Seventeen exciting innovation award calls launched since 2011

The EIFL Public Library Innovation Awards are open to all public and community libraries in developing and transition countries. The calls highlight important community development issues and recognize innovative uses of digital technology to improve people’s lives.

Winners receive a prize of US$1,500, a trophy, a certificate, and publicity through EIFL’s website and wide network of contacts.

Since 2011 EIFL has completed 17 innovation award calls and announced the names of 61 winners in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. The winners of the most recent EIFL Public Library Innovation Award call (2023), for Public libraries addressing one of three pressing global issues, were announced in January 2024.

In 2021 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the awards with a special feature highlighting a selection of winners over the years. See the feature in our 2021 Annual Report  or download the brochure. 

Meet the winners of past awards

​Public libraries promoting safety online

• Croatia - Prelog City Library and Reading Room, which has sparked online safety training in communities across the country through its ‘Guerilla Education for Librarians’ programme
• Kenya - Fahari Community Initiative, for their comprehensive online safety training programme for children, teens and young adults 

Public libraries responding to COVID-19

• Bangladesh - Wheels of Wisdom, a mobile library project that used three-wheeled vans with books and an internet connection to help disadvantaged children continue learning while schools were closed
• Kenya - Nakuru Public Library which collaborated with a university to train teachers to conduct online classes while schools were closed
• Lithuania - Kaunas Municipal ‘Vincas Kudirka’ Public Library, whose 3D printers worked day and night to print hands-free door openers to prevent COVID-19 infection and vital protective equipment for medics
• Peru - The Main Public Library of Lima in Peru, whose telephone reading service brought joy to isolated senior citizens
• South Africa - City of Johannesburg Libraries, which kept their services alive through a COVID-19 lockdown video series on Facebook
• Uganda - Nakaseke Public Library,  which used the  internet and radio station to support children’s education during the world’s longest COVID-19 schools lockdown.
• Ukraine - ‘A. Gaidar’ Central City Children's Library in Melitopol, whose ‘children-teach-children' online video art classes helped parents keep their children busy during lockdown

Public libraries protecting the environment / supporting climate action

• Bulgaria – ‘Peyo Yavorov’ Regional Library, whose environmental education campaign has inspired children to collect plastic waste for recycling
• Bulgaria – ‘Peyo Yavorov’ Regional Library, which is using cutting edge technology to teach young people about the causes and effects of climate change
• Colombia – Kankuaka Public Library, which is using multi-media technology to raise children’s awareness about the need to protect their mountain ecosystem
• Kazakhstan - Ust-Kamenogorsk City Library’s Branch No. 2, for creating an eco-centre in the library and inspiring young people to take action on climate change
• Poland – Cyberiada public library, which has inspired children to take action to protect the environment through their environmental education service

Public libraries contributing to community economic wellbeing

• Chile – Public Library No. 56 El Bollenar increases women’s design skills and handicraft sales
• Kenya - Kenya National Library Service / Meru Public Library, which is changing young people’s attitudes to farming by combining ICT, entrepreneurship and agricultural training
• Nepal – Agyauli Community Library and Resource Centre improves farmers livelihoods
• Philippines – Butuan City Library offers a package of e-government support and computer literacy services to improve incomes
• Serbia – Belgrade City Library helps people understand and manage their money
• St Lucia – Micoud Public Library, whose computer and job-seeking skills training programme is building young people’s confidence to seek work.
• Uganda – Kawempe Youth Centre (KYC) inspires young entrepreneurs to start businesses

Public libraries contributing to community health

• Lithuania - Naujoji Vilnia Library, which helps children and families struggling to cope with emotional, mental health and behavioural problems to heal and build social relationships by engaging in therapeutic reading and storytelling activities in a virtual gaming environment
• Romania – ‘Gh. Asachi’ County Library Iași, lifesaving First Aid and health education programme
• ​Romania – Pietrari Local Public Library helps overweight members of their community get back in shape
• Uganda – Hoima Public Library – e-health corner battles life-threatening diseases

Public libraries contributing to digital and social inclusion

• Colombia – Public Library ‘Fernando Gómez Martinez’, combating stigma against people living with disability
• Croatia – ‘Fran Galovic’ Public Library, building trust between Roma and Croatian children
• Croatia – ‘Fran Galovic’ Public Library, which is improving the lives of seniors through a volunteer-based smartphone training programme
• Kazakhstan – ‘Oralkhan Bokeev’ City Library of Ust-Kamenogorsk, whose digital skills training programme focuses on learners’ needs and uses role-plays and real-life situations to help young people living with disability to integrate into society as equals
• Poland – Twardogóra Public Library, bringing seniors into the internet era
• Uganda – Kitengesa Community Library, including the deaf among those who hear
• Ukraine - Lviv Regional Children's Library, which combines digital skills and information literacy training with bibliotherapy to support traumatized children of families displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Ukraine – Luhansk Region Universal Scientific Library named after A. N. Gorky, reaching out to people living with disability

Public libraries contributing to open government

• Lithuania – Šiauliai County ‘Povilas Visinkis’ Public Library, e-government training programme creates dialogue between citizens and officials
• Moldova – Public Law Library ‘B. P. Hasdeu’ Municipal Library, online legal database which provides free public access to decisions of the Chisinau Municipal Council
• Ukraine  – Central City Library ‘M. Lermontov’ in Melitopol, Ukraine, for successfully engaging citizens in a major urban development initiative
• Ukraine – Central Library 'M. L. Kropyvnytskyi' and the Mykolaiv Centralized Library System for Adults, Citizen Service Centres promote interaction between citizens and local government officials

Public libraries empowering women and girls

• Brazil – ‘Argentina Lopes Tristão’ Public Library in Domingos Martins empowers vulnerable women through digital skills training
• Guatemala – Rija’tzuul Na’ooj Library in San Juan la Laguna, empowering talented women weavers
• Nepal – READ Information and Resource Centre in Baluwatar, Kathmandu, empowering women slum-dwellers to find jobs and start small businesses

Creative use of ICT in public libraries 

• Colombia – Public Library San Javier-La Loma’s mapping project makes their community visible online
• Croatia – Rijeka City Library’s interactive online magazine inspires young writers and artists
• Estonia – Tallinn Central Library, pioneering e-book lending service in Estonia
• Lithuania - Plungė Municipal Clock Tower Library boosts tourism through a virtual tour of one of Lithuania’s prime historical sites
• Poland – Olsztyn Municipal Public Library’s ICT laboratory enables people to compose music, produce movies, make moving robots, and much more

Public libraries contributing to education 

• Cameroon – ‘Cercle de lecture et d’animation culturelle’ (CLAC), whose mobile library  service offers online mathematics and computer coding classes to under-resourced schools
• Colombia - Biblioteca de la Creatividad, which takes children on a playful journey gives them the skills needed to create sustainable solutions to challenges faced in their community
• Croatia  – Prelog City Public Library, which combines digital and financial knowledge and skills in a training programme for children aged from three to 11
• Kenya – ‘Dr Robert Ouko’ Memorial Community Library, for providing children with desperately needed textbooks, literature and reference books through an e-readers programme
• Kenya - Eastlands Library, which provides children with a wide range of learning through play activities, including storytelling, drawing, drama, building objects out of safe waste, and board games like chess and scrabble, in the safe space of the library
• ​Kenya – Kenya National Library Service: two public library children's programmes use ICT to support education in remote areas: Kisumu and Buruburu
• ​Kenya – KNLS Thika Public Library, for their tablet computer education outreach service for children who cannot come to the library
• Latvia – Pelči Library, whose ‘Little school of local history’ is educating children about history in an exciting way
• Lithuania – Kaunas Municipal ‘Vincas Kudirka’ Public Library which provides a dynamic and practical electronics, 3D design and computer coding education programme to motivate young people to take up careers in technology and engineering
• Lithuania - Utena A. & M. Miskiniai Public Library, which offers children, parents and grandparents the opportunity to learn advanced digital skills together in family training sessions 
• Mexico – Public Library ‘Victoria Dorantes’ No. 382, whose online education programme is helping to build a positive learning environment in families
• Moldova – ‘B. P. Hasdeu’ Municipal Library, which has created a dynamic summer learning centre in a city amusement park
• Serbia - Public Library ‘Radislav Nikčević, which is improving children’s reading comprehension skills, and helping them to build friendships and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them by providing rich learning through play experiences

Public libraries contributing to literacy

• Colombia – Biblioteca Oasis del Saber, which offers an intensive 10-month literacy course that is transforming the lives of teenagers and adults
• Kenya – Buruburu Public Library’s mobile digital librarian brings the magic of e-books to hundreds of children who do not have access to books
• Ukraine – Lviv Regional Children's Library, which uses a computer game to teach children and adults to read and write using the Ukrainian alphabet