Brief summary of activities in the CECL of Latvia for OSI TCI

1. Brief summary of activities in the CECL of Latvia for OSI TCI Andris Vilks Director of National Library of Latvia, the information supplied by CECLL Director, Assistant Professor Iveta Gudakovska

2. Short summary • Creation of CECLL in 1998. • Trends of the Continuing Education Centre • Distance Learning for Librarians: Formation of Competent Information Society • Fundamental Principles of Activities • SWOT

3. Creation of CECLL • Departament of Library Science and Information of the University of Latvia • National Library of Latvia • Vendor of Homebred LIS - IT ALISE Ltd. • Library Information Network Consortium • Supported by SF-L and OSI

4. Organisation • The University of Latvia • Board of the Centre • Administration • 1998 – 2001: 3216 participants

5. Trends of the Continuing Education Centre • Development of programmes for continuing education and organization of training • Development of the resources of teaching staff and updating of teaching methods • Cooperation with library and information specialists and related education structures in Latvia and abroad • Research in the field of continuing education • Development and management of projects for improving library work, library science and information services

6. The most popular courses • Automated retrieval of information • Information services • Library services for children and youth • Organization and management of school libraries as information centres • Supplying books and organization of library resources • Project management • Librarians’ professional ethics • The psychology of a librarian • Social and psychological aspects of communication • Exhibitions in libraries

7. Distance Learning for Librarians: the Formation of Competent Information Society • principles for using INTERNET • additional possibilities of INTERNET • formation of home pages with the programme Front Page

8. Strong Points • interest of staff members and managers • perspective of the NLL project, including SULIS • coordination of program with LU LIS school • partial international co-operation • support of local authorities • partial research of requirements ensures an appropriate offer • earmarked financing since 2002

9. Weak Points • library budget fails to ensure the staff development • versitale research of requirements and market demands are not carried out • library representatives of small local authorities consider the courses to be too expensive • fear of separate leaders from competetiveness • lack of personnel training in libraries • lack of continuing educational traditions

10. Weak Points • brain drain of qualified staff to other branches • low level of comprehensive education • necessity of resources for new educational methods and creation of teaching aids • LIS ALISE has been taught as the only sw, without training how to choose LIS • accumulation of training process in Riga • lack of trainers in many disciplines • prolonged and systemathic courses

11. Opportunities • prestige of knowledge and education increases • labour market demands new skills and knowledge • opportunities for perfection grow • opportunities for using technologies enlarge • market demands increase • to expand the co-operation with CEC of neighbouring states • to expand the co-operation with CEC of other branches in Latvia • implementation of the NLL project, including SULIS envisages considerable investment for training,continuing education among them

12. Opportunities • international co-operation of library schools • diversity and flexibiliy of teaching proposals • adaptation of elaborated materials and methods • enlargement of the role of distance learning

13. Eventual Threat • Low salary for library staff • lack of staff development plan • demogrāphics • inability to establish a unified continuing education system on a public scale • formation of alternative CEC in regions