The project provides six libraries made of 36 beautifully illustrated children’s books from six European countries: Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.The libraries travel from school to school, initially in Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and  at the end of the project in many more countries.

Project framework:  LLP COMENIUS Multilateral

Project Duration: 2009-2011.

Project coordinator:  The Mosaic Art And Sound Ltd United Kingdom

Contact: paolo.cremona@eulib.eu

Link to the website of the project: http://www.eulib.eu/home.html

Partner countries: Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Target group: The target group for the project is students in their first year of learning a foreign language (in Europe this can start at age 6, Italy or 10 UK)

Objectives

The Euro Travelling Library project  goals are:

• To increase young readership expertise and attack the lowering levels of book readership;
• To enhance reading skills and positively impact student interest in reading;
• To introduce books to children readers as the best source of autonomous lifelong learning;
• To promote the idea of Europe with its wealth of different languages and complex historical roots, to present the cultural diversity of Europe to children in an enjoyable and challenging way;
• To foster an early onset of European language experiences and the value of language learning.

Project description

The project aims to immerse children in the rich cultural and language diversity of Europe through a Travelling Library of the most beautiful illustrated children´s book in six European languages: Czech, Turkish, Finish, Spanish, Italian and English. The project has numerous cultural and language, book-based activities and ideas for the educational exploitation of the library in schools in an enjoyable and challenging as well as meaningful and enriching way.

The European Travelling Children’s Library is packaged in a pirate box that contains 36 illustrated childrens books in six languages (6 in each language), audio recordings in all library languages of books extracts, a template description of each book, teacher guides, and book-based tasks and activities, plus documents to use with the tasks, everything that is needed to use the library.

The travelling nice, indestructible box, a real contemporary treasure chest, is available from the project website to all the schools and associations that wish to book and receive it http://www.eulib.eu/booking_form.html

Each school  can book the  Library for a period during which students carry out a number of educational and collaborative activities before, during and after the visit of the Library. The library is a flexible project as each teacher can decide which books and activities are suitable for their students. The activities and tasks are easy to prepare, require no special equipment as most of the materials already come included in the Travelling Library box along with the Activities templates and detailed instructions for use.

The project promoter  likes to think of children across Europe while opening the box to find the treasure….. and  wishes them the best experience with EuroLib!