1 Daily Innovators and Daily Educators in the Libraries LEARNING EXPERIMENTS IN THE LIBRARIES This document has been prepared for the European Commission; however, it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Published by Information Society Development Foundation TEAM LEADER: ISBN 978-83-933793-8-5 Magdalena Krasowska-Igras (Fundacja Rozwoju Społeczeństwa Informacyjnego, POLAND) RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS (in alphabetical order of surnames) Valdone Budreckaite Hannah Gent Silje Grøtan Torp Ieva Gumuliauskaite Baiba Holma Agne Kaufman Agnieszka Koszowska Magdalena Krasowska-Igras Marta Lewandowska Alma Masevičienė Anna Miodyńska Lena Rogowska Amund Haugen Steinbakken Silva Suhaņenkova Roberta Šurkutė Joanna Wcisło EDITION AND PROOFREADING Hannah Gent Team Agnieszka Koszowska GRAPHIC DESIGN of authors Magdalena Arażny / magdarysuje.pl 3 CHAPTER 1 | Status of local communities and quality of life 4 CHAPTER 2 | Learning experiments in libraries and local culture centres. 111 Case studies series of different models and approaches to the learning offer of library CHAPTER 3 | Challenges and success factors in developing 148 an adult education offer in libraries CHAPTER 4 | National perspectives 157 REFERENCE LIST 231 Table of contents 4 Chapter 1 Status of local communities and quality of life „Being able to measure people’s quality of life is fundamental when assessing 5 the progress of societies. There is now widespread acknowledgement that measuring subjective well-being is an essential part of measuring quality of life alongside other social and economic What is quality of life dimensions.” OECD Guidelines on Measuring and how can we Subjective Well-being, 2013 improve it? Everybody wants to live a life which is interesting, fulfilled and happy. Everybody has their own understanding of what a „good” life is, and most people would say they could improve something in their lives. Some believe that we are responsible for our own quality of life; others believe that there is nothing we can do to change our fate. But in both cases there is the possibility to try and to improve some aspects of our life in everyday activities. Happiness studies prove that we can improve our quality of life (Helliwell et al., 2015). One way to do so is to take care of our life and ourselves. This means being proactive in acquiring knowledge to improve quality of life and making time for learning throughout our lives. Several studies indicate that lifelong learning has a positive impact on quality of life, especially on senior citizens and people at risk of social exclusion. Among possibilities to improve quality of life is to obtain new knowledge in different dimensions of life: from better understanding ourselves to better understanding others and the world in which we live. The next step is to obtain skills and literacy in order to undertake activities towards a more satisfied life. There are different ways to learn – we can learn from events in our life or from our own experience, we can study in schools (formal education) and we can participate in courses and programmes organised by different institutions (non-formal education). Public libraries have the potential to support, foster and facilitate a learning space for individuals from local communities. 6 Variety of definitions What is „quality of life”? One of the many definitions says that quality of life is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. For centuries, the study of quality of life has occupied the minds of philosophers and other thinkers. The most thorough and systematic investigations into quality of life started in the 1970s when the research of quality of life was consolidated as a research field (Gomes et al., 2010), and scientists tried to find instruments and indicators with which to meaningfully measure quality of life. Based on several publications, the concept of quality of life can be understood in different ways. Gomes et. al (2010) says that it can be understood both as an interdisciplinary concept which combines sciences like sociology and economics, but also as a multidimensional concept – where several dimensions composing quality of life, both objective (statistics, GDP, life expectancy, average household income) and subjective (happiness, life satisfaction) are used to measure the quality of life. Quality of life is a concept that can be studied in both individual and societal level. On an individual level it is important to understand the life situation of a person, for example health is often one of the most important indicators of individual quality of life. On a societal level it is important for policy makers to assess the living conditions and holistic life satisfaction national level. 7 These different ways of measuring quality of life are combined and presented in the Eurostat publication Quality of life: facts and views (2015). „As people’s life satisfaction cannot be reduced to one single aspect, this publication presents the different aspects of quality of life, combining objective indicators with the subjective evaluation of individuals’ situations. The subjective indicators available for each dimension are analysed taking into consideration different socio-economic factors such as age, sex, labour status, etc. while their impact on self-assessed satisfaction levels are evaluated. Then the relationship between the subjective perceptions and the objective measurements belonging to the same domain are studied. Nevertheless, the dimensions are often interlinked and multi-causality appears.” (Eurostat, Quality of life: facts and views, 2015, p. 12) overall experience of life material living conditions productive education health meaning of life, satisfaction of satisfaction with finances: incomes, financial or main activity education system, education physical and mental different areas of life, happiness, resources available for spending and employment situation, level, knowledge and skills health, life expectancy, subjective well-being, presence ownership of material goods and services, satisfaction with job, etc. relevant for 21st century care about own health or absence of positive and housing conditions negative feelings leisure and social interactions economic and physical safety governance and basic rights natural and living environment participation in recreational and economic safety includes such discrimination level across genders, air and water pollution, noise pollution, cultural activities, satisfaction with time aspects as wealth, debt, job voting rate, level of trust to the police, satisfaction with living environment use, people’s ability to benefit from insecurity, physical safety – crime legal system; political system support from others when needed, statistics, subjective perception of satisfaction with personal relationships insecurity Since the model is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, taking into account many of the factors that influence quality of life and with a particular focus on Europe, we will use it as a basis for the analysis of quality of life in each of the countries considered in the DIDEL project. 8 Status of quality of life in Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland 9 STATUS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN NORWAY Norway and the Nordic countries rank at the top of most indexes measuring well- being and quality of life. Even when factors other than financial and living conditions are measured, the Nordic countries still score highly. The high index scores in the Nordic countries are largely explained as an effect of the Nordic model of democracy, the welfare state, trust and wealth in these countries. Ronald Inglehart, director of the World Value Survey, emphasises the value profile of the Nordic countries as relevant for quality of life, both when it comes to development towards secularism and the individualisation and „self-expression” processes (Loga, 2010). According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report Economic Surveys Norway 2016, Norway scores well in practically every dimension of the OECD’s Better Life Index: NORWAY 10 „Household disposable income ranks third highest in the OECD area and this is echoed in good outcomes in jobs, earnings, and housing. Furthermore, scores relating to subjective well-being, work-life balance and the environment are good. Low levels of inequality and poverty are being driven by strong societal values of inclusiveness and egalitarianism and by other features of the „Nordic model”. In particular, emphasis on the quality of education, encouraging and facilitating the employment of women, well functioning centralised wage bargaining systems, good legal frameworks for business and high levels of trust in society.” (OECD, 2016). LOCAL COMMUNITIES The Norwegian demographic has changed over the last 50-60 years. Since the 1980s there has been strong population growth, largely due to immigration. The majority of these immigrants come to work from EU member states such as Poland, Lithuania and Sweden. However there are also many refugees coming from Somalia and countries in the Middle East. In 2015 15, 6% of the Norwegian population were immigrants or people born in Norway to immigrant parents. It is important to involve immigrants in Norwegian social systems. Local organisations like sports clubs, amateur theatre, choir, brass band etc. are important arenas for socialising