Pasvalys Municipality was so impressed by this innovative service that they included the library in their plans for local business and e-government service infrastructure development. Titled Libr-A, the service reaches farmers through a network of 34 branch libraries. The libraries offer free access to information and communication technology (ICT) and ICT training, an agricultural web-portal, Pasvalys Soil, with advertising space for farm produce, and a desktop publishing centre where librarians help farmers design marketing leaflets and business cards. In less than a year (2011/12), the library trained over 120 farmers, entrepreneurs and rural librarians to use ICT, worked with farmers to publish 600 leaflets and 200 product labels, and attracted 68 advertisements to the web-portal.

The service was initated with support from the EIFL’ Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) in November 2011. This two-page case study is based on impact assessment conducted by the library in November 2012.