SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS: ONLINE IMPLEMENTATION IN THE MARIN DRZIC LIBRARY NETWORK

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Abstract

Purpose. This paper presents the collaboration between the Marin Drzic Children’s Library and the Savica Library, two libraries of the Marin Drzic Library network, a branch library of the Zagreb City Libraries network, and the students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in the implementation of three service learning projects within the Service Learning course at the Department of In¬formation and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb during the 2020/2021 academic year. Approach/methodology/design. The first part of the paper describes the concept of service learning which integrates education with social responsibility. Then the dif-ferences between service learning, volunteering and student placements are listed. Af¬terwards, the goals of implementing service learning projects are enumerated as well as the benefits such implementation brings. The importance of critical reflection of the implemented projects is also highlighted. The second part of the paper describes the role of librarians in the partnership and presents the three student projects intended for primary school children: “Learning through fun: Micro:bit workshops”, “Minecraft and Glagolitic script”, and “Mein Freund: Micro:bit”. All three projects are in the STEM fields of technology and engineering and were implemented online in accordance with the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 that were in force at the time of the project implementation. Findings. The implementation and evaluation of the presented projects have shown that the librarians, owing to their knowledge and experience, can be high-quality student mentors on service learning projects, but also that the students can help the libraries, as their partner organizations, to provide more innovative, high-quality, and diverse services to their users. Originality/value. The overview of service learning projects implemented in part-nership with public libraries could serve as an incentive for other libraries that have not participated in the implementation of such projects to get involved in the implementa¬tion of service learning projects designed to meet the specific social needs of their local communities.

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APA

Ercegovac, S., & Kordic, M. T. (2021). SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS: ONLINE IMPLEMENTATION IN THE MARIN DRZIC LIBRARY NETWORK. Vjesnik Bibliotekara Hrvatske, 64(2), 443–467. https://doi.org/10.30754/vbh.64.2.899

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