Mobile Libraries

The Library of Ioannina ?Zosimaia? has a Mobile Unit, which serves communities that do not have direct access to a library. This unit is part of the Central Library, it follows the law, the Internal Regulation and the collection and service management policy of the Public Library.

The Library ?Zosimaia?, within the project “Support of educational act by mobile libraries” of the Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training II, of the Ministry of Education, began implementing the program in the School Year 1999-2000. It serves schools of Primary and Secondary Education of Ioannina, Preveza and Arta and the province of Paramythia in Thesprotia.

Within the operational program: ?Information Society? Creating a Public Information Centre, structured cabling and network equipment have been installed in the premises of the library as well as special equipment for the network interconnection of the mobile library via satellite.

Objectives of the Mobile Library:

  • to complement and reinforce the classroom with information (reference books, teaching material, encyclopedias, dictionaries, scientific studies, extracurricular books, etc.) and technological means (cd-rom, videos, etc.)
  • to open new information and communication paths for both students and teachers
  • to promote new ways of entertainment and alternative approach to the information world either through books or by using new technologies and the internet.

The Mobile Library collection includes about 17,000 titles of printed material and 248 titles of audio-visual material. All subject modules requested by the educational and student community are covered.

There are Loan centers in schools of Primary and Secondary Education in the region of Epirus, in organizations and institutions, such as the Pediatric Clinic of the General Hospital “Hatzikosta”, the children’s home of  the Monastery “Dourahani?, the School of 2nd Chance, the first children?s home of the Company for the Promotion of Mental Health, etc.

The visits to all the school units are completed in two months? time. Six visits to each school take place, on average, during the school year. There is a possibility of increasing the number of visits according to the needs of the schools.

Evaluation of the project “Support of educational act by mobile libraries”

The Library ?Zosimaia?, within the program ?Support of educational act by mobile libraries?, is responsible for the data gathering and evaluation of the entire program of all the libraries involved.

To this end two documents have been drawn up and adopted:

  • The first document, entitled ?Performance Measurement and Efficiency of the Project Form: ?Support of educational act by mobile libraries?, Ioannina 2000, has been designed to create a longitudinal study basis of the effects of the Public and Mobile Libraries operation. It adopts a framework of international standards. It, also, reflects the methodology that aims to form the strategy and policy of the development and operation of public and mobile libraries in Greece. This form has been distributed to all the libraries that implement the Programme and filled with facts and figures that each library had for the two halves of 2003.
  • The information, collected and processed, as well as the results of the processing are presented in the second document, entitled ?Performance and Efficiency Measurement Form of the Project: Support of the educational act by mobile libraries?.
  • The measurement results of the first half of 2003 and the aggregated data to specific operational questions of Mobile Libraries are reflected in the ?Performance and Efficiency Measurement Form of the Project: Support of the educational act by mobile libraries?. Special Edition, Ioannina 2004.
  • The recording and evaluation of the project of the Mobile Libraries during the school year 2004 are reflected in the form “Performance and Efficiency Measurement Results Project: Support of educational act by mobile libraries”, Ioannina 2005.
  • The results for 2005 and 2006 were released under the title of Performance and Efficiency Measurement Results Project: Support of educational act by mobile libraries, Ioannina 2005.

In conclusion we can observe that an initial approach of the data shows a proper functioning of the Mobile Library by its presence at the educational institutions of the remote areas.