Asim Maner Award Winner 2023 - Vilija Jocienė

Editor's Note:  Vilija has been a supporter of IFOB and especially World Bookmark Day for a number of years.  The activities she organizes for her local library are always creative and fun for the children especially.  She also makes bookmarks and has other interesting collections and activities.  Congratulations, Vilija!. 

1. Tell us about yourself – where you are from, your occupation, etc.

I am Vilija from Lithuania, mother of three children, and now grandmother of three grandchildren. I live in the small village of Vainočiai, near the forest. I am a librarian by profession and I have been working in this job for 41 years. I also work as an organizer of cultural events. 

My events are for my area. The most famous is "Poetry in blooming gardens" where we read poetry and play music while the 140-hectare apple orchard is in full bloom. 

The event "Poetry in the Bloom of Gardens" Alpurgiya Night on Shatrija Hill Renginys "Poezija sodų žydėjime"

Another, no less famous, is Walpurgis night on Shatrija mountain. On that night, according to legend, witches fly to the mountain. "I fly" and I am a witch, because I am there.

2. How did you start collecting bookmarks?  Do you remember your first bookmark?

​Since my work is related to books, bookmarks were always there. I don't remember the first one. Once I saw an advertisement for a girl's bookmark exhibition, and I thought that I also need to collect what I have.  I collected from all the books and a lot appeared in the drawers. That’s how the first exhibition was born.

3. Do you have any favorite types or special emphasis in your collection?

I love handmade bookmarks because they are one of a kind and so original. Since I myself like needlework, these bookmarks are my favorites. 

4. What is the most unusual bookmark in your collection?

​The cutest ones were made and given by friends, and the most original ones were won in the lottery this year on World Bookmark Day. Labeled with a tiny book and donated by Gaby Dondlinger, it still evokes a great emotion. 

Bookmark with tiny book made by Gaby Dondlinger for Asim Maner Award winner.

5. How do you acquire your bookmarks?

​Bookmarks enter the collection in the most diverse ways. I exchange them with collectors, bring them back from trips, receive gifts from friends and readers. I often make them myself whenever I find a new idea for needlework, because I have learned a lot of types of needlework. In my collection there are bookmarks drawn on silk, ebru painting technique, folded origami, felt from wool, made with natural plants, drawn on fabric or even sculpted from modeled on a paper clip. When I learn something new, I always try to apply it to bookmark making. I find most of them at the annual Book Fair in Vilnius, where I try to go every year. 

Vilija's handmade bookmarks.

Vilija's handmade bookmarks.

Vilija's handmade bookmarks.

Vilija's handmade bookmarks.

6. How many bookmarks do you have (an estimate)?

There are about 2,500 book marks in the collection and over 200 handmade ones.

7. How do you organize, display and store your collection?

I keep my regular bookmarks in binders, organized by country, in clear document pockets. I mark the contents with a special soldering iron so that the bookmarks do not fall on top of each other. In the binders, each part begins with notes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see how I solder the places of the marks.  It's quite a big job, so there is still a big pile of marks received this year waiting for their order. And the handmade ones are still in the box. They are of very different shapes, made of different materials, so it is difficult to keep them in binders, and I often want to show them to others, so I haven't thought of another way to organize them yet. 

Bookmarks stored in binders by country.

Clear pockets soldered for bookmarks.

8. What has been your experience in using the IFOB Swap List?

​This is a very good place for like-minded people to meet, that there is a list and we can find each other and who wants to exchange bookmarks. I do that too, but not very often.

9. What do you enjoy about IFOB?  Anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

​I really like that there is an IFOB. I always see how many like-minded people there are from different countries. I can find friends with the same interest, and every year I prepare and look forward to the World Bookmark Day. I think it is possible to offer more activities for that day so that as many participants as possible can participate. Or maybe there is some global platform where different collectors gather and we could be a part of it? 

Vilija at her library.

10. What did you do to celebrate World Bookmark Day this year?

​Kaunatava Library marks this day every year with events, educations, bookmark exhibitions. This year we held book mark workshops, I prepared an exhibition and presented a video of photos of book marks and covers that I drew called "Book Dress".

11. Do you collect anything else?

​Yes, quite by accident, little by little, souvenir hedgehogs started to "come" to the house, and that's how 484 of them accumulated in a few years. I even had to make a separate shelf for them. And it started quite unexpectedly - I got lost on a trip and the name hedgehog in the fog stuck, based on Sergej Kozlov's book "Hedgehog in the Fog". 

Part of Vilija's hedgehog collection.

And I still have quite a few cups for tea with poppies, so now the dishes decorated with poppies are my favorites. But I don't know if it can be called a collection. My family eats from these dishes, I serve my guests in them and I happily drink my morning coffee myself, After all, you can choose a different cup decorated with poppies.

Vilija's collection of poppy dishes.

The symbol of the library is an owl, so over many years of work I have accumulated a lot of figurines of these birds or works made by children, so sometimes I make an exhibition of them in the library or my colleagues in other libraries do it. ​

12. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect bookmarks?

​Maybe if I just started collecting bookmarks now, I would choose one area according to the topic, production method, specialty or hobby. Bookmarks are endless and it can't end... how to set a limit or have a goal for how many to collect. After all, you can't have all the bookmarks in the world, but if you think you can, I will help you as much as I can!

13. Anything else you would like to share?

I would like to be glad that I was able to get involved in joint activities and participate in IFOB events, sharing bookmarks with the whole world. Until then, I only collected on my own. Thanks to this page I got to know collectors not only from other countries, but also from my own country. Lithuania is a very small country, and I live in a small village in a small country, but now I am open to make my country known to the whole world through bookmarks.