“UNauthorized entry only”

“UNauthorized entry only” is a service of the Lviv Regional Library for Youth named after Roman Ivanychuk. The service’s aim is to show visitors what is behind the curtains of cultural institutions.

According to the initiator of the service, journalist Lyudmila Pulyaeva, the service will help people better understand how theaters, museums, art and restoration workshops are arranged. To do this, the service will organize individual excursions to cultural institutions, as well as meetings with leading actors and artists.

The idea was born thanks to the Lyudmila Pulyaeva’s, the author of the project, journalistic. “Since I am well acquainted with the behind-the-scenes life of theaters and museums, I decided to give library users an opportunity to get acquainted with it as well. This was prompted by the fact we were accepted for the project “Create Culture…”.

According to Lyudmila, the prototype of the service was created according to the “Design Thinking” methodology, which was studied by project participants with the help of Danish coaches. For this purpose, we used a model created from improvised materials – a shoe box, scotch tape and a piece of fabric.

“Firstly, I tested the service on colleagues, and then on curious users who came to the library. They were high school and university students”, says the author of the service.

The service has not undergone significant changes after the test and is provided free of charge to visitors of the Lviv Regional Library for Youth from September 3, 2020.

Project results

Lyudmila Pulyaeva says, “Everyone can get to the theater or museum by buying a ticket. But not everyone will get to the behind-the-curtains of restoration workshops and artists’ studio. Users of our service have a unique opportunity to look behind the scenes and learn how to prepare a play or exhibition. They will also be able to chat with actors and theater and museum staff.

This service promotes the cultural life of the city and encourages people to visit theaters and museums more often, as well as provides an opportunity to learn more about creative professions. It can also be implemented in libraries in other cities.

Nowadays library attendance is significantly affected by quarantine rather than service implementation, so our audience has not changed. These are people of different ages – from teenagers to elderly. If not for quarantine restrictions, there would be more users.

Thanks to the introduction of the service, the library staff has gained a lot of new experience, in particular in the areas of communication with theater personnel, organizing excursions and in the field of video content.