Jan David Hanrath and Guðrún Lilja Gunnlaugsdóttir | Participation is the Key 

The Reykjavík City Library will be transformed in the years to come. The design team believes that participation will improve the quality of the project as well as general awareness of the changing landscape of libraries in modern urban life.   

Therefore, great emphasis is placed on public participation with the library’s redesign.  

In this workshop you will learn about and try out some of the methodologies, used in the design process where both library staff and users participated. 

Jan David Hanrath is an architect (and former librarian) who has specialised and consulted in many library design projects. He is a part of a creative collaboration platform called Ministry of imagination, which works to help libraries and cultural institutions make their future dreams come true. 

Guðrún Lilja Gunnlaugsdóttir is Head of Innovation at the Reykjavik City Library and leads the renovation and transformation of the library in Grófin. Also, the cooperation with the design team of the project. Her background is in design and project management, and she is a specialist in using service design as a tool in change management. 

Theresa Himmer | Designing the Third Space 

Let’s write a book! 
Let’s write a library! 

At this workshop participants are invited to a speculative collaboration and imagine the nordic public library in the close future. 

During the past years the library has undergone vast transformations. From tending primarily to the textual it is changing into a vibrant social space that cultivates wider forms of knowledge - and community building.  

What have we learned from this process so far and how can our experiences serve as the foundation for imagining the next steps in the evolution of the library? Let's imagine freely and radically.  

Channeling Borges, Foucault and notions of Third place, we will construct the Library of our Dreams, the Library of the Future, using text as medium. The texts will be gathered and shared as collective vision in the form of a simple e-book. 

Theresa Himmer is an architect and a visual artist based in Copenhagen. She runs an architectural studio mainly involved with interior transformations of public buildings including libraries and spaces for music. Current projects include the transformations of Kópavogur - and Isafjördur Public Libraries. Her artistic practice is spanning across media including photography, video, installation and books and her artwork has been shown internationally. She is a fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and earned her degrees at School of Visual Arts, New York and Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark.

Susanne Gilling and  Lisbeth Overgaard Nielsen | The Library as a Platform for Local Democracy 

There are many debates going on today in the local community. They often take place online and can be more or less constructive. What happens if the local library offers to facilitate and moderate these local debates in a physical space (for example the library)? Can the library handle it? How do we start working with it? And what does it require in terms of competences and partners? 

Let's discuss our experiences and opinions. 

Susanne Gilling, Manager Library Services, Aarhus Public Libraries and Dokk1 

Lisbeth Overgaard Nielsen, Head of Program, Partnership & Democracy, Aarhus Public Library/Dokk1

Aarhus Public Libraries work in these years on facilitating hyper local debates in cooperation with local partners and media. Two or more of the participants from Aarhus will facilitate this workshop. 

Hanna Hopea | How do we approach vulnerable user groups? 

In this workshop, Hanna Hopea will take the subject from her ignite talk one step further and add the „how to“ elements to it. She will lead the workshop to discover ways to proceed, involve and build bridges.  

Hanna Hopea is a librarian at the Central Library Oodi in Helsinki.   

Martin Memet Könick, Paulina Stanley and Jacob Lindblad | Shaping the Library as the Third Space through user participation

In this workshop we are going to look into how we can work and communicate with the local community and how we can turn all the good ideas that will come out of this collaboration into something tangible. If we increase the participation at a local level we hope to increase the want to participate in the development of democracy and the building of society on a national and global level.

Martin Memet Könick, City of Landskrona Library Director, Elected Member of IFLA:s Standing Committee for the Public Libraries Section. Martins main goal is to take on the challenges facing society and democracy today and use and develop the power of Public Libraries as a force for an equal, smart and fun future. 

Paulina Stanley, City of Landskrona Democracy Ambassador, MSc in Sustainable Urban Development. Paulina has an academic background in architecture and sustainable urban development. Her work consists of themes related to participation, democracy and social sustainability, both from a city- and library perspective. 

Jacob Lindblad, City of Landskrona Librarian. Jacob's responsibilities in Landskrona include working with digital and democratic participation, social sustainability and accessibility. He wants to explore how the public library can be the engine for meaningful democratic experiences. 

Karin Larsson | Accessibility within libraries 

In this workshop we will discuss development of library buildings and renovation of libraries in general, where collaboration between architects and the people working at the libraries takes place. A process that helps to understand all levels of accessibility. 

The library is a place for everyone and should be accessible to everyone. Not only the library premises, but also activities for both adults and children, wayfinding around the library and so on. Is your library accessible to all? How do you know, and can you show us? Learn more about the concept Universal Design and how to use it.   

Karin Larsson is an accessibility strategist and a librarian at the library in Malmö, Sweden.