Public Libraries 2030

19/08/2026

Now open: EIFL's 20th Public Library Innovation Award - Innovative public and community library AI literacy training programmes! 🏆

EIFL is seeking submissions from library services that help people to advance their technical skills, think critically about AI outputs, and enable responsible and safe use of emerging AI technology and tools.💡

The prize is $1,500, a trophy and wide publicity through EIFL’s global networks.

Applications close 26 October, in English, French, Russian or Spanish, and are open to libraries in developing and transition economy countries.

For full details of the award and who can apply, see https://eifl.net/ia20

📣 Now Open: Applications for the 20th EIFL Public Library Innovation Award! Are you a public or community library running an impactful Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy programme? If you are based in a developing or transition economy country, this is your opportunity to be recognized for your incredible work!
The EIFL Public Library Innovation Award is seeking submissions from libraries that are actively helping their communities navigate, understand, and safely use AI technologies. Apply now! We want to hear from you!
🗓️ Submission Deadline: Monday, 26 October 2026
🔗 Learn more, view eligibility criteria, and apply here: https://zurl.co/jXdfF
📣 Help us reach innovative libraries worldwide! Please share this call across your library networks, Facebook groups, and professional channels to ensure these vital programmes get the spotlight they deserve.

17/08/2026

The make-a-thek open call is live ✨
If you're a maker, craftsperson, librarian or educator with skills to share, or curious to learn new ones, take a look and apply 👇
🔗 https://www.makeathek.eu/opencall

10/08/2026

✨ Big news from make-a-thek!

If you haven't heard of it yet, Make-a-thek is an EU-funded project reimagining public libraries as hands-on hubs for circular fashion and crafts. The idea is to bring repair, upcycling, and creative digital tools like 3D printing and laser cutting into libraries across Europe, connecting heritage crafts with digital innovation, and making it all accessible to everyone.

🚐 One of the coolest parts of the project is Matty, the make-a-thek bus: a mobile makerspace on wheels, packed with tools, machines, and workshop kits, bringing hands-on circular fashion & crafts activities directly to communities, especially in smaller towns and rural areas that don't always get these opportunities.

Matty already completed its first tour through Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, and in just a few weeks, it's getting back on the road, this time through the Baltic States!

And here's the part we're especially excited about: this second tour will be driven by none other than Ilona Kish, founder of Public Libraries 2030! 🙌

Stay tuned! Over the coming weeks we'll be sharing more content from the road. 🧵✂️🧶

30/07/2026

👀 Save the date: Wednesday 9 September, 7:00 PM

Join us for a screening of The Librarians (2025), a documentary by Kim A. Snyder.

The film follows librarians in the United States standing up for free access to information, amid growing debates on censorship, book bans, and the role of libraries in society.

📍 Théâtre Mercelis, Rue Mercelis 13, Ixelles
🎬 Screened in English, with English subtitles
🎟️ Free of charge, registration required

👉 Register here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=5VYrkWCavke4UrG501iDNGzbH1vsZu5Gqjp2qr_Ir0NUN01RVk41OFg0RzFWVEZTRFg4T05GWE9CRC4u

This event is organised by the Dutch- and French-speaking libraries of Ixelles and the Dutch-speaking library of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, in collaboration with the VGC, the Bibliothèque Centrale pour la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Muntpunt, Dogwoof, and us.

We'd also like to hear from library professionals across Europe: have you faced censorship or pressure around your collections, programming, or activities? If you'd like to share your experience, anonymously, you can do so here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=uDxqvbjEpkqZji-tVzcALHE8KyCq_7ZArLjRP7JHZpZUQ1c5SlhIOU5ROFhVRENXRUk1TTBISzNVSS4u

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the themes raised in the film, and some testimonies may be referenced there (all fully anonymised).

See you there! 👋

20/07/2026

A major new EU report on public libraries is here 📖

The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Group (an EU Council-mandated group of 36 senior library experts from 25 EU countries, with input from 8 non-EU countries) has published "Strengthening Europe through public libraries: How sustained investment in public libraries and their multiple roles delivers social, cultural and democratic returns".

It's the first high-level EU report to look at how libraries help tackle today's biggest societal challenges, with the aim of sparking debate and action both within and beyond the library community. It offers findings, best practices and policy recommendations at local, national and European level.

With an estimated 67,000 public libraries welcoming 757 million visitors and 75 million registered users every year, libraries are a huge, and still underused, asset for Europe.

The report's core message: public libraries must be recognised as essential services, with free access guaranteed for all. It sets out recommendations across six key areas:
📌 Legal and policy frameworks
📌 Sustainable funding
📌 Data-informed decision-making
📌 Workforce development
📌 Sustainable, inclusive spaces
📌 Digital innovation

This is a real opportunity to put libraries on the map for policymakers at every level. 🤝

Read the full report and share it with your network:
🔗https://culture.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/news/new-eu-report-the-multiple-roles-of-public-libraries-should-be-recognised-and-reinforced

02/07/2026

📢 One of our projects, ESC-MISINFO, has just released two new free resources to bring game-based media literacy into libraries. Take a look! 👀

15/06/2026

Two weeks ago, we were in Amsterdam for the Libraries at the Heart of Europe summit, and we're still thinking about it! 🤩

More than 220 library workers, community organisers, policymakers and cultural practitioners from across Europe gathered at OBA for three days of conversations about what libraries can do for their communities, and for Europe. We were there with BUDDIES, our Erasmus+ project supporting library and community workers across Europe.

The Europe Challenge Marketplace was probably the most inspiring part: so many projects, so many ideas, tackling social, digital and environmental challenges in communities large and small. But the programme went well beyond that: field visits across Amsterdam, plenary conversations, and on Friday morning, three parallel sessions focusing on some of the harder questions facing libraries today.

One of those sessions was ours, facilitated by Luca Moltmann, on a question we've been researching for a while: What skills do librarians need to engage meaningfully with communities? The conversation brought together survey findings from the BUDDIES project, and stories from the field, collected in our case studies collection, presented by Elisa Caccia. A big thank you to Filipa Barros (Biblioteca de Belém) for sharing the story behind the Time Bank, a brilliant example of what community-engaged librarianship looks like in practice, and to Klaas Gommers(co-head OMC group) for connecting our findings to the bigger European picture.

And of course, thank you to the European Cultural Foundation for organising such a well-put-together event. We're leaving Amsterdam with new connections, new questions, and a lot to think about. 🙌

29/05/2026

🆕 | The May newsletter is out now, here's a sneak peek of the latest issue:

🤖 ELAN/ADELE Survey 2.0: mapping AI readiness in European public libraries
📖 Literacy for Democracy conference in Warsaw
🧵 make-a-thek at re:publica 2026 in Berlin
🏛️ AgoraEU: Council agrees mandate on new programme for culture and democratic values

→ Read more: https://mailchi.mp/pl2030/newsletter-may-12851160
→ Join the PL2030 mailing list: https://tinyurl.com/pl2030news?brid=YWdncwF5AP6yCBimKhXqpzUhElB_

05/05/2026

🗓️ Our final Lighthouse Session of 2026 is coming up soon, and registrations are still open!

On Monday 11 May, 15:00-16:00 CET, we're hosting “Wonder vs. Transaction: What Is a Library For?” A provocation about purpose, design, and what libraries truly owe their communities.

We'll dig into that question with two brilliant guests: Marie Østergaard, Library Director at Aarhus Public Libraries, and Tommi Laitio, founder of Convivencia Urbana and former Executive Director of Culture & Leisure for the City of Helsinki.

👉 Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYLC2Q1PUCaCaG4ZsWdFm4ktiqdJspgYn4aCH7wTnI74Omyw/viewform - hope to see you there!

04/05/2026

Are you working in a public library and curious about how AI and new technologies are reshaping library services across Europe? 🤔

On 12 May 2026, PL2030, in the frame of the ELAN programme by Eblida, is hosting a free online information session on the ADELE Survey 2.0, a new questionnaire exploring the use of AI and emerging technologies in libraries.

The session will introduce the updated ADELE tool, a free, customisable self-assessment instrument that helps libraries reflect on their digital readiness, and explain how your library's responses will contribute to European-level policy recommendations on digital transformation.

Whether your library has used ADELE before or this is your first time hearing about it, this session is open to all public library professionals. Register by 8 May via this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjssOW3UvqQpmeLX1VVQBIvU7ls6taVCD4UH2cgT0vLWgb4g/viewform

See you there! 👋