Public Library ‘Dušan Matić’ Ćuprija in Serbia joined over 3,000 organizations from 38 countries hosting events for European Code Week 2014.
The library organized two events as part of their Biblioteka++ project, which was initiated in May 2014 with support from the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP).
Biblioteka++ teaches children and youth basic and advanced computer coding skills. The project uses Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits that use robotics to stimulate young people’s creativity and programming skills. Using the kits, young people build robots and then create simple or more complex programming to make the robots walk, talk, rotate, grab things and much more.
During European Code Week 2014 (October 11 to 17) girls and boys (events.codeweek.eu) from cities, towns and villages all over Europe and beyond attended fun events where they learnt how to create computer coding to develop apps, websites, moving robots and a variety of other digital products. Code Week was launched by Neelie Kroes’s
Young Advisors and DG Connect at the European Commission. Neelie Kroes is Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda.
The Public Library ‘Dušan Matić’ Ćuprija events took the form of two workshops for 30 high school children in the town of Jagodina.
“We signed up because we have the same goals as Code Week – we want to bring computer programming closer to young people,” said Ivica Lazarevic, project manager of Biblioteka++.
“We also wanted to show the children and our community that our new library project is part of something far greater,” he added.
(events.codeweek.eu/view/1567/-/) At the first workshop held on 15th October, in high school EGS ‘Nikola Tesla’, 10 students from second to fourth grades built robots using the Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotics kits, and programmed them to move.
(events.codeweek.eu/view/2968/-/) At the second workshop, on 16th October in Gymnasium ‘Svetozar Marković’, 20 students used computers to create more complex programming to command the robots that had been made the previous day to travel in different directions and to follow a black line on the floor.
“Both workshops were a success,” said Mr Lazarevic. “The students worked in pairs guided by teachers. They learnt quickly, and soon they were working on their own.”
Although the Code Week ended officially on 17th October, it is continuing, under the slogan “Every week should be Code Week”. According to the Code Week team blog, there are 650 events coming up, and new ones are being added every day.
BACKGROUND
Public Library ‘Dušan Matić’ serves Ćuprija municipality in Pomoravlje region in central Serbia, attracting over 300 library users a day.
The library was one of 10 public libraries to receive an EIFL-PLIP grant to initiate new projects using information and communication technology (ICT) to serve children and youth. Click here to read more about these 10 projects and other services initiated with EIFL-PLIP support.
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