32nd EBLIDA Council and Conference 2024 and Joint EBLIDA-NAPLE-PL2030 Event

Arrangør: EBLIDA

Theme: Charting the future of libraries

Due to economic challenges, demographic changes, developments within the information society – in social media and in artificial intelligence- and the threats to democracy, the needs of citizens and of society are changing in an unprecedented speed and direction.

In many countries in Europe libraries, library academies and library associations struggle with the question of how to staff the library to prepare for the future.
The EBLIDA conference “Charting the future of libraries” in Lisbon April 9, 2024, places this question as the central topic.

Libraries – as always – try to adjust to the needs of the community they serve. Looking back, the changes in libraries in the past decades have been enormous, transformative and are reflective of a strong and flexible profession.

During the 2023 EBLIDA conference in Luxemburg, we learned how librarians have become used to (re)creating library services every day in the interactions with their users; the so called ‘librarising’.

Staffing the library of the future

With the ever-changing new demands on the library, it is no longer the case that training in library academies sufficiently prepares students for the profession at hand. The speed of change has surpassed the time needed to prepare traditional curricula and execute training programs. Training programs in library academies therefore lag behind the demands of the sector.

The conference will start with an outline of the changes in society and the resulting changing demands on libraries. This will be elaborated on from the perspective of the practitioner, the teaching of library students and that of the policy maker.

Through a series of interviews, presentations and interactive workshops, we will explore how to address the above issues, showing you examples of good practices and lessons learned from different countries.

We want every participant to leave Lisbon with a sense of possibilities and inspiration to be put into practice.

It is our aspiration that the conference will lead to new initiatives for exchange and cooperation to the benefit of the future of libraries in Europe.

Arrangementets nettside: https://eblida2024.sciencesconf.org