European Voluntary Service (EVS)
For EVS volunteers and sending organisations – information for potential partner organisations and volunteers.
Our projects – information about our past present amd future projects.
Pro knihovny (For the libraries) – informace pro knihovny v ČR týkající se projektů Evropské dobrovolné služby a našich zkušeností.
For EVS volunteers and sending organisations
The North Bohemian Research Library in Usti nad Labem (Severočeská vědecká knihovna v Ústí nad Labem (PIC: 946552967, organisation ID E10114666)) is a public library with its activities covering Ustecky Region. It fulfils the role of a regional as well as a municipal library. Its founder is the public body of Ustecky Region. The main goal of the institution is to enable its user’s access to information. In this regard the library provides related services consisting mainly of loans accompanied by other expert processes like acquisition, cataloguing and documents preservation etc. Apart from that there are important educational and cultural tasks and in this field many activities and projects are organized – e.g. lectures and workshops for children, presentations of various topics, seminars for librarians, exhibitions.
Important part of our work is also the cooperation with volunteers. We started with cooperation with Czech volunteers and with European Voluntary Service (EVS) in 2012. Our project with Czech volunteers is focused on non-librarian issues (e.g. delivery of books to handicapped users), general issues (e.g. help the readers with orientation in Scientific Lending Room, help with finding document in online catalogue) or activities for public. Our EVS projects are focused on culture topics, communication, media and children.
We believe that volunteers can bring the library new possibilities, mainly in the field of public services. Our daily routine can be viewed in a new and a non-stereotype way, which can in its consequences lead to a better library profile and improve openness to the public. We hope that volunteers can broad our positive views on people from foreign countries and contribute to intercultural exchange.
Cooperation with volunteers enables a development to both sides, volunteers and also librarians. Volunteers help us widen our activities and services that brings benefits also to the library users and local community. Hand in hand with these library extends the net of people who are actively interested in issues connected with library. Volunteers also give us the highly-valued feedback that is important for a good development of the library.
Our projectshave two main lines. The first one is fosued to cooperation with Childre’s Library and its activities for children and families. Volunteers have possibility to work in team, to develop their creativity, show their own initiative and participate in intercultural dialog. Second line is consist on series of presentation about home country of volunteers. Volunteers have possibility to improve their digital competences and information literacy, to develop creativity and participate in intercultural dialog.
In addition volunteers take part in English Club which have been establish during our first EVS project in 2012. English Club is about regular non-formal meetings of people of various age who like to speak English and like to get to know new people. EVS Volunteers together with Czech volunteers will be responsible for coordinating meetings of the club, preparation of the topics for conversation or some games. We want to support an awareness of culture varieties and understanding among people of various age.
Important part of our projects are also librarian activities in different departments of library (lending and returning books, contact with readers, help with new documents processing, ordering and sorting books, searching databases etc.). Appart from that we offer an opportunity to make an exhibition connected with a cultural topic or write articles for our blog.
Usually we make projects for 6-10 months, mostly with one, sometimes with two volunteers. We are open to cooperate with EU countries and also with partners out of European Union. Motivation of volunteers and their experience and abilities are important for us – we can adapt project’s activities to them. So because of that, we usually choose volunteers at first and together with them and their sending organisations prepare grant application, content of the project and working plan.
Some usefull information for EVS volunteers
If you consider joining EVS in The North Bohemian Research Library, please let me draw your attention to information on this issue.
About the Czech Republic
We have 4 seasons in the year in The Czech Republic. In Autumn it is cold and damp, we have snow and freezes (about -10°C, sometimes coldlier) in Winter, in Spring the snow melts and thaws, Summer is not so hot as for example in Spain or southern Italy or Egypt (average temperature in The Czech Republic is about 25°C). So if you plan to stay on your EVS in The Czech Republic for the whole year, it is necessary to take various clothes with you – warm for the Winter, summery for the Summer and something between for Autumn and Spring.
The capital city of The Czech Republic is Prague. It is the biggest city in The Czech Republic (it has about one million inhabitans) and there is the residence of our president. It has a beautiful historical centre with many monuments and sights.
Currency of The Czech Republic is Czech crown (CZK, Kc). Some shops also accept Euros, but it is not usual. So your pocket money from EVS programme will be paid out to you in CZK (Kc).
It is good to know that if you ask anyone in The Czech Republic „How are you?“ people mostly answer either „tolerably“ or „not so well“. It is normal that people even if they are fine answer as mentioned above. It is a kind of a stereotype. Also you should be prepared to unsmiling faces in the streets. Especially in public transport people look reservedly and unapproachably.
Some useful links:
About Usti nad Labem
Usti nad Labem is situated on both banks of the river Elbe (Labe). It is an industrial city so sometimes especially in Autumn, there may occur thick smog. So if you suffer from any kind of allergy you might have some minor problems with your breath.
In Usti you can go by buses or trolleybuses or on foot as you like. For bus and trolleybus you need to buy a ticket or have a prepaid card on transport. Ordinary transfer ticket costs 18 Czech crowns (Kc), monthly prepaid card costs 535 Kc or 265 Kc if you are a student under 26 years. So if you have an ISIC it is good to take it with you. You will not have a discount only on fare but also for example on tickets to the cinema. To travel to another city you can use train or bus. There are two train stations and some bus stops.
In the centre there are loads of various restaurants, bars and clubs. If you like coctails you can visit a bar Saturnin which is not far from Mirove namesti (Peace Square). If you would like to taste good Czech beer you can visit a restaurant „Na Rychte“. There are also lot of cafés on Lidove namesti. You can sit on the small teracces during spring and summer. Also in the other parts of the city there are various restaurants, bars and clubs and it is not problem to find some favourite.
In the centre of Usti there is a large shopping centre where a cinema is situated too. Across the road of library building in W. Churchilla Street there is an open air cinema. Usti has also two theatres. The North Bohemian Theatre of Opera and Ballet is situated in the centre on Lidicke namesti (Square named after village Lidice). The second one is Cinoherak Usti (Drama Society) and it is situated in a building of old cinema in Prokopa Divise Street (not far from the big Masarykova Street in the center of Usti).
In Usti there are many beautiful view points on the city. One of them is Vetruse and you can go there by cableway from shopping centre. Another one is for example the Strekov Castle.
If you like fitness, zumba, jumping and so on, you can visit fitness centre Amazonky which is placed not far from the library. If you like cycling you can try the cycling path which runs through Usti.
In spite of the fact that Usti is industrial city, it is situated in a beautiful landscape as we have metioned in our description in EVS database. So you can make a lot of trips to the surroundings of the city. If you like nature you can go for example to the Ceske Stredohori. Popular are hills Radobyl, Lovos and Milesovka which is the highest peak of the Ceske Stredohori. If you like history, you can visit castle in Velke Brezno or towns Terezin and Litomerice which are about 20-25 km far from Usti nad Labem and you can go there by train, by bus or by bike.
If you like nightlife there is a little warning for you. It is not so safe to go through quarters Predlice, Trmice, Mojzir and Krasne Brezno at night. They are not ghettos, but these four quarters belong to so called exclude localities (you may have heard of Maticni Street). Agency for social integration works in most of them – e.g. Clovek v tisni (People in need).
Some useful links:
http://www.usti-nad-labem.cz/en/
About library
As we mentioned in our description in EVS database we are a regional library, it means we are a quite big library – about 100 employees. The whole library is not placed in one building. We have two main buildings in the centre of Usti nad Labem and six branch libraries in the area of Usti nad Labem. Volunteers will mostly be working in two main buildings that are not so far from each other (about 10 minutes of walking). At the beginning there will be someone who takes you here and there and we will give you a map too.
The library is divided in a number of departments. You can work in more than one during your EVS. Our EVS volunteers usually cooperate with Scientific Lending Room, English Literature Department and Children’s Library. But there are more possibilities. It depends on the project you will participate in and on your decision.
If you attend a library in your home town you may imagine what it is about. As you may know, library is about lending books, but not only about it. We also prepare some presentations and exhibitions for public, we build up digital database, organize PC and internet courses for seniors, etc. In the future we would like to run courses for students on working with the internet databases, on browsing the internet to get needed information, or on making quotations properly. So you can take part in it if you will be interested. Or you can work in Children’s Library and cooperate on activities for children users. And so on and so on. The other possibilities are written in our description in EVS database and it is up to you and deal between you and us what you would like to do in our library during your EVS.
In case of any further questions, feel free to contact us via e-mail evs@knihovnauk.cz.
Note
At present we do not have any free place for volunteers. Probably we will do a new project in 2022 or 2023. For more ask by e-mail (evs@knihovnauk.cz) project coordinator Zuzana Parizkova.
Our projects
Present project
At present we do not have any new project.
Previous projects
November 2019 – April 2020 Magical library
Project Magical library was individual volunteering project that was focused on librarian activities (sorting documents and putting them back to shelves, working with librarian catalogue, help readers with searching books etc.) including also activities for public (workshops, presentations, courses etc.). Volunteer participated in work of different library departments. In the frame of cooperation with Children’s Library she prepared and realized several artistic workshops for children.
Volunteer worked as an art teacher, so we use it in the project and open in the library oil painting course for public. Volunteer also took part in English Club (once a week non formal meetings of people who like speaking in English), but only marginaly, because her English level was not good enought to help with leading the club and preparing topics for discussions. Initially we planned to do presentations for a public about Turkey and lectures about Turkey for schools. But before we can start with it, emergency situation came, library was closed almost for two months for public and its functions was limited. Anyway, during this time we made online exhibition of oil painting, that made ladies who attended oil painting course (you can see it here). Volunteer also made a photographic catalogue with description how to make portreit with oil painting technique.
Blog articles:
https://blog.knihovnauk.cz/index.php/2020/03/30/939/
Olejomalba s Nur
November 2018 – July 2019 Meeting the library
In this project we cooperate with Tunisian volunteer Wissem Chaabane. We decided that in times that some people are affraid of young men from Arabic world, can be nice and helpful to have some young Arabic man in the library. Because we think that to have own positive experience is one hundred times better than talking and explaining.
Our project is focused to presenting Tunisian culture to public and to schools. Wissem will have two presentation for a public about Tunisia, he will make a photographic exhibition about his country and he will do some lectures for schools about his country and his volunteering project in the library. More over he will run an Arabic club in the library.
His other activities will connected with helping in different departments of the library, teaching French to librarians and take part in English Club. He has some experience with blogging, so we hope we involve him also in writing articles for our librarian blog.
Project should have started in September 2018, but we have a lot of difficulties with getting visa for Wissem, so finally the start was at the end of November 2018.
Blog articles:
https://blog.knihovnauk.cz/index.php/2019/01/04/na-pocasi-si-jeste-stale-zvykam/
Arabský klub s Wissemem
September 2017 – July 2018 Become a librarian
We hosted one Armenian volunteer Tatevik Tamazyan who we chose because of her librarian praxis – the idea was that during the project we could also share experience from librarian praxis in Armenia and the Czech Republic. The project was focused on cooperation with Children’s Library and activities for children and families. Tatevik also run lectures of Russian language for librarians and took part in English Club.
She learnt Czech very good and she was so brave that she spoke on two librarian conferences about her experience from our library in Czech language. She also visited Tabook, Festival of small publishers, which took a place in Tábor. She danced an Armenian dance of bride at First librarian ball and she had two interesting presentations about Armenia for public.
Blog articles:
https://blog.knihovnauk.cz/index.php/2017/11/23/uz-tu-nejsem-cizinkou/
https://blog.knihovnauk.cz/index.php/2018/04/05/jsem-soucasti-usti/
https://blog.knihovnauk.cz/index.php/2018/07/24/nechavam-tu-cast-sebe/
Tatevik_Oddělení cizojazyčné literatury
September 2015 – June 2016 Volunteering in the library
We hosted two volunteers. Elvira Abellán from Spain and Shushanik Zargaryan from Armenia. Elvira’s project was focused on cooperation with Children’s Library and activities for children and families. Shushanik’s project was concentrated to presentations about Armenia and its culture and writing articles for our blog. Both of them participated in librarian activities, English Club and giving classes of Spanish language (Elvira) and Russian language (Shushanik) to interested librarians from our library. Both of them visited some schools in Ústí nad Labem to present their home countries and EVS. They made us also great exhibition about their EVS project. They visited TABOOK festival in Tábor and conference about Children’s literature in Liberec.
Blog articles:
Articles are usually written in Czech and English. Usually Czech version is the first one.
My best choice (Moje nejlepší volba), Speaking with my hands walking with my friends (Rukama nohama – ale aspoň že nějak), A little bit different birthday …or maybe not? (Tak trochu jiné narozeniny … a nebo ne?), Volunteers and librarian conference (Dobrovolnice a knihovnická konference) by Shushanik Zargaryan
Tabook 2015 , Spanish Days in Náchod (Španělské dny v Náchodě) by Elvira Abellán
Rozhovor s Elvirou od Jaroslava Balvína
Rozhovor se Shushanik od Zuzany Pařízkové (Čermákové)
Večer v knihovně – havajský styl
February – August 2015 Voluntarily with the library
Project with Italian volunteer Giulia Manzella was connected with exhibition about some special Italian recipies from area of Modena and with presentation about food festivals of this region. Giulia also help us with lending books, made Italian lectures for librarians and read Italian fairytale in Czech for children.
Blog articles:
Articles are usually written in Czech and English. Usually Czech version is the first one.
My story in Ústí (Můj ústecký příběh) by Giulia Manzella
Další Italka v knihovně od Zuzany Čermákové
Giulia – prezentace
September 2013 – June 2014 EVS in SVKUL
Project with Italian volunteer Alessandra Lomonaco from Torino. She cooperate with our Children’s Library, especially on activities and workshops for children. She also made a presentation about Torino and exhibition about Children’s literature in Italy. She took part in English Club, taught Italian language to librarians and help with some common librarian activities and enjoyed the conference about Children’s literature in Liberec and TABOOK festival in Tábor.
Blog articles:
Articles are usually written in Czech and English. Usually Czech version is the first one.
Do Tábora! na Tabook! (only in English), About my EVS experience in Children’s Library (O mých zkušenostech v Dětském oddělení) by Alessandra Lomonaco
Rozhovor s Alessandrou od Zuzany Čermákové
Půjčovna s Alessandrou a Martinem
June – December 2012 EVS in Library
Our first EVS project. We cooperated with Italian volunteer Francesca Donzelli from Milano. She helped us with common librarian activities, cooperated with English Literature Department and made series of presentations about Italy. She also taught librarians Italian language and she founded English Club. She visited TABOOK festival in Tábor.
Blog article:
Rozhovor s Francescou od Jany Chadimové
Příprava tiramisu
Pro knihovny (For the libraries)
Severočeská vědecká knihovna v Ústí nad Labem je aktivní v projektech Evropské dobrovolné služby (EDS) od roku 2012. Tehdy ještě projekty EDS spadaly pod program Mládež v akci.
Od ledna 2014 byla Evropská dobrovolná služba začleněna do programu Erasmus+, konkrétně do Klíčové akce 1.
Knihovna má platnou akreditaci pro přijímání zahraničních dobrovolníků (přijímající organizace) a koordinování projektů (koordinační organizace). Máme za sebou pět úspěšných projektů. Naše projekty jsou zaměřené na knihovnickou práci včetně pomoci při některých akcích pro veřejnost, spolupráci s Dětským oddělením knihovny a prezentace o zemích a kulturách, ze kterých dobrovolníci/dobrovolnice pocházejí.
Logo programu Erasmus+
Od roku 2019 přešly projekty zahraničního dobrovolnictví pod nově vzniklý program Evropský sbor solidarity. Informace o tomto novém programu jsou buď na webu Domu zahraniční spolupráce (DZS), nebo na Evropském portálu pro mládež. Knihovna se do nového programu zapojí projektem Magical library, v rámci kterého bude hostit tureckou dobrovolnici – viz Future project.
Evropský sbor solidarity – logo
Jako výstup z našeho prvního projektu s názvem EVS in Library jsme vytvořili elektronického průvodce Evropskou dobrovolnou službou pro knihovny. Zapracovali jsme do něj jak své postřehy, tak postřehy naší dobrovolnice, která v knihovně pobývala a pracovala 6 měsíců. Myslíme si, že knihovny mají v oblasti Evropské dobrovolné služby co nabídnout, a doufáme, že se jich do tohoto projektu zapojí více. Průvodce je volně k použití.
Průvodce EDS pro knihovny
Vzhledem k začlenění programu Mládež v akci do nového vzdělávacího programu Erasmus+ jsme průvodce aktualizovali a předkládáme k volnému použití jeho novou verzi: Průvodce EDS pro knihovny 2015.
Pro více informací prosím kontaktujte Zuzanu Pařízkovou (dříve Čermáková) (parizkova@knihovnauk.cz), koordinátorku EDS projektů v Severočeské vědecké knihovně.
Evropská dobrovolná služba – myšlenková mapa
