intersectoral, departmental, corporate, as well as projects implemented in one library. The latter can be called a monoproject, but there are also multiprojects - the implementation takes place in several libraries, and megaprojects - a very wide, at least regional project.

There is no unified definition of the term "megaproject" in domestic publications. However, even the program and project activities of rural libraries are sometimes involved in specialized integrated programs with a single goal and many heterogeneous projects, closely related to each other, implemented at various levels of management. At the regional level, the megaproject also includesmulti-projects, and mono-projects, most often associated with the development of the cultural environment - the library sector, theaters, museums, leisure centers. But the main condition: all projects must be united by a single goal, allocated material and financial resources, as well as the implementation time frame.

Megaprojects are always developed at the top levels of government - at the interstate, state, republican or at the level of the region or territory. They are always expensive, time-consuming, with a long implementation, involving remote areas with insufficiently developed infrastructure. But they always influence the cultural and social environment of an entire region or even a country.

Here we need special methods of management and coordination, careful preparation. An example of the program and project activities of mega-scale libraries is the holding of the Pushkin Library event initiated by the Soros Foundation in 1998, which was carried out on an extremely large scale, lasted three years, and only the first of all sold 20 million dollars. Participated in the library megaproject on the territory of 83 subjects of the Russian Federation.

Project idea

Any project is always a whole set of actions that are aimed at identifying and solving a particular problem. And every problem has its origins and final solution. Therefore, the achievement of the final result in the project activities of libraries is always present. The idea of the project is necessarily significant in social terms, even if the project itself is small and modest, itsthe results will certainly be useful and needed by a certain part of the population. Project activities of libraries are always aimed at a certain result. It can be any concept or service that is completed in its composition and properties, as envisaged in the project.

Why do libraries need projects? This is, first of all, a non-commercial activity, but it is important in that it works to change the situation in providing access to the most high-quality, complete, effective access to all kinds of information - both for the target reader groups and for the local community in its broadest coverage. The most popular program and design activities of libraries. It is generally believed that joint projects are the most effective, when cooperation is carried out with other libraries, cultural or information institutions, with local authorities, as well as with non-profit organizations. This, of course, is true, but it does not mean at all that the library cannot successfully carry out program and project activities on its own.

Phases of project work

When a project is implemented, new services always appear - social, cultural, informational, educational, new opportunities open up, even new structures appear. Long before the preparation of a report on the program and project activities of the library, the relevance of holding such events becomes clear. Each project has the same basic properties. This is a time limit - from the moment the project starts to the complete solution of the problem, that iscompletion of work, when the completion of the result in solving the problem indicated in the project and thoroughly structured is indicated.

Below will be specifically shown how a report is written on the program and project activities of the library as a whole, and how about a separate project in particular. When implementing any project, a certain amount of resources will be required to ensure the achievement of the goal. The phases of work on a library project can be described as follows: first, a concept is developed, then it is implemented, and then completed. Inspiration can be found by looking at other already developed projects. Project activities in the library always begin with this. And there is always your own idea. At the initial stage, primary data are collected and analyzed, problem situations are identified that need to be changed. Then goals are determined, tasks are set, the main requirements and the necessary resources of funds and time are indicated.

After that, the project environment is analyzed, the selection of participants, the risks are identified. In the process, all possible ways to solve this problem are determined and the optimal one is selected. All successfully developed projects in the project activities of the library begin this way. The most interesting of the proposals for solving the identified problem is accepted. And with the finished concept, you can start looking for finance. There are not so many organizations that are ready to finance libraries, but you can still find them. Funding application being made.

Idea, goal, tasks

BeforeFirst of all, it is necessary to decide on the main idea of the project: which user groups need its implementation, whether the project idea meets the needs and requirements of the target audience, as well as the current situation, why this need could arise at all and whether this library can solve these problems. Here it is necessary to correlate the requirements: the project activity in the school library differs significantly from the university one. The idea needs to be confirmed with concrete data, expert assessments, real statistics, user requests, press publications, and the like.

The biggest difficulties arise in the formulation of goals and objectives. The goal, as usual, is a long-term result, the final product, exactly what causes the need to implement the project, that is, these are so far general statements, quantitatively and qualitatively not confirmed by anything. Formula for the desired result. Successful examples of project activities of libraries show that the long-term nature of the result does not prevent the creators from answering the question "why?". Tasks are usually easier, faster and easier to handle, because they are closely related to the problem being solved, are always specific and provide intermediate results of the project up to the final ones, reflect changes in the situation - quantitative and qualitative, and most importantly - they always have action.

That is why it is necessary to set tasks that are capacious and precise in terms. When the decision sounds: "improve this" or "improve this", the task itself will remain incompletesolved because no specific result is indicated. The report on project activities in the library should not contain such vague wording. Here we need clear verbs: “change to this”, “combine this and that”, “create this”, and so on. You can test yourself with questions when formulating a problem. For example: does this task have an exact deadline for its completion, do “what” and “how” replace “why” and “why” everywhere, is it possible to check and measure the result of solving this task, is this task feasible at all, are the conditions clear to everyone this task, will the solution of this task become more significant in terms of the result than the goal itself?

Development phase

The content of the development phase is to work out all the main components that are contained in the project, and to fully prepare it for implementation. First, it is now necessary to appoint a project manager and form a team. Secondly, develop the project structure, resources, identify the main work and determine the final result of each stage.

Scheduled plans, work schedules are drawn up, support is thought out - the budget and estimate of the project, control and management technologies are determined, possible risks are calculated. Finally, at this stage, an agreement is signed to finance the project. All this structural planning should enter the development phase.

It should be absolutely clear to the creators of the project at the moment what kind of activities are needed to be carried out in order to achieve the intendedresults, both intermediate and final. At this stage, it is already clearly defined what exactly will be done, who will carry out the planned actions, how he will do it, when it will happen, what is the sequence of actions, what resources all this will require.

Implementation phase

Now it is necessary to come to grips with the main work of the project, which the manager, as each action is carried out, will constantly monitor them. To do this, he will need detailed monitoring regarding the collection of all actual data in order to compare them with plans. At the end of the project, all the final goals outlined in the early stages of work must be achieved. The results are necessarily summed up and the project is closed.

At the stage of project implementation, the main content of the work usually consists in organizing an advertising company, in conducting presentations, after which the project is put into action. Methodological materials and publications in mass media are being developed. The result of the project is evaluated, the results are summed up and then the reporting part follows.

Reports are prepared both substantive and financial (for those organizations that were sponsors). The project is closed, sometimes solemnly. The best project is the one that never ends in the form of benefit that it brought. In this case, the results are sustainable and the experience gained can be shared with other organizations and libraries.

Project documentation

Project design indocuments should look something like this:

1. On the title page - the name of the project, its authors and the applicant organization.

2. An introductory part with a brief description of the project - no more than five sentences, where the statement and description of the problem for which the project was created are outlined, then convincing evidence of the need and justification for the relevance of the project (many slightly exaggerate this significance, and rightly so).

3. The purpose of the project and the final result after its implementation are indicated.

4. Tasks and ways to solve them are lined up.

5. Detailed information about the participants of the project. About the project manager. About performers. About partners.

6. The general content of the project with a list of activities necessary to solve each problem. Here it is convenient to use tables and graphs with dates of events and indication of responsible persons.

7. Cost estimate - project budget.

8. All about expected results.

9. On the development prospects based on the results of the project.

Afterword

therefore, this creative process attracts employees without any coercion, as well as library visitors and other residents of the area.

Need to write aboutthat project work is full of joy and words of gratitude, it contributes not only to the preservation, but also to the prosperity of each library, thus attracting the attention of authorities and business structures, various organizations, associations and the general public.

Legislation and new regulations

In recent decades, many social and economic changes have taken place in our country. It should be noted that the situation is not yet fully settled. FZ-131 was adopted on local self-government, for example, which greatly complicated both life and the activities of libraries. However, other approaches to manage the current situation are being developed.

And project development is one of the most effective ways to move librarianship into a modern direction. So far, these techniques have not been fully developed and are often of a spontaneous nature, however, even in these cases they show a high effect, even if the library is limited to the implementation of only individual elements of this direction.

The planned distribution system is already a thing of the past, legal regulation too, management is decentralized. All these changes cannot but affect the psychology of people, including librarians. The only thing that comes to the rescue is computer technology, which has made a sharp leap in development lately. This is invaluable in the project activities of any library - urban, rural, and children's.