Idea Factory — projects for a modern young adult library
On October 8, winners of Idea Factory — the competition for the best library project — were announced.
In September, we invited young people to submit ideas for library projects. During the month that followed we received over 30 interesting, unusual projects. Authors of the 10 best ideas got the opportunity to present their projects to the library administration and creative department as well as other guests and library visitors. There was free entry for all, and the number of people who wished to see the presentation was beyond the Comics Centre’s capacity, so a live online broadcast was arranged.
The projects were very diverse: basic psychology classes, a conference similar to TED, ethnic days, a science club, programming classes, role-playing games aimed at self-development, a design project, learning foreign languages in tandem etc. The biggest project was "Book-carriage" submitted by students Irina Mishina and Mikhail Smirnov: it entailed turning a whole underground train carriage into a library-on-wheels.
"It was a pleasant surprise for us to see that the participants took the preparation and presentation of their projects very seriously. The projects are very different, yet they all aim at making the library’s life better and more fun. We were happy to see so many young people attending the presentation, taking part in the discussion, and asking interesting and intelligent questions", said Irina Mikhnova, the library director.
There were many questions and the discussion was longer than expected; in the end, the event lasted three hours instead of two, as planned.
The jury selected four projects to be implemented in RSLYA: Maksim Zhelezny’s programming course; a psychological game called The Dark Tower and developed by Ekaterina Kirichenko and Anatoly Turtyanski; Ekaterina Kirsanova’s educational project Ethnic Day; and basic psychology and self-development classes from Ekaterina Yashnikova.
Idea Factory was a success both for the library and the young readers, so the competition will happen again next year. Follow updates on our website.
