On April 10, the joint PL2030-EBLIDA-NAPLE session on ‘Shaping the future of Libraries in Europe together’ took place in Lisbon’s Torre do Tombo National Archive.
Hosted by Ilona Kish (PL2030), Mikkel Christoffersen (EBLIDA), and Klaas Gommers (VOB/NL and Chair of the OMC group on libraries under the current EU Work Plan for Culture), the session discussed the current procedure and scope of the EU expert group on libraries.
Klaas presented a general introduction to the action on libraries “building bridges”, the scope and the targeted results of the OMC group and gave an overview of the timeline and main topics indicated in the group mandate. He explained that the group will produce a report and that three sub-groups have been constituted: Policy landscape/Background in MS, Multiple roles, narrative and values, and library needs. This was followed by an “analogue mentimeter” hosted by Ilona to rank the and prioritise a suggested list of library roles. Participants were also invited to share their needs relating to data on libraries.
In a third part of the session, Mikkel presented the manifesto “Libraries for a Sustainable Future” – Manifesto for the 2024 EU Elections, that has been drafted in collaboration with EBLIDA, PL2030, NAPLE, the IFLA European regional committee and LIBER. The manifesto presents 5 statements on libraries’ contributions to EU policy goals together with related asks to the future members of the European Parliament. The manifesto will be published shortly.
This is part of an ongoing collaboration and partnership between the three organisations to highlight the valuable work carried out by libraries across Europe towards policymakers through coordination actions.
This event took place within the context of the EBLIDA Annual Conference and the Resourcing Libraries (RL:EU) Conference on Digital Upskilling in Libraries, which gathered library professionals from all over Europe in Lisbon for several days of valuable exchange and insights.
Pictures by João Barata