“My Mobility Project. Real … or Dreamed”
STUDENTS COMPETITION FOR ESSAY
I lived the unforgettable
Author: Anna Goral
Institute of Information and Library Science
Faculty of Management and Social Communication
Jagiellonian University
Cracow, Poland
There are some days that we think that the world is smiling to us without any reason, that
we don’t need any plans because nothing better can happen to us. And all our
anticipations are being left in a distance…
That is how I felt at 25th January 2008 when I was leaving a small town in middle Wales
– Aberystwyth where I have spent un unforgettable eight months of my life during the
exchange programmes I did. That feeling was connected also with the other one, the
great sadness that the adventure is finished and it is time to come back to the reality and
to leave that little world of Aberystwyth only in memories…
But starting from the beginning. At 6th June 2008 when after having the last look at
Wawel Hill, Vistula River in Cracow and saying goodbye to my friends and family I took
the flight to Manchester in Great Britain from where I went to Ripon, a small town in
North Yorkshire where under the Prof Frank N. Hogg’s scholarship I did a work
experience in a school library of Ripon Grammar School. From the first days I started
work in a school library with the supervision of Anne-Marie Tarter, the School Librarian
of The Year 2006. From that time I entered to an amazing world of school libraries, so
much different from Polish school libraries. That sentence can sound exaggerated but
Anne-Marie Tarter showed me that school library can be something more than just a
place where school pupils can borrow books and do their homework while waiting for
their parents to take them home after school. School library created and run by Anne-
Marie was an outstanding place where pupils could explore an amazing world of books
and knowledge and the librarian was their supporter and guide, someone on who they can
always rely on. Work with her showed me that even with the little financial support and
against the common stereotypes if we have the wish and will to do something, we can
reach a lot. School library is an important place in every person education and the role of
school librarian is to teach how to use the information resources and support pupils in
their work. That model of school library unfortunately is still unknown for Polish society.
Still, there is visible the stereotype of school librarian who wants to save books from
dangerous hands of pupils. That experience motivated me to start an active cooperation
with School Library Association (SLA) from United Kingdom which member I am since
April 2007, and together with my colleagues, who did the same experience in previous
years, to created a team and translate the ‘Guidelines’ published by SLA and distribute
them to Polish school librarians. This is the first step we did, which aims to change Polish
school librarians’ mentality and to help them to change their work places for more
effective and friendly for school pupils, closer to British type of school library which is
standard for most of West European countries. We hope that our project will be
successful and will become bigger and more complex in future.
After finishing my work experience in Ripon Grammar School Library and taking part in
SLA conference in Nottingham I went to spend another two weeks in Aberystwyth, small
town in Middle Wales and continue there my experience with British libraries. Before
going there I even didn’t know where exactly this town is and I didn’t know nothing
about Welsh culture. Maybe I can say that I was an ignorant. But when I heard ’croeso’
(‘welcome’ in Welsh) for the first time and saw amazing countryside of Wales I fall in
love with that country. During those fourteen days I visited different kinds of libraries,
from school, through public, university libraries, to National Library of Wales. All that
places helped me to improve my knowledge about the role, functions and the way that
libraries work, it helped me to see different way of organization and work of libraries.
The most impressing was for me The National Library of Wales. Still I have in my
memory it’s red carpets everywhere, friendly people and the knowledge they shared with
me. They taught me about their digital projects and international relations, networks they
try to create with other libraries, what was very impressing for me, especially that when
they talked it was always with passion, it was seen everywhere that those people love
their work and that they want to share it with others. And all that I experienced thanks to
Frank N. Hogg, and amazing person, full of warm and sun. He is the International
Ambassador of SLA, creator of many libraries all around the world, the creator of Faculty
of Librarianship in Aberystwyth, one of the most famous places in the world, where are
coming librarians from all over the world to study about libraries. He was the person who
showed and explained to me the truth role of libraries and their importance in societies
and who started my passion for the libraries.
The experience I had in Aberystwyth in June 2007 helped me to make the decision to
come back to that small city as an Erasmus student in September of academic year
2007/2008. The things I will never forget from that time are sunsets in the sea, trips
around the beautiful and picturesque countryside of Wales with friends. It is hard to tell
about all things, emotions and experiences I had during my Erasmus life. The most
important for me was that, except the knowledge I gained, I met amazing people who are
still my friends. Poland is rather homogenous country, where the citizens are almost only
Polish. In Aberystwyth I lived with people from the whole world: Germany, France,
Italy, Tunisia, Russia, USA, South America. Impossible? Cultural diversity is a driving
force of development, not only in respect of economic growth, but also as a means of
leading a more fulfilling intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life – this is the basic
thing I learnt during that time. That cultural mix helped me to become more open and
tolerant. Cultural diversity taught me respect and mutual understanding. I discovered the
diversity, how different people can be and how to deal with that. I can say I tasted the
world and its differences during that time. I understood and experienced on my own that
it is not religion or culture what divides people and we need to start and continue the
intercultural dialogue to make our future better.
In January 2008, after my return from Wales I started immediately work in Regional
Centre for European Information in Cracow and I am still working there. I did it mostly
because I wanted to share my experience and encourage other young people to do the
same experience as I did and to develop themselves. The greatest experience I had since
my work has started was when I went to a school for handicapped and deaf children to
teach them about history and role of European Union few weeks ago. It was amazing for
me to meet and be with those people. They asked me to help them to experience their
own mobility exchange because it is their dream to meet people like them from other
countries and share their thoughts and ideas. And then stars started to shine in my eyes
again. At that moment I realized that my mobility never finish. When you experience it
once then it still goes on…Now the aim of my mobility is to help to that children to
experience and feel the same as I did. The exchange programmes make you more open
for other people and situations, give you the feeling that you have the power to change
the world. Now I can change the world of those children and help them to make their
dreams to come true, and I am sure I am able to do it.
And what about your mobility project? Do you dream about it? Why you won’t
make your dreams come true? I can assure you that it is worth, don’t loose your
chance and start dreaming with eyes wide open…