With the project Innovative International Library Creativity, we aimed to achieve — and successfully did achieve — the following main goals: To increase young people's interest in visiting libraries, both school and public and to strengthen their motivation to read. To develop and test new, innovative programs that present the library to young people as a space for creativity, exploration, digital expression, and social connection. To digitally enhance and further equip library activities and spaces. To create inclusive library content accessible to students with fewer opportunities, underage migrants, and children from a Ukrainian orphanage, enabling them to preserve their mother tongue and cultural identity. To strengthen international cooperation, networking, and the exchange of good practices between libraries and schools, especially with Slovene communities in Italy. To establish a sustainable working model that libraries can incorporate into their annual work plans even after the project ends — including the creation of a handbook featuring the developed innovative practices.
All three partner institutions identified a shared challenge: a noticeable decline in young people's interest in visiting libraries and reading books. Both school and public libraries are seeing that adolescents, particularly after completing primary school, are less likely to borrow library materials and spend less time in the library. Traditional approaches to library activities are no longer effective in engaging young people in today’s digital world. In addition, we identified several other needs: A lack of innovative and interactive programs that would present the library to young people as a space for creativity, social connection, and self-expression; Insufficient use of digital tools to promote reading, such as book trailers and gamification of library content; Poorly adapted and under-equipped library spaces for youth, with limited or no areas for relaxed reading, working, or socialising; Inadequate inclusion of students with fewer opportunities, immigrants, and migrants in regular library activities; Limited opportunities for international cooperation, exchange of practices, and co-creation of new approaches, especially in the field of language preservation and cultural identity.