With PLIP project AgroLib-Ja, supported by eIFL, four village libraries were

renovated. The partners support was of great importance.

Before the implementation of the AgroLib-Ja project village libraries were
abandoned, dark, cold places without users. Library material was inaccurate, school
readers had not been bought for twenty years, and there were no professional
agricultural literature (books and magazines). Also, libraries did not have computers
or Internet access.
After a years time implementation of the project AgroLib-Ja, the former glory
was returned to the village libraries. Library rooms were renovated, school readers
were bought for children, existing book funds were renewed, new professional
agricultural books and magazines were bought, libraries were equipped with
computers and the Internet was set up. Farmers were given a new opportunity to
advertise their products on the Agrolib market.
Renovated libraries became pleasant places again where farmers, children
and other parts of population come. Libraries abandoned out-of-date and in practice
obsolete concept of work with only a book in hands and switched to a new way of
working that involves the use of new ITC and the development of new services
aimed at improving living conditions of people in a local community.

DODATI KLIP SA MATOM I PROMENITI MUZIKU UZETI IZ EIFL KLIPA

Local self-government of Jagodina recognized the importance of the
AgroLib project for the residents of surrounding villages and provided funds for
renovating libraries, enabled creation of new jobs for village librarians and
representatives of local self-government participated actively in the debates held in
the villages. What is important is the support of local self-government given to
farmers and agricultural associations, which solved a lot of problems with the
assistance of libraries.
E LINK CVIJETIC

In addition to continued cooperation in the field of farmers education and

administrative assistance related to the registration of village households, the most
significant contribution of the Network for Rural Development Support as a
partner in the project AgroLib-Ja was making contacts and paying visits to farmers
on their farms. In cooperation with the representative of the Network we visited a
lot of agricultural households which the videos were made about (in our production
and with the help of the local TV station), http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Y4vHzLjDLLA with the aim to promote agricultural production, old crafts and
village tourism. In order to advertise farmers and their products, as well as the
activities of the AgroLib-Ja project, a lot of promotional posters, brochures, flyers

and business cards were made. The Network representative actively participated in
communication even at the time of interviewing. Videos mentioned had a great
significance for each visited farmer. After advertising through the video material and
broadcasting on local TV station, posting on YouTube, advertised farmers made new
contacts important for advertising their products and improving agricultural
production. Examples:
1. Dejan Stankovi, one of the first users of the AgroLib project, saw the
possibilities through the project offered by the Internet to promote agricultural
product. Thanks to the Internet, he has increased the sale of traditional-made
cheese prepared by his grandmother. Being motivated by the success he has
achieved thanks to the project, he took an active part in it and helped other farmers
acquire IT education organized within the project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44MZ-cNN6xI
2. Beekeeping Association from Bagrdan solved financial problems and
the visit to the Beekeeping Fair for the members of this association and the
association from Jagodina was organized. Thanks to the advertising on professional
websites (SPOS, Poljobreza, AgroLib market) as well as on the local television which
followed the activities of the project, the interest in beekeeping products increased.
Also, the association benefited greatly from the lectures, where the members had
the opportunity to hear top experts and apply the acquired knowledge into practice
immediately. In the lectures and fair, the beekeepers gained significant contacts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UkbimYT0zc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=padvqfJV5C0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLxhLHWZlRg
3. Zoran Miloevi, graduate agricultural engineer, after advertising on
the AgroLib market sold 1.500kg of quince to the farmer Marjan Tanasijevic from
Topola. Also, he gained some important contact for the future cooperation through
the website. After publishing his article on the quince growing on the AgroLib
website which encountered a great response all over Serbia, a lot of people called
for the expert advice. Being motivated by such interest, we hired Milosevic who
delivered lectures on alternative fruit species cultivation in two village libraries. The
response was outstanding and the interest of the visitors for the topic was even
greater. The lecture was interactive (in both villages) and after the lecture a lively
discussion followed, along with tasting the quince brandy which the lecturer served
as his own product (since he is engaged in the production of quince brandy himself),
so the people present could make sure of the credibility of the theoretical lecture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbGt54pXTw

The Agency for small and medium enterprises and registered

households provided assistance in registering farms and education. Also, the
representative of the Agency actively involved each professional lecture organized
in the village libraries. Each time rural population was informed on current
measures carried out by local and federal government, which were important for
agricultural production and agricultural producers.
The representative of the Agency was a mediator between local self-government
and farmers in solving many problems. Through the engagement of the director of
the Agency the transport for the International Beekeeping fair in Belgrade was
organized. So the beekeepers from a beekeeping association Pcelar from Bagrdan
for the first time participated in the fair. The Agency increased significantly the
number of users of services compared to the period before the project
implementation and it noticed the Board when reporting on their own work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHqkh-VXUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvHkCwyWuGE
IT education within the AgroLib project include six schools of computer in total
where 59 farmers were trained, four village librarians and one project partner. The
training was adapted to each trainee individually depending on their needs,
interests and existing level of knowledge. Following units were worked on: text
processing, using web service, using e-mail service, video chat (Skype), picture
processing (GIMP, MS Paint), social networks. Thanks to IT training a great number
of users in village libraries is now able to communicate with their relatives abroad
through Skype. After setting up the Internet in the village library and with the help
of the librarian, Mirjana Luki from Glavinci started communicating on Skype with
her relatives in the USA. It was the stimulus for her to start attending the school of
computer. After the training, she was trained to communicate independently and
without the librarians help, which was of great significance for the rest of her family
to communicate on the Internet from their home with their relatives from another
part of the world. Also, since Mirjana Luki is a private entrepreneur (owns the
independent tailors shop), after registration on AgroLib market and the computer
training, she pointed out the Internet offers new business possibilities and work
can be done much faster and cheaper. Radovan Tasi farmer from Bunar, found
new sorts of seed for expanding his agricultural production on the Internet after
completing the computer training. Our first user of the Agrolib market Mata from
Glavinci, since he has been advertising for the longest period of time, he benefited
mostly from the Internet. I regularly get offers through the Internet from different
parts of Serbia and abroad.
An example of e-mail that Mata received from Bosnia:
Ivan Sevdi:

Dear my number is +385 66 61* ***, could you please send me the price list for
your products because I run a souvenir shop in Prijedor, so I am interested.
A farmer Mia from the village Bresje, is one of the students in the computer
school for farmers in Glavinci and nearby villages, and he solved the key problem of
his further land cultivating, that was called into question due to the breakdown of
his tractor. A necessary spare part for a tractor more than 50 years old could not be
found in Serbia. Mia ordered on eBay a starter motor for his tractor and solved the
problem of his land cultivation and at the same time his existential problem because
he makes a living through agriculture for his whole family (a wife and two childrenstudents).
Except from completed school of computers, in village libraries there is ongoing
informal training every day. Librarians and advanced users provide assistance to
users who need help. In that way users become trained for independent use of
information technologies.
Each trainee benefited from using the Internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJUQBQwBr7U

Improved agricultural production

Village libraries made available the latest agricultural literature. Also, information
about modern measures of agricultural production is available to producers on the
Internet, resulting in improved agricultural production. Zarko Milijic from Batocina
has been a member of the library in Bagrdan since its reopening. He established a
good cooperation with the librarian, who has provided him with all the necessary
literature. Zarko will expand his nuts plantation thanks to the new information, and
in autumn he will do the planting in a completely different way. Thanks to the library
he found about new varieties that will be found on his plantation in the future.
TV report which was broadcast on the national television RTS in two programs: in
Jutarnji program in the prime time, which is on the First Channel of RTS and in Srbija
danas which is on the Second Channel of RTS. After the broadcasting of this report
on national television, a man from Vrnjacka banja got in touch with the librarian
from Bagrdan and he was interested about the possibility to get the literature about
nuts. This example shows how people want to get to know something, it is just that
you need to reach them and enable them knowledge in the right way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQaVE4RNZU
TV report which was broadcast on the local TV station TV Jagodina:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2AI5CP67M8

Starting up of new agro-business

Farmers had the opportunity to hear about new methods and cultural measures
applied in the agriculture from the greatest experts. Also, they were informed about
the possibilities for realizing the benefits offered by Serbian Ministry of Agriculture
through our project partners.
Rade Damjanovic is an engineer of agriculture who owns a nursery Zlatna tuja and
he is the user of our website Agrolib. He was thinking about expanding his
agricultural activity that he was engaged into for many years, but he did not define
his intention clearly. Prompted by the lecture on alternative fruit species and
production of quince held in the village library in Bunar, Rade Damjanovic decided
to raise a quince orchard in five acres afterwards.
Also, based on the information we received from Zoran Milosevic, we learned that
he was contacted on the phone for several times by Borko Spasojevic from Kac
(Vojvodina) for information and expert advice on quince planting. After that, he
decided to plant 1.5ha orchard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8z5EtDnOFg

The AgroLib project has achieved measurable results after a years implementation.
The results are of a long-term nature because the project affected peoples minds
and gave them the model how peoples lives in a local community can be changed.
The project highlighted the importance of information and offered people a way to
achieve it. IT literate farmers interconnected and encouraged to act collectively, are
more willing to tackle the challenges of modern society. The Public Library in
Jagodina is dedicated to the project and will continue the implementation after the
second round of the project. Serbian Ministry of Culture recognized the values of the
idea that eIFL strives for, through PLIP program AgroLib Ja and decided to fund the
project for another year.
The Public Library Radislav Nikcevic is the host of the manifestation Biblionet
organized by the Parent Library Community of Serbia. The topic of this years
Biblionet is Unreachable Users. Biblionet is a professional symposium of librarians
which has a national significance and librarians from all over Serbian as well as
eminent guests from the library profession from abroad take part in it. The Public
library in Jagodina with the project AgroLib-Ja was the inspiration for the organizers
of this years Biblionet to set a topic of the symposium Unreachable Users.
Implementation of the project AgroLib-Ja and establishing a new model in the
revitalization of village libraries through using information technologies in the
service of improving living conditions of agricultural population was met with great
response in the professional library public of Serbia. A large number of colleagues-

librarians inquired us in the library in Jagodina about the concept of AgroLib project
because they would like to apply the same project in their local communities, to
revitalize their village libraries which have a similar fate all over Serbia. The Public
library Radislav Nikcevic will present achievements and results of the AgroLib
project through the paper New services in village libraries on this professional
meeting. Since the topic of Biblionet is Unreachable Users and the target group of
the project is farmers who, until the project implementation, were unreachable
users, we will present our model and through examples and indicators we will
illustrate the usefulness for lives of people in the country. Also, we will inform the
participants about the upcoming EIFL call for proposals for the second round of PLIP
and point to the possibility of replication of projects from the first round.
We must say that the period of one year which was predicted for the realization of
the project is too short for the development of the whole idea and a lot of project
activities in four villages. Based on our experience, we can say that we actually
carried out four projects because we had to adapt to different mentalities, habits
and needs of people in villages Bagrdan, Bunar, Glavinci and Glogovac. In addition
to financial support from the EIFL, we stress that the support of local selfgovernment of Jagodina was very important during the implementation of the
project. The competent authorities of the town of Jagodina recognized the value of
the idea of the AgroLib project which is in accordance with the national strategy of
the development of Serbian in the future, where the development of agriculture is
set as one of the countrys priorities.