Tooling Up: Professional Development Programs оf Librarians for the Implementation of Digital Tools in the Work With Children and Youth

Abstract

The introductory part of the paper presents the advantages and positive effects of the implementation of digital technologies in the library when working with children and young people in order to develop reading habits and creativity from the earliest age. Due to the digital revolution, the library profession is faced with new challenges. It seemed necessary to systematically develop a positive attitude of librarians towards new technologies, empowerment of IT competencies, continuous education, and encouragement for the use of digital tools in their work with children and young adults. However, the analyses of accredited programs for continuing professional development in library and information profession, approved by the National Library of Serbia in the period from 2014 to 2017, show the lack of professional development programs aimed at encouraging children to read with the use of new technologies. The paper, further on, presents the Belgrade City Library’s seminar implemented during 2018 ‒ „Tools in hands: creation and animation of the stories with the help of ICT tools”. This accredited seminar summarizes the knowledge and rich experience in the field of implementation of new technologies when working with children and young adults in the libraries. Finally, the results of the evaluation of seminar conducted through an anonymous questionnaire filled in by its participants are presented and analyzed. The interest of a large number of librarians for the seminar dealing with new technologies shows a desire and readiness of librarians to master digital tools in order to use them in an innovative way. This indicates that more seminars concerning the work with children need to be organized, along with the incorporation of new technologies into the work of librarians at children’s libraries.