Libraries: Warehouse Rotterdam Library, Two Public Schools (Montessorischool Tuinstad and De Hef), and Literature Museum The Hague
Type of Library: school
Total Distance Return Trip: 60 km
Meeting Point: Ahoy Rotterdam
Price per person: € 15
The tour starts in the warehouse of the Rotterdam Public Library. This warehouse holds 230.000 books and other materials for the school libraries in Rotterdam. 141 primary schools and 4 secondary schools are using the services from the library. A staff of 25 people are working in the education department of the library. After we leave the warehouse we will pay a visit to one primary and one secondary school where we are shown around the school library.
The Public Library Rotterdam works several years with The Library in School program – Onderwijs (debibliotheekopschool.nl, more information in English via https://www.lezen.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bookstart-and-The-Library-in-Schhool-update-April-2023.pdf). This is the nationwide school library program of Dutch Reading Foundation – Stichting Lezen and KB, National Library of the Netherlands, executed by nearly all local public libraries in The Netherlands. At this moment over 3,500 primary schools (over 50%) and 260 secondary schools (18%) are working with the Library in School program.
First visit to primary school: Montessorischool Tuinstad
Second visit to secondary school: De Hef
After the school visits in Rotterdam we will drive with the bus to the Literature Museum in The Hague. The museum is in the same building of KB, National Library where also HQ of IFLA is located). At the moment there is an exhibition focused on Young Adults: Back Street. Museum guides will show us around the exhibition.
The new Back Street exhibition is a literary adventure for Young Adults. Young people discover, experience and create stories in order to experience the power of literature. Young people from the age of 14 immerse themselves in a different world. They gamble on literary stories in the casino, meet contemporary writers in the Gym, learn to seduce with language in the Limousine or expose themselves in the game the Tattoo Shop.
