OLOVO – The city library in Olovo, a small town located about 40 kilometers northeast of Sarajevo, is a positive example of a successful local community.
There are many individuals who want to make life in this city better and more beautiful. One of them is Sanela Kaikčija, director of the Olovo City Library.
In the age of digitization and electronic media, when people have become alienated from books and turned to technology, residents of Olov regularly visit the City Library in this small town in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In Olovo, the “Petar Kočić” National Library (today’s Olovo City Library) was founded in 1954 as an independent institution, with only 189 books in the initial library collection. Ten years later, it already had 5,200 books for 13,687 inhabitants and nine mobile libraries organized through “book carriers”, but very poor accommodation conditions that prevented better work.
– Today Olovo Municipality has about 9,000 inhabitants, a beautiful renovated library with a thousand users and close to 20,000 books. We are still working on the catalog, website, digitization of the national collection, digitization of rarities and all important works, said Sanela Kaikčija
At the time of the 1968 analysis, it had 9,433 books per 16,708 inhabitants. During the implementation of the program of medium-term development of librarianship in the period 1971-1975. the condition of the book fund was weaker, since funds for the acquisition and replenishment of the book fund were not allocated regularly and systematically, so in 1973 the library in Olovo had 4,594 books, 362 readers and 3,056 read books.”
Today, this library is a place of meeting, joy and good time.
“Today, Olovo Municipality has about 9,000 inhabitants, a beautiful renovated library with a thousand users and close to 20,000 books. We are still working on the catalog, the website, the digitization of the native collection, the digitization of rarities and all significant works,” said Kaikčija.
The library works a lot to bring children and youth together, and with joint discussions about books, it tries to make them like reading and with interesting details about literature and science in general, it tries to arouse children’s and youth’s interest in reading, research and learning.
“We also work with the elderly through cultural manifestations, promotions, exhibitions, events. Our co-workers, our users and fellow citizens will tell you the best about our work, and I must admit that I like it the most when others talk about us. It is not easy to fight for attention and respect today when we have the web 2.0, web 3.0 generations, but here we try to combine what brought and brings the new time, new discoveries and new generations with some values before all this, with the traditional way of learning and doing business, relation to the user in general, therefore, we cannot reject either one or the other, but must make a combined action. I think we are on the right path and I will always try to work and offer only the best and the highest quality”, Kaikčija pointed out.
She is happy about the fact that many children pass through the library every week and this is a good indicator that, as she said, they are on the right path in all these mentioned segments.
“The Olovo library is really a place that gathers people and ideas and tries, as far as possible, to realize those ideas. This is not a profitable company and this work must be done with love and with some bigger goals. When I look around and look at my children and then the children who come to us, I see that we need to work day in and day out for their good. Everyone from their respective fields should do the best they know and can for the welfare of the children, not only in Olovo, and for their future, which will mean a better future for us together”, emphasized Kaikčija.
He believes that everyone should be dedicated to the work they do in order to see results and for everything to flourish.
“Dedication filled with love is the recipe, because many people ask me exactly that, how do I get the strength that is the recipe for such positive work, that’s it, dedication and love,” said Kaikčija.
Esed Hadžiabdić, a law graduate, acting head of the service for general administration and social activities, has only words of praise for the director of the library. As he said, he makes every effort so that the library has as many activities and “guests” as possible.
Suad Halilović, director of the Elementary School “Olovo” in Olovo, said that the students of this educational institution, if they are not in the school desks, then they are in the library.
“Recently, we have had a positive and promising trend concerning reading literacy. The city library has done a lot in this regard and I hope that it will continue,” added Halilović.
Educator Emina Helja said that they have excellent cooperation with the City Library in Olovo.
“Our library is a beautiful storehouse of knowledge that we can visit every day. The library also has an educational character, and workshops and other activities are organized,” added Helja.
Sead Hadžiabdić said that in the library they can find everything they want to read and learn.
“Promotions and other events are held there, so we hang out. Recently, we also had guests from Kladnje”, explained Hadžiabdić.
Written by: Vesna Bešić
This story was written thanks to the generous support of the American people through the “Local Works” program of the United States Agency for International Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (USAID). The author and the “Network for Peace Building” are solely responsible for the content of the story. The views expressed in the story do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
