93rd anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia

This Friday Latvian people celebrated their independence, the birthday of Latvia. Usually celebration includes fireworks, speeches and singing. This time I missed the fireworks by the River Daugava in Riga. But thanks to social media it is possible to get the feeling of being there. Latvians know how to blow up their money!

I celebrated the birthday of Latvia by singing choir songs. The feeling of festive atmosphere strengthened the fact that first time in my life I had a chance to wear an authentic national costume of Zemgale (a region in the mid-south of Latvia).

Folk dress in Latvia has played and still plays an important symbolic role in the preservation of national values and cultural heritage and in the creation of a feeling of unity of the people.

Latvian national costume of Zemgale

Here is a fun animation of the history of Latvia. It give an overview through what our nation went through to be free. The territory of Latvia was a “frequent focal point for conflict and conquest between at least four major powers, Prussia (later Germany), Poland, Sweden and Russia”. Enjoy!

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If you are keen on learning more about the history of Latvia here is an informative video with a subtitles in English:

Concept of ‘new librarians’

Loida Garcia-Febo is an international librarians, researcher, speaker and blogger. In her blog Information New Wave she is representing her views on the profession, human rights, access to information, library advocacy, services to diverse populations, and new professionals. During this summer we met and she asked me and my international colleagues (Claudia Serbanuta, Sebastian Wilke and Mace Ojala) who ‘new librarians’ are.

Here are our replies:

Video from Loida Garcia-Febo’s blog entry
New Librarians Today!

And what is your definition of ‘new librarians’?