From 22 to 26 June 2026, Renata Markauskienė, Head of the Health Care Faculty Library, took part in the Erasmus+ staff training week „Discover the Libraries of Sorbonne Nouvelle University”, organised by the Sorbonne Nouvelle University Library (Bibliothèque Sorbonne Nouvelle) in Paris.
The international training week brought together 11 participants from seven countries: Austria, Germany, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain.
During the programme, participants were introduced to the library’s structure and the innovative design solutions used in its new building, which opened to visitors only a few years ago. A presentation on the university library’s communication initiatives encouraged discussions and the exchange of professional experience among librarians from different countries. During the Open Science session, participants were introduced to the open-source software “NumaHop” and “Omeka-S”, as well as the IIIF standard, which are used for the digitisation, preservation, and dissemination of the library’s collections.
The Sorbonne Nouvelle University Library is open not only to students, academic staff, and researchers but also to school students and senior citizens. As a result, the library meets the needs of a wide range of users and deals with different challenging situations every day. To encourage creative problem-solving, the organizers held a practical workshop where participants worked in three groups to analyse real-life cases and develop possible solutions.
The programme also included visits to the Mazarine Library (Bibliothèque Mazarine), the Sainte-Geneviève Library (Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève), the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France), the Palace of Versailles (Château de Versailles), and the Rodin Museum (Musée Rodin).
The visit provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about the organization of academic libraries in France, Open Science initiatives, collection digitisation, and user services. Taking part in the training week also allowed participants to exchange professional experience with colleagues from different European countries, build new professional connections, and gain ideas that can be applied to further improve the activities and services of the VK Library.
