This paper reports on the results of an empirical study of public librarians’ conception of how public libraries support lifelong learning, as well as the role of information literacy in relation to lifelong learning. Lifelong learning has become essential to all people in today’s information society as a result of easy and free access to information. A basic understanding of the concept is ‘learning throughout life, either continuously or periodically’. This implies that learning is not restricted to educational institutions, but can also take place in for example the public library. Public libraries thus may play an important role in supporting the learning process not the least because lifelong learning is characterised by the inclusion of informal elements of learning, flexible learning opportunities, and a shift towards selfdirected learning. This self-directed learning promotes active citizenship and employability, thereby enabling people to participate in all spheres of social, political and economic life. Therefore, how do the public librarians conceive the learning responsibility and their own role in supporting lifelong learning? Furthermore, how do public librarians become better at teaching? The study reports on data from 12 interviews of purposely selected public librarians and a large-scale e-mail survey (questionnaire). The e-mail survey contained 28 questions and was sent to all staff members in public libraries in Denmark, and resulted in 986 responses. The results show that the public librarians consider the public library to be an important place for learning. The results also show how the public librarians find that they could become better at teaching and facilitating learning. This could in turn affect the sharing of knowledge and collaboration.
Fulfilling the tasks imposed on libraries by „The Act on Libraries” would not be possible without providing adequate training for users. The article shows how the Jagiellonian Library organizes and conducts trainings. We want the Library to be perceived as an inviting place for education in all its aspects: self-study, mutual education, and instructing.
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Wypełnianie zadań, jakie nakłada na biblioteki Ustawa o bibliotekach, nie jest możliwe bez prowadzenia przez biblioteki działalności dydaktycznej. Artykuł prezentuje jak w Bibliotece Jagiellońskiej organizujemy i prowadzimy szkolenia w zakresie korzystania z zasobów bibliotecznych. Dydaktyka w bibliotece musi obejmować: samokształcenie, kształcenie wzajemne, nauczanie. Dążymy do tego, aby Biblioteka postrzegana była, jako dobre miejsce dla edukacji w jej wszystkich wymiarach.
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