Nose Stuck in a Book ****************************************************************************************** * Nose Stuck in a Book ****************************************************************************************** Who is a librarian? For the majority of us it is a person responsible for lending out book new purchases. However, there is much more hidden behind the title.  A good librarian must development of the electronic database programs, have a good overview about the contents o be able to advise the visitors how to find the right books and occasionally, be prepared t various programmes for the visitors of the library. Especially popular are events offered libraries to young readers and their parents. We have approached Isabelle Mattsson, one of the Erasmus students of Library Science, curr her study stay at Charles University, Faculty of Arts, to share her experience of studying field and offering a project on Astrid Lindgren’s “Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter” to childr partner schools of the Europe Meets School programme with us.  Isabelle, why have you decided to study Library Science? Is it a popular study programme i your home university? I always liked the idea of the library as a place that is not commercialised and where eve welcome and can have free access to information. I’m also interested in being able to hand especially since it is so important in today’s society. With many sources accessible on th not a problem to find information; the problem is to find the right one and being critical thought it would be awesome to work somewhere where you get to be surrounded by books all The study programme is not that popular in Sweden, it is only available at a few universit University of Boras where I study, it’s not one of the largest programmes either, but it i best known education in its field in Sweden. Library Science is nowadays a rather technical study field, a thing many of us are not rea Could you tell us what studying it includes? A lot of people have the impression that we read books all day long. Although I wouldn't m not really what the study looks like. To explain it in short, most of it is about handling different ways: how to search for it, to catalogue it and to retrieve it. We also have som the more non-technical aspects of the profession, such as how to approach the different us and history. You are just ending your Erasmus study stay at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. here beneficial? What does the Department of Library Science offer for Erasmus students? The study stay sure was beneficial for me! Not only for the opportunity to take classes no my home university, but also for the experience of living in another country with differen language. It makes you grow so much as a person. And the Erasmus experience as well, meeti all over Europe and the whole world is so amazingly fun and teaches you a lot about the wo There were not a big number of courses in English on offer in my host department, but the interesting. “Research Methods in Library and Information Science” was really helpful as p bachelor thesis; “The Baroque Aristocratic and Bourgeois Libraries” was so informative and since Library History is not my main subject. It was also an unusual way of learning since many old libraries in Prague. I also learned a lot from “Video games as a Sociocultural Ph games are becoming just as important a medium as books or movies and in this lecture we go at the history of these games and an understanding of their future potential. Being a librarian often means working with very various groups of library visitors – from professors to small children who have just learnt how to read. I still fondly remember som offered to me and my classmates by the local library when I was attending the Primary Scho prepared a nice project on probably the most famous Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren, in th Meets School programme of the Erasmus Club of Faculty of Arts. You also visited with this School Strančice close to Prague. Was Astrid Lindgren your favourite writer when you were Astrid Lindgren was indeed one of my favourite writers. I especially liked Ronja and Pippi as a child. Lindgren is always on the children’s side in her stories; I think that's one o her books are so loved still. Another favourite author of mine was Tove Jansson. I loved t books. She's still one of my favourites. Her books can be read by both children and adults different characters with their quirks and personalities, the melancholy and the accompany Astrid Lindgren died in 2002. Is she still very popular in Sweden? Or are the Harry Potter example, better sold these days in your home country? Who are or were other Swedish childr Yes, Astrid Lindgren is always up-to-date and probably one of the most liked persons in th history. For example, Sweden is going to get some new bank notes next year and she's going them. There is also going to be a new movie “The Brother Lionheart” based on one of her bo Tomas Alfredsson. Everyone seems excited about it. I don't know exactly if Harry Potter is Sweden today though, it might be a close call. Another well liked and famous Swedish author for children is Sven Nordqvist who writes and the books about Pettson and Findus, about the farmer Pettson and his cat Findus. You can l illustrations in this series for hours; they're so full of details. Some more recent popular Swedish children books today are the series of The JerryMaya Dete Martin Widmark and Helen Willis. Criminal stories for children are really popular these da are for adults. Could you introduce us Astrid Lindgren a bit? Did the children in your host class in Stran her books? Astrid Lindgren was born in Vimmerby, a small village in the Swedish countryside. She used experiences from her childhood as inspiration for her books. She liked to read and write a already. As an adult she moved to Stockholm where she lived for the rest of her life. She Pippi Longstocking when her daughter was sick and told her stories about Pippi every night release a few other books before it, but it was Pippi that made her famous. She wrote over one of the world's most translated authors. The children in my host class knew just a few of her stories; they were familiar with The Bullerbyn, Karlsson on the Roof and Pippi. It was interesting that they often knew the mov the books. In your project you concentrated on a popular book “Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter.” What di children in your project? If after finishing your studies you are indeed working in a libr like to prepare similar programmes for the children attending the library you would work f The children in my host class were pupils in 4th grade of a Primary School and were quite for that age. There were two joined classes but they worked really well even though the sp tight for all of them. I started with a presentation about Astrid Lindgren’s life. Then we read a chapter from Ro she's out skiing, gets stuck in the snow and meets some of the creatures of the forest. I suitable since it was wintery, funny and exciting at the same time. The children drew some and creative pictures of what happened in the story then. Finally, in the last class, we m about Astrid Lindgren. As to the future – yes, I would love to do similar projects and discussions about books. I can broaden someone's horizons like this, make other people discover how amazing my favour get them to try some different literature from what they are used to and read or enjoy a s would have known otherwise. Thank you for the interview.