Libraries for Everyone: Inspirational applications for municipal public libraries

Abstract

The Project “Libraries for Everyone-LIFE”, which is funded by the Global Libraries Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is the most comprehensive project conducted at the municipal public libraries in Turkey so far. The Project has started in early 2016 and will end in July 2018. By the end of the Project LIFE, most of the municipal public libraries in Turkey will have been transformed into institutions that are used by more people who will be meeting their informational needs. At the heart of the strategy for attracting more users to these libraries is the designing and delivery of creative, innovative, and most importantly, relevant library services. Accordingly, one of the earliest activities of the Project has been to conduct community needs assessment. The assessment has provided important data and valuable insight toward the design of new services. After the assessment period, different technological applications have been introduced to users at the participating libraries. In this poster, the conceptual background of the project related activities will be introduced and some inspirational applications for libraries (for example, 3D printing services) will be illustrated.