Training for professional librarians in Slovakia by distance-learning methods: an overview of the PROLIB and EDULIB projects

This article provides an overview of the PROLIB and EDULIB projects which involved the development and delivery of distance-learning courses in the Slovak language to library and information professionals in the Slovak Republic. Six modules were developed: Changes in libraries and the need to manage change; Customer care in libraries; Internet and new information technologies in libraries; Management implications of information technology in libraries; Electronic publishing; and Digital libraries. Each course comprised a week of “face- to- face” lecture sessions, practicals and group discussions followed by three months of guided work through printed self-study workbooks and computer mediated Internet communication. The courses were held in training centres at university libraries in two towns in Central and Eastern Slovakia(Zvolen and Kosice). The initial project, PROLIB was funded by the European Union’s Tempus Phare Programme and involved partners in England, Sweden and Wales as well as in Slovakia. A complementary project, EDULIB, enabled the updating of course materials and the training of more librarians and was funded by the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation.