Next Library People
- Next Library
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- Next Library People
Interviews from Next Library 2025
“Hi, I’m Anna from a library in the South of Poland. I’m the Head of Marketing and Project department.
I’m here because my director always told me, “You have to go to the Next Library because it is such a huge and very interesting event with a lot of space for some inspiration, and you will have many opportunities to catch some interesting ideas which can help you to develop your work.” So that’s the main reason, and I’m glad I’m here because what she told me was true!
Our main challenge in the library is always the audience. So we try to get better promotion, talk with people, serve, offer services for people. We want to be a very open and friendly place, especially in Poland. We want to come to be a nice place for men, because men don’t read much in Poland, whereas women read a lot. So we are currently focusing on how men can reach our library, to get them to come to the library.”
Anna Szopa, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Żorach im. Ottona Sterna, Poland.
“My name is Hólmfríður Bjarnadóttir and I’m a specialist at the City Library in Reykjavik, where I’ve been working for around six years.
This is my first time at the Next Library, and it’s all very exciting, and everything is so big and beautiful. I just couldn’t have imagined it being so amazing. I am here because I think libraries are very important. They are one of the last places where people can just come and be. They don’t have to pay, they can just meet other people and enjoy community. Events like this, they help us to see what it is that we need to do to make space for everyone. I love being in a job where I can find good ideas at places like Next Library and bring them to the people in my library.
I think every library in every country is feeling the loneliness epidemic, and I feel like libraries all around are trying to fight it together, to be a place for people to meet and connect. And I think what we are fighting in Iceland, particularly, is that we don’t have a lot of funding, and it’s always less and less. So we’re just trying to really safeguard the library and try to do as much as we can with what we have.”
Hólmfríður Bjarnadóttir, The City Library in Reykjavic, Iceland
“My name is Robin Stewart, and I am here to find out about projects that are happening, not just across Europe, but globally, and to see what I can take away from them and implement in my own library and community.
I was really honoured to be the recipient of an honourable mention in the Changemaker Award for Next Library 2025. It was really beautiful to have our project recognised on this stage and at this scale. The project was an initiative to try and reframe narratives around young immigrants in Irish society. ‘Fáilte’ is the Irish word for welcome, and it’s a huge part of the Irish cultural identity. But unfortunately, that sense of fáilte, of welcome, has been under threat from right-wing narratives that have been emerging across the city and across the country in recent years. So we wanted to break down this idea of us versus them and try and find a new fun, shared space and sense of ‘we’. We achieved that through a community arts festival with, at its centerpiece, a community parade. We drew in from all cultures across our community to explore one another’s stories, to share those stories and to make meaningful collaborative art together.
Believe it or not, there are only 30 state funded school libraries with school librarians in the country. So our urgent national priority is to try and get the project expanded into more schools, more communities, so we can do more good, more learning and more fun.”
Robin Stewart, Junior Certificate Schools Programme, City of Dublin Education and Training Board, Ireland
“My name is Hyeji Hwang and I am a manager of SeeArt Foundation. We make libraries for Youth and Children in South Korea. I work at Third Time Space Library. In Korea, and globally, youth need more third spaces outside of the home and school. If the third time space can be a library, we believe that it will be a better world so we work to get more third time spaces.
I’m interested in content for youth. Korea doesn’t have many content for youth or spaces. So we are here on tour to also visit the Netherlands, the UK and more to learn about library services.
At Next Library, we have made a session and a booth for the Next Library Satellite, which we will host next year in Seoul! With my team, we are here to prepare, so we are presenting our themes. We want to get the opinion of participants here. Which themes do you want us to speak more about? Participants can be the leaders the Next Library Satellite.”
Hyeji Hwang, The Foundation SeeArt for Book Culture, Republic of Korea
“I came to Next Library hoping to meet people who are as enthusiastic as I am — and I did! I’ve connected with colleagues from all over the world and seen how different libraries are working with democracy. I have so much to take home.
All in all, it’s been lovely to be part of this conference. It has such a relaxed atmosphere, and I’ve also really enjoyed spending quality time with the colleagues I came here with. I’ve met people who are deeply passionate about libraries and their ethos — and it has made me more confident in how I do my work. It reassures me that I’m on the right path.
Democracy work is my main focus. I’m part of the Democracy Team at Tampere City Library, and that’s why I’m here. I’ve worked in libraries for over 40 years, and I’ve witnessed how much they’ve evolved over the decades. Today, democracy is playing an increasingly important role — we’re thinking more about how to highlight it for our users and communities.
It’s vital that we offer a space where democracy is visible and accessible — and show that it can be approached in an easy and welcoming way.”
Arja Rantanen, Tampere City Library, Finland
“At Fashion Revolution, we’ve started working on engaging more with libraries. Right now, we have two pilot projects running. One is Make-a-Thek, which we showcased here, and the other is a local project focused on clothes swapping — exploring alternatives for sustainable consumption.
I came here because I wanted to connect with other partners from my consortium, and we were lucky to have the opportunity to exhibit and present Make-a-Thek. Also, I’ve always wanted to visit Aarhus, so it felt like the perfect combination!”
Carina Bischof, Fashion Revolution Germany e.V., Germany
“My name is Ben Lee, and I work for Shared Intelligence in London. It’s a private research organisation, but we do a lot of work with libraries, mostly in the UK. I’m here partly because I think Next Library is just a fantastic gathering of people who really want to push the boundaries and understand what’s happening that’s interesting, and also because I was given a chance to share our work on Futures Literacy, which I think is a really important thing.
In the UK, the current priorities are – it sounds so simple – just to get more people using libraries. There are so many people who would benefit if they used libraries, but we know they’re not. Libraries are there for them, and we need to get more of them using libraries, because libraries have got a huge amount to contribute, especially to some of the things around economic inequality and people grappling with trying to acquire new skills.
Also, libraries have to show what they do. I think libraries are good at having impact, and they are not always as good at demonstrating and explaining it in a way which gets the investment in. You just can’t do something with nothing – you need the investment. So, more people and more impact.”
Ben Lee, Shared Intelligence, United Kingdom
“In our libraries, we are in the middle of a change process. The focus used to be on cataloguing, collections, and logistics. We are doing these things very well. But we have no resources to implement all the good things that are presented here. So, my main goal is to change our organisation — to get more resources to do everything beyond the library — and this is very challenging because it changes the DNA of our staff and of the everyday. It means rethinking what the library is.
I came from a different industry, so I had a perspective from the outside. I was asking questions like, “Why do we do this?” Our strategy is the third room, but we have no resources for that. So how do we do it? I have different experiences to bring in — from change management, literature, publishing, running a literature festival, and being a teacher — but I work together with my experienced colleagues from the library itself.
I’ve already gotten a lot of inspiration and ideas from Next Library. Not everything fits with our small library. Dokk1 and Oodi are beyond our reality. So I have to break it down into smaller pieces and look at what we can use. The Ignite talks were great — all the inspiration and ideas. I saw and learned, “Yes, we do some of these things, but we have to do it with more consequence and with more power.” This is our task — and not only the collections.”
Dani Landolf, Kornhausbibliotheken Bern, Switzerland
“Hi, I’m Ida Gašpar, and I work at the Fran Galović Koprivnica Public Library as a senior librarian in the Children’s Department. The Next Library conference has always seemed like a great opportunity to connect with other librarians, as well as people outside the profession. Of course, it’s also a great place to absorb innovative ideas for creating programs and generally organising business in every library. The space, the programme, the food — and of course, the amazing people — everything is great!
My focus is on children and young people, and on programs that they will look forward to, but also experience as new life moments. At the moment, we are in the middle of a big project: building a new library and planning the space, which is a great challenge and responsibility. Amongst it all, there is also the organisation of kcConnect, our national conference, which we modelled on Next Library. We always try to do the best for the people in our community — but also for the librarianship profession in general.”
Ida Gašpar, Fran Galovic Koprivnica Public Library, Croatia
“I’m Larry Neal, Director of the Clinton-Macomb Public Library in the United States. I came here for more renewal of my inspiration and dreaming. It started back in 2017 — I collected many, many ideas from this place: the building, the people, and even some of the smaller libraries that we visited — and added those to my dream file. I was able to incorporate many of those into a new building. It’s also about touching base with my global public library colleagues. It’s about meeting people from all over the world and understanding where our similarities fall in terms of what’s working, what the challenges are, and how they are solving those challenges. The United States is such a large country that we talk a lot among ourselves, but we don’t always have the opportunity to get out and connect with the larger global community.
I’m very mindful of the Sustainable Development Goals and figuring out how we can connect to those. I think something my library board has started to focus on is the long-term sustainability of our choices and what we include in our building projects. I think the other important aspect is trying to then demonstrate to the community that not only should we be talking about these goals and the benefits and the impact on the environment, but also how we’re trying to set that as an example for others in the community.”
Larry Neal, Clinton-Macomb Public Library, USA
“Hi, I’m Anna from a library in the South of Poland. I’m the Head of Marketing and Project department.
I’m here because my director always told me, “You have to go to the Next Library because it is such a huge and very interesting event with a lot of space for some inspiration, and you will have many opportunities to catch some interesting ideas which can help you to develop your work.” So that’s the main reason, and I’m glad I’m here because what she told me was true!
Our main challenge in the library is always the audience. So we try to get better promotion, talk with people, serve, offer services for people. We want to be a very open and friendly place, especially in Poland. We want to come to be a nice place for men, because men don’t read much in Poland, whereas women read a lot. So we are currently focusing on how men can reach our library, to get them to come to the library.”
Anna Szopa, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Żorach im. Ottona Sterna, Poland.
“My name is Hólmfríður Bjarnadóttir and I’m a specialist at the City Library in Reykjavik, where I’ve been working for around six years.
This is my first time at the Next Library, and it’s all very exciting, and everything is so big and beautiful. I just couldn’t have imagined it being so amazing. I am here because I think libraries are very important. They are one of the last places where people can just come and be. They don’t have to pay, they can just meet other people and enjoy community. Events like this, they help us to see what it is that we need to do to make space for everyone. I love being in a job where I can find good ideas at places like Next Library and bring them to the people in my library.
I think every library in every country is feeling the loneliness epidemic, and I feel like libraries all around are trying to fight it together, to be a place for people to meet and connect. And I think what we are fighting in Iceland, particularly, is that we don’t have a lot of funding, and it’s always less and less. So we’re just trying to really safeguard the library and try to do as much as we can with what we have.”
Hólmfríður Bjarnadóttir, The City Library in Reykjavic, Iceland
“My name is Robin Stewart, and I am here to find out about projects that are happening, not just across Europe, but globally, and to see what I can take away from them and implement in my own library and community.
I was really honoured to be the recipient of an honourable mention in the Changemaker Award for Next Library 2025. It was really beautiful to have our project recognised on this stage and at this scale. The project was an initiative to try and reframe narratives around young immigrants in Irish society. ‘Fáilte’ is the Irish word for welcome, and it’s a huge part of the Irish cultural identity. But unfortunately, that sense of fáilte, of welcome, has been under threat from right-wing narratives that have been emerging across the city and across the country in recent years. So we wanted to break down this idea of us versus them and try and find a new fun, shared space and sense of ‘we’. We achieved that through a community arts festival with, at its centerpiece, a community parade. We drew in from all cultures across our community to explore one another’s stories, to share those stories and to make meaningful collaborative art together.
Believe it or not, there are only 30 state funded school libraries with school librarians in the country. So our urgent national priority is to try and get the project expanded into more schools, more communities, so we can do more good, more learning and more fun.”
Robin Stewart, Junior Certificate Schools Programme, City of Dublin Education and Training Board, Ireland
“My name is Hyeji Hwang and I am a manager of SeeArt Foundation. We make libraries for Youth and Children in South Korea. I work at Third Time Space Library. In Korea, and globally, youth need more third spaces outside of the home and school. If the third time space can be a library, we believe that it will be a better world so we work to get more third time spaces.
I’m interested in content for youth. Korea doesn’t have many content for youth or spaces. So we are here on tour to also visit the Netherlands, the UK and more to learn about library services.
At Next Library, we have made a session and a booth for the Next Library Satellite, which we will host next year in Seoul! With my team, we are here to prepare, so we are presenting our themes. We want to get the opinion of participants here. Which themes do you want us to speak more about? Participants can be the leaders the Next Library Satellite.”
Hyeji Hwang, The Foundation SeeArt for Book Culture, Republic of Korea
“I came to Next Library hoping to meet people who are as enthusiastic as I am — and I did! I’ve connected with colleagues from all over the world and seen how different libraries are working with democracy. I have so much to take home.
All in all, it’s been lovely to be part of this conference. It has such a relaxed atmosphere, and I’ve also really enjoyed spending quality time with the colleagues I came here with. I’ve met people who are deeply passionate about libraries and their ethos — and it has made me more confident in how I do my work. It reassures me that I’m on the right path.
Democracy work is my main focus. I’m part of the Democracy Team at Tampere City Library, and that’s why I’m here. I’ve worked in libraries for over 40 years, and I’ve witnessed how much they’ve evolved over the decades. Today, democracy is playing an increasingly important role — we’re thinking more about how to highlight it for our users and communities.
It’s vital that we offer a space where democracy is visible and accessible — and show that it can be approached in an easy and welcoming way.”
Arja Rantanen, Tampere City Library, Finland
“At Fashion Revolution, we’ve started working on engaging more with libraries. Right now, we have two pilot projects running. One is Make-a-Thek, which we showcased here, and the other is a local project focused on clothes swapping — exploring alternatives for sustainable consumption.
I came here because I wanted to connect with other partners from my consortium, and we were lucky to have the opportunity to exhibit and present Make-a-Thek. Also, I’ve always wanted to visit Aarhus, so it felt like the perfect combination!”
Carina Bischof, Fashion Revolution Germany e.V., Germany
“My name is Ben Lee, and I work for Shared Intelligence in London. It’s a private research organisation, but we do a lot of work with libraries, mostly in the UK. I’m here partly because I think Next Library is just a fantastic gathering of people who really want to push the boundaries and understand what’s happening that’s interesting, and also because I was given a chance to share our work on Futures Literacy, which I think is a really important thing.
In the UK, the current priorities are – it sounds so simple – just to get more people using libraries. There are so many people who would benefit if they used libraries, but we know they’re not. Libraries are there for them, and we need to get more of them using libraries, because libraries have got a huge amount to contribute, especially to some of the things around economic inequality and people grappling with trying to acquire new skills.
Also, libraries have to show what they do. I think libraries are good at having impact, and they are not always as good at demonstrating and explaining it in a way which gets the investment in. You just can’t do something with nothing – you need the investment. So, more people and more impact.”
Ben Lee, Shared Intelligence, United Kingdom
“In our libraries, we are in the middle of a change process. The focus used to be on cataloguing, collections, and logistics. We are doing these things very well. But we have no resources to implement all the good things that are presented here. So, my main goal is to change our organisation — to get more resources to do everything beyond the library — and this is very challenging because it changes the DNA of our staff and of the everyday. It means rethinking what the library is.
I came from a different industry, so I had a perspective from the outside. I was asking questions like, “Why do we do this?” Our strategy is the third room, but we have no resources for that. So how do we do it? I have different experiences to bring in — from change management, literature, publishing, running a literature festival, and being a teacher — but I work together with my experienced colleagues from the library itself.
I’ve already gotten a lot of inspiration and ideas from Next Library. Not everything fits with our small library. Dokk1 and Oodi are beyond our reality. So I have to break it down into smaller pieces and look at what we can use. The Ignite talks were great — all the inspiration and ideas. I saw and learned, “Yes, we do some of these things, but we have to do it with more consequence and with more power.” This is our task — and not only the collections.”
Dani Landolf, Kornhausbibliotheken Bern, Switzerland
“Hi, I’m Ida Gašpar, and I work at the Fran Galović Koprivnica Public Library as a senior librarian in the Children’s Department. The Next Library conference has always seemed like a great opportunity to connect with other librarians, as well as people outside the profession. Of course, it’s also a great place to absorb innovative ideas for creating programs and generally organising business in every library. The space, the programme, the food — and of course, the amazing people — everything is great!
My focus is on children and young people, and on programs that they will look forward to, but also experience as new life moments. At the moment, we are in the middle of a big project: building a new library and planning the space, which is a great challenge and responsibility. Amongst it all, there is also the organisation of kcConnect, our national conference, which we modelled on Next Library. We always try to do the best for the people in our community — but also for the librarianship profession in general.”
Ida Gašpar, Fran Galovic Koprivnica Public Library, Croatia
“I’m Larry Neal, Director of the Clinton-Macomb Public Library in the United States. I came here for more renewal of my inspiration and dreaming. It started back in 2017 — I collected many, many ideas from this place: the building, the people, and even some of the smaller libraries that we visited — and added those to my dream file. I was able to incorporate many of those into a new building. It’s also about touching base with my global public library colleagues. It’s about meeting people from all over the world and understanding where our similarities fall in terms of what’s working, what the challenges are, and how they are solving those challenges. The United States is such a large country that we talk a lot among ourselves, but we don’t always have the opportunity to get out and connect with the larger global community.
I’m very mindful of the Sustainable Development Goals and figuring out how we can connect to those. I think something my library board has started to focus on is the long-term sustainability of our choices and what we include in our building projects. I think the other important aspect is trying to then demonstrate to the community that not only should we be talking about these goals and the benefits and the impact on the environment, but also how we’re trying to set that as an example for others in the community.”
Larry Neal, Clinton-Macomb Public Library, USA