The Love Speech and the Pikknikk project provide inspiration for a reading promotion theme week in Helsinki

Hanna Järvisalo and Tuija Takala, two teachers from Helsinki, visited the Reykjavík City Library in March 2026. They met with our library staff who introduced them to ongoing library projects and services, with an emphasis on community engagement and cultural programming.

We asked our guests to answer a few questions about their visit so we could publish their impressions after their visit.

Why did you choose to learn more about the services and activities of Reykjavík City Library?  

“As teachers of both Finnish and literature in Helsinki, we cooperate with our local library. We came to Reykjavik to meet with schools, authors, as well as university teachers and researchers. Our contact, Karitas Pálsdóttir recommended us to visit the Reykjavik City Library as she knew that we were interested in library projects, especially those involving the community of language learners.”  

Were there any particular projects, programs, or services that especially caught your interest?  

“We really enjoyed hearing about the different kinds of picnics organized at the library! And also, the new dictionary project where the community could suggest new words for the Icelandic language: a really interesting, fun and meaningful idea!”

What key insights or lessons have you taken away from the visit, and what value do visits like this have for your team?  

“We have told our colleagues about the library picnics and considered how we could adapt the idea to our school(s). We are a big school with many different locations and almost 1000 employees. Annually or twice a year, we have a theme week that promotes reading, and both the picnic and dictionary of new words would be great activities in our program. We also plan to talk about the dictionary project to local libraries or other relevant stakeholders.