REGIONAL THEMATIC MEETING "INNOVATIVE PRACTICES TO ENCOURAGE CHILDREN READING" WAS HELD ON 28 AND 29 NOVEMBER 2012 IN SLIVEN

A regional meeting on "Innovative practices for promoting children's reading" on the program "Global Libraries - Bulgaria" was held in "Deva" complex on 28 and 29 November 2012. The meeting gathered together more than 65 librarians from target libraries from Sliven region, and more than 20 representatives of municipalities, and educational and cultural institutions – partners of the libraries in implementing their educational initiatives. The meeting was opened by the Mayor of Sliven engineer Kolyo Milev. In his speech he said: "... It has been a year since the beginning of my term as a Mayor of Sliven and I can give already an assessment of the program "Global Libraries - Bulgaria" in the municipality, and I think that my colleagues in other municipalities would agree with my assessment too. The program changed the functions of the community centers and of the libraries. They have become modern centers for knowledge and information that meet not only educational and cultural needs, but also important social functions. The program, by organizing training courses, changed the work and self-esteem of librarians too. It also changed the attitude of local communities to libraries - they are now the focal point not only for the residents of small settlements, but for all citizens. In libraries people may acquire new knowledge and skills, variety of initiatives and projects may be implemented too, they are full of life ... I am glad that the program funds initiatives targeted at the youngest readers, at children, at our future. It's really important to work with children from infancy. If our children grow up literate and clever, the future of our country will be much better ... I welcome today's event and wish you a successful and fruitful work, let the best practices for promoting children's reading very soon become a priority in the work of all of you ... " . The core of the forum began with an introductory report on topic "How to provoke the children interested in reading" presented by the director of "Sava Dobroplodni" Regional library - Sliven Rosica Petrova-Vasileva. In her report she answered the questions: Why reading is important for children? Why kids today read less? How to provoke the children’s interest in reading? How to encourage children's reading? The both plenary day 12 reports and presentations were presented. A workshop on reading on the methodology of the Italian actor Lorenzo Basso and Sabrina Karleti /held for the first time in Bulgaria, a joint project of the Theatre Foundation "Aida" /Verona, Italy/ and "Sava Dobroplodni" Regtional library - Sliven / was also held. During the first day in four reports and presentations were presented various initiatives of "Sava Dobroplodni" Regional Library for creating interest in books and reading /performances for children "In the magical world of fairy tales", the workshop "Summer in the library", "Marathon in reading", "Christmas in the Library", The National Children's Book Festival, competitions, holidays in the library, meetings with writers, book presentations, literary competitions, quizzes and competitions, etc./. In her report on "Creativity of children - an important component of action for introducing to children the world of books and libraries" Mira Tasich - Head of Children's Department of the National Library "S. Stremats" - Nish /Serbia/ presented various educational workshops and activities for creative development of children and the literary and artistic works created in them and how by organization them was achieved introducing library’s funds to children, interest in books and reading was created. Interesting presentation shared the experience of the library at “Hristo Botev” community centre in the village of Byala for using educational computer games to stimulate children's reading. In the agenda of the meeting also took part children's writers Vesela Flamburari and Petya Alexandrova, who chose the non-traditional forms to create interest in books and reading featuring the author. According to Vesela Flamburari "... The writer wants to inspire readers with the ideas from his books. To achieve this goal when presenting their books to the children, writers must use the expression means of theater and children's game ... " Using the techniques of puppet theater, Vesela Flamburari demonstrated to the audience how she presents her books to children's audience. Petya Alexandrova shared impressions of her participation in the organized by "Sava Dobroplodni" Regional library, within the program of the National Children's Book Festival, "Troubadour duels" between children's poets and stressed that these different, impressive for children representations of authors and their works increases the interest of the child to books and reading. The workshop on reading attracted great interest. The main aim of the organizers was to unlock the potential of librarians to make them develop new skills that will help them to successfully fulfill the role of managers of children's reading, presenting in the most interesting way for children certain literary work. In the first part of the workshop librarians got acquainted with the methodology of Lorenzo Basso and Sabrina Karleti and learned how to apply it creatively in their work. The main elements of the methodology were illustrated by examples of the "Sava Dobroplodni" Regional library’s work with children / performances based on the tales of Alexander Pushkin, Ran Bosilek, Hans Christian Andersen/. In the second part, librarians, divided into four groups, prepared and presented by their representatives to the public five creative tasks on different literary works. Moderators of the workshop on reading were Rosica Petrova-Vasileva, Evgenia Nencheva, Tsena Markova, Yoana Dimitrova, Galia Getsova andZlatina Petkova. The second day of the forum was devoted to the use of the new media - animation, movies and computer games for provoking the interest of children to books. An interesting presentation on topic "Classic fairy tale in various media and how visual version provoke interest in the original paper version" presented by Senior researcher Dr. Radostina Neykova /NATFA "Krastyo Sarafov"- Sofia/. The owner of "VIKSIS" company demonstrated also multimedia educational games "BUKVENKA" and "Pismenka". Snezhana Yaneva, Director of the Information Center of the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria presented the experience of American libraries to help children read by the Earliy Literacy Station / ELS /. At the end of the presentation on behalf of the U.S. Embassy, Mrs.Yaneva donated "Sava Dobroplodni” Regional library a computer and specialized software with the modules of the program. The two-day event ended with the presentation of the regional manager of the program "Global Libraries - Bulgaria" Krasimir Hristov on topic "Program "Global Libraries - Bulgaria" and the changes in Bulgarian libraries /vision, services, users/". Moderator of the regional meeting was Rosica Petrova-Vasileva - Regional Coordinator of the "Global Libraries - Bulgaria" program for Sliven region and director of "Sava Dobroplodni" Regional library-Sliven.