On December 2, results were summed up and the award ceremony held of the Children’s Reading in the Digital Environment National Contest of library projects and programs on encouraging children to enjoy reading as part of the annual meeting of children’s library directors, Children’s Library 2020: Changing Stereotypes and Formats.
The contest was organized by the Russian State Children’s Library with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture. Experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ were invited to sit on the jury: Press Secretary, Social Project Manager Viktoria Bunchuk evaluated works in two categories: "Reading from the cradle" (the best online project for preschoolers) and "Reading and discussing" (the best online project for teenagers).
The contest is aimed at popularizing new children’s reading formats and practices and finding the best online projects and programs to encourage the young generation to enjoy reading. Its tasks included the creation of a bank of such online projects and programs and also the development of a reading culture, imagination, creative abilities and fantasy in the younger generation.
In total, 266 projects were entered in the competition, and the winners were:
- “Reading from the cradle:” Best online project for preschoolers Project “I am reading with a librarian” | Ishim City Centralized Library System (Tyumen Region)
- “Reading with enthusiasm:” Best online project for schoolchildren aged 7-11 Multi-Yurga media project | Yugorsk Centralized Library System (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area)
- “Reading and discussing:” Best online project for teenagers Online quiz Pondering on Pushkin’s Words | Naberezhnye Chelny Central City Library (Republic of Tatarstan)
- “How to become a parent of a reading child?:” Best online project for working with parents Projects: “Characters at the edge of the worlds: Dialogues on fantasy and more” | Samara Municipal Information and Library System (Samara City District)
- Special category, “Reading on war: 75th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War: Instagram event 75 poems of Victory | Poyarkovo Village Central Inter-Village Library (Amur Region)
Special prizes were awarded to another nine projects presented by children’s and teenagers’ libraries in Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga, Kirov, Khabarovsk, St. Petersburg, Perm and other cities.
“All the projects I was entrusted to evaluate were developed by professionals and true enthusiasts. For example, librarians make skillful use of social media tools by organizing quizzes, contests, flashmobs and discussions in their accounts. I am sure that by taking part in such projects schoolchildren acquire knowledge about classical literature and, something very important, modern literature in an easy and user-friendly form, and learn how to understand it and finally feel the need to read books,” Viktoria Bunchuk commented.
In addition to prizes and certificates, all the winners will receive gifts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ that could become additions to libraries’ collections: the manual “Practical phsycology of safety: Managing personal data on the internet”, Vneshkolnik newsletter (first issue in 2020), a comic strip about the rules of safe online behavior Stepa's Adventure on the Internet and badges with the .РФ domain issued to mark the 10th anniversary of the Cyrillic ccTLD celebrated in 2020.
