Reimagining Public Libraries

From public service to resilience infrastructure

This session is part of the Public Vitality Camp 2026 and is convened by the European Cultural Foundation as part of its Libraries for Europe programming, in cooperation with nextlearning e.V.

Berlin’s libraries are among the city’s most accessible public spaces. Beyond lending books, many already provide places for learning, connection, digital access and everyday support. Their importance often grows during disruption – from extreme heat and social isolation to economic pressure – even as many libraries themselves operate with limited staff, space and resources.

How can Berlin’s libraries strengthen their role in building resilience without turning resilience into another demand on already stretched teams?

Drawing on Strengthening Europe through Public Libraries, participants work with concrete scenarios to explore how Berlin libraries can strengthen their role as spaces to build and practice ecological, social and economic resilience  (and what we can all do to help them). By the end, we aim to leave with a shared vocabulary for resilience across libraries, a first collective mapping of needs, and named individual commitments that connect directly to the European Cultural Foundation’s Libraries for Europe work and Berlin's post-election advocacy window.

Welcome perspectives

The working language of this session is English, with openness to contributions in German. We particularly welcome different perspectives on libraries, public space and social resilience, including:

public libraries and library networks

Berlin district and Senate administrations

community organisations and neighbourhood initiatives

social infrastructure, welfare and care

climate adaptation and heat resilience

digital inclusion and access to information

cultural institutions and other non-commercial third spaces

No prior knowledge of resilience frameworks or the European library report is required. Particularly valuable are experiences from adjacent networks and non-public social infrastructure who are interested in understanding and / or contributing to the role of public libraries as a resilience node. It’s for all library lovers, community organizers and social infrastructure enthusiasts.

Important notes

The Camp format is a volunteer-developed prototype and intentionally simple in how it is organised. Please bring your own food and drinks, and feel free to bring something to share.

Please register as well for the walk up and walk down from S Heerstraße to Teufelsberg of this day. So you can participate in the held structure of the camp, we can tune in together and cross pollinate across the sessions.

The Public Vitality Camp is a shared learning space for people already working on societal, institutional, technological and ecological challenges. Across the sessions, we work on concrete questions and tensions and explore what enables people, institutions and communities to remain capable of acting under increasingly difficult conditions – and how decisions made today expand or constrain future possibilities.

Here you can discover further sessions and register or apply to participate.