Retrospective 2021 for the Romanian Library Netherlands BiebRO

2021 was another "different" year with too few physical meetings for our liking, but that didn't stop us from organising a number of online meetings and events. 

On January 4, 2021 we resumed the BiebRO Mondays series with a slightly changed format as we introduced recurring guests. The BiebRO Children's Club coordinator was invited at the beginning of each month to present the Club's theme and chosen books. We also had regular meetings with Bianca David, coordinator of the Pre(a)Busy Reading Parents Club - an adult book club organised once a month by FanBook. The purpose of these meetings was to introduce new books for both children and adults each month, and to invite readers following the library's work to join in the discussions and meetings.

In total we organised 39 meetings BiebRO Monday, plus two additional live interventions.

Both Simona Popa and Bianca David were among the regular guests at the BiebRO Mondays live series. At the beginning of each month, Simona tells us about her chosen theme for the month at the BiebRO Children's Book Club, and introduces us to some of the books. 

Bianca David presented the book that was to be discussed at the Pre(a)busy Reading Parents Club meetings.

Since January we have been aiming to have meetings with special guests as often as possible. These guests were either people from the literary world or coordinators of interesting projects that have Romanian books and/or culture at their centre. Below is a short list of these online meetings that took place as part of the BiebRO Mondays series.

• Meeting with children's author Victoria Pătrașcu (January 25)

Victoria Pătrașcu has more than a decade of experience as an editor in print, radio and television, and since 2007 she has been designing and supporting educational projects, mostly for children. She was included, along with other contemporary Romanian authors of children's literature, in the anthology "Bookătăria de textos e imagini", published by the Illustrators' Club in 2009. During the meeting she read us an excerpt from "The Day Sleep Ran Away" and "A Story of Courage", both included in the BiebRO collection. 

• Meeting with Gabriela Solomon from the Vâlcea Community Foundation - a project in Romania that had set out, among other things, to compile a library of Romanian traditional costumes and costumes (29 March). During the discussion we highlighted the similarities between the two types of "libraries".

The Valcea Community Foundation is a landmark in Valcea society, a dynamic partner that supports local initiatives by connecting resources with community development projects. 

• Meeting with Măriuca Mihăilescu, project coordinator afostodată.ro - a project that provides Romanian children everywhere with stories in Romanian. (19 April)

Bigger Picture Digital Education Association develops since 2018 the free online platform afostodata.ro, a unique concept in Romania, containing educational materials, stories, podcasts, stories in audio, video and sign language formats.

• Meeting with Simona Farcaș and Oana Alina Poleacec, coordinators of Romanian libraries in Rome and Milan, Italy (April 26)
• Meeting with Ana Răduleț, coordinator of the Prague Children's Library (17 May).

Ana Răduleț, mother of two little children, created the library with the thought and hope that she is not the only Romanian woman in Prague with a constant desire to read to her children in her own language. She would like to collect titles with valuable content, easily accessible to other parents. In time, she would like to build a beautiful community around reading with other parents. Between the time of our meeting and the date of writing this report, Ana's initiative has already been taken up by two other families in Belgium and Spain.

• Meeting with Andrei Aldea, coordinator of the project "His World Knows Everything", a non-formal education initiative in Romania (29 November)

Two years of BiebRO: Connect through translations 

On 17 November we meet live online to celebrate 2 years of Library activity through a discussion that focuses on translators: those who in turn create Romanian-Dutch links through books. We had as guests Jan Willem Bos, who was also with us at the launch two years ago, Irina Anton (Vasilachi), Charlotte van Rooden and Iulia Dromereschi.

At the same time we continued the activity Kinderboekenweek: Children's Book Week - 4th edition "Become what you want to be!" The event ran from 11-15 October 2021. 

In total we organised 38 meetings of the book club (from January to November 2021) + 3 meetings in December. The book club had a two-month break during the summer when many participants were away on holiday.

For the protection of minors, the meetings always took place online on Zoom, with the cameras on. With one exception - where parental consent was sought - no photos were taken and the meetings themselves were not broadcast publicly on social media.

The access of children and parents to this project was and remains free of charge, unconditional on any kind of membership (neither as a ROMPRO member, nor as a library subscriber, nor as a Romanian abroad). The book club remained open to any child who wished to participate. 

Every month The books were chosen according to a theme chosen by the club coordinator as follows:

January - Astronomy

February - Friendship

March - Storyteller's Month

April - Among the flowers

May - Letters 

June - Let's go on an adventure

September - Travel

October - Become what you want to be

November - Children's rights 

December - Winter stories

In order to stimulate Romanian parents in the Netherlands to join our club, but also to make the club's activity more transparent, we decided to have four special moments during the year. 

March has been turned into Storyteller's Moon, Each club meeting has a special guest scheduled. Throughout the month, we listened to stories written, illustrated, translated or interpreted by our guests and discovered a little of what their role as "storytellers" entails in the great act of writing, illustrating or interpreting a story. We had as guests the children's editor and writer Paul Gabriel Sandu, the translator Iulia Dromereschi, the author Maia Vida Rațiu, the storyteller Giorgiana Elena Popan and the illustrator Oana Ispir.  

In 2021 the BiebRO Children's Reading Club had two coordinators. From January 2021 to June 2021 (and then on a voluntary basis in September and October 2021) it was coordinated by Simona Popa, initiator of the Books for Matthew project. In November and December the club was coordinated by Bianca David, moderator of the Pre(a)occupied Parents' Reading Club (both online and in person), as well as physical meetings with children in Rădăuți.

Kinderboekenweek: Children's Book Week - 4th edition "Become what you want to be!"

In 2021, because the restrictions have been relaxed, but not everywhere and not for everyone, we are still in the online sphere this time. We met again in five magical evenings, LIVE on Facebook, on the page Romanian Library Netherlands with authors, illustrators, publishers and librarians eager to bring young (and older) children into contact with books.

The event ran from 11-15 October 2021.

• 11/10: I had Alex Moldovan as a guest. Author of the book "Olguța and a grandfather of millions", Alex is a skilled children's speaker, writing books that children really want to read. Raluca, a young reader and fan of the Olguța series, also participated live in the online meeting.
• 12/10: we had with us the illustrator Diana Tivu, who gave a new life to Caragiale's characters in "Moments and Sketches", but also a new touch of colour to the protagonists of Romanian fairy tales. In a first for both BiebRO and the illustrator, the interview took place while Diana illustrated a picture. She also explained the techniques she used, but also told us about her artistic work and how she came to illustrate children's books.
• 13/10: it was a joy to see the translator Iulia Dromereschi again. Participants of the BiebRO Children's Reading Club remembered Iulia, one of the March guests of the Storyteller's Month.
• 14/10: it was book club night. This time Ioana Chicet-Macoveiciuc, author of the well-known parenting blog Urban Princess, came to read us a story. And not just any story, but one she wrote herself: "The best ice cream in the world", published by Univers Publishing. About two little children who, when they grew up, became what they wanted to be. The meeting was also attended by some of the regular participants of the BiebRO Children's Reading Club.
• 15/10: was dedicated to superheroes bringing books close to children. An evening about the efforts those who strive to make books more accessible to children. And bring young children closer to reading. Or to help parents bring their children closer to books. We've had two fantastic ladies as guests who've broken through cultural and social barriers, and thought up projects to bring books closer to children. Closer to all children! We had with us Brandi Anderson Bates, originally from the USA but currently living in Romania, founder of the Read Together Romania project and initiator of the International Read Together Day. And because it was the last evening, we also had Bianca Voinescu, founder of the Fanbook project, one of the largest initiatives to promote reading in villages and communes in Romania.

Despite the many problems caused by COVID-19, we also managed to do a physical event at OBA: With Cards on the Table. On 2 October we met with members of the Romanian community for discussions and a book exchange. This gave those who wanted to donate books the chance to meet us. We gave them a tour of the library and answered their questions about how it works. We exchanged books from world literature, translated into Romanian, which could not be part of the BiebRO collection.

In order to facilitate access to books in Romanian for all Romanians in the Netherlands, on 22 October 2021 we launched the project BiebRO on Wheels. 7 volunteers from the cities: Diemen, The Hague, Maastricht, Valkenburg, Sint Odenrode, Utrecht and Bunnik each received a pack of 10 books which they made available to the Romanians in the surrounding area. Following the first exchange 70 books in Romanian reached Romanians in the Netherlands, and 12 books were borrowed and actually read.

On 22 November we made a new package exchange. Volunteers were instructed who to send the packet they had in their possession. Some volunteers even met in person to exchange packages. The project was joined by 4 more volunteers from Weesp, Bussum, Uden and Leiderdorp.

The packages will remain with the volunteers until 10 January 2022, when another exchange will take place. 

In 2021 we also organised three competitions with the aim of encouraging the community to promote reading in Romanian for children (June 1st contest), to read titles in Romanian during the holidays (Books Go on Holiday contest) and to subscribe to the library (2 years of BiebRO contest).