ZLA Forum – A Platform for Education, Empowerment, and Collaboration of Librarians

Abstract

The Zagreb Library Association (ZLA) was founded almost 50 years ago and currently has more than 500 members. Activities of the ZLA varied over the years with an additional challenge – to be interesting to all, or at least to the majority of the members, and to connect members working in different types of libraries. The practice has shown that librarians lack a place where they can discuss the problems they face in their daily work, a place where they can follow professional trends, and enhance their professional knowledge. Since continuous professional development is one of the ZLA goals, the ZLA Forum was launched in 2019 as a special program for informal education and topics from the field of information sciences but also from other professions. The ZLA Forum has been originally conceived and launched by the ZLA and is continuously held in the form of lectures and/or workshops throughout the year. The ZLA Forum is intended for the entire library community, it is free for participants. Since it is in virtual form, members of other regional associations are increasingly involved in the ZLA Forum, as well as librarians from neighboring countries. It is also important to note that the ZLA Forum is organized by the members of the Zagreb Library Association.

The ZLA Forum is constantly adapting and has undergone all forms, from physical and virtual to hybrid. The importance of the ZLA Forum is its adaptability and accessibility to all librarians, regardless of whether they are members of the ZLA or not. That was recognized by the Ljerka Markić-Čučuković Foundation, and the ZLA received an award for the year 2019, in the category in which the award is given to a library, institution, association, and individual who promote the library profession and librarianship in general. Twenty-eight ZLA Forums have been held since 2019, with 140 lecturers or panelists and 1700 participants.

Through the ZLA Forum, librarians connect more with each other, and share and transfer knowledge, skills, and experience, thereby improving operations in their libraries. The ZLA Forum has significantly influenced Croatian librarianship.