NEWCOMER

Public Libraries 2030 is thrilled to bring together a consortium of diverse and motivated library partners into the NEWCOMER consortium:

• Public Libraries 2030, Belgium (project manager)
• Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) of the Netherlands (coordinator)
• Cubiss, Netherlands
• Stadtbibliothek Köln (Cologne City Library), Germany
• Mestna knjižnica Kranj (Kranj City Library), Slovenia
• Národní knihovna ČR (National Library) of the Czech Republic
• Culture Socialità Biblioteche Network Operativo (CSBNO), Italy
• Aarhus Libraries/DOKK1, Denmark

The main activity of the project will be a series of transnational project meetings, in which each partner will share best practices in adult education and locally-driven solutions to issues surrounding social exclusion. These resources will be compiled into a Manual of Best Practice which will be openly available online. PL2030 Board Member David Lankes will also lead on a process of skills evaluation of the participants, and is leading on developing the NEWCOMER consortium into a sustainable network of global librarianship.

Co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU, the NEWCOMER project’s goal is to build a network of community centred librarianship. By exchanging best practices across borders and empowering library staff to develop their expertise, the project aims to increase the quality and uptake of adult education in libraries, and to support the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups more broadly.

The final NEWCOMER project meeting took place in Brussels on November 8 2022 and brought together over forty library professionals from across Europe to hear about community librarianship. The presentations and videos were incredibly inspiring and embody the vision the project has for community librarianship – find them all below.

More information can be found on the Erasmus+ project website.