Umeå is a city in northern Sweden that is one of the country's fastest growing, with over 100,000 inhabitants. It has two universities and was the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The city has 11 public libraries, including a new central library that opened in 2014. The document discusses the importance of collaboration and co-creation for public libraries. Budgets are tight, so partnerships can help share costs. New methods are needed to support reading as children's reading levels decrease. Partnerships can help libraries attract non-users and close the digital access gap. Collaboration requires shared values and competencies as well as understanding user needs. The central library in Umeå has relocated several times over the decades

1. Collaboration and co-creation
- key issues for (public) library development.
Reflections from a Swedish perspective
Key Issues for library space: international perspectives
Maynooth University Library 2016-03-03
inger.edebro.sikstrom@gmail.com

2. Where is Umeå?
On the north east coast
• 700 km from Stockholm
• 1 hour flight
One of Sweden’s fastest growing
cities:
• 117 000 inhabitants
• Average age: 38
2 universities:
• 29 000 students
• Areas of excellence:
 Cancer research
 Biological chemistry
 Plant and forest
biotechnology
 One of the world’s best
Institute of Design
European Capital of Culture 2014
11 Public libraries, 1 bookmobile:
• Several international awards
• New City Library 2014

3. Reflexions
“I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and
When
And How and Where and Who”
/Rudyard Kipling
• What basic needs do we want to
meet?
• Why is collaboration and co-
creation important?
• How do people experience a
library?
• Why change a winning concept?
• When do we relocate a library?
• How attract new visitors?
• Who is the library designed for?

4. Are The Times A Changin’?
Libraries contribution to our democratic rights is as
important today as it was for 100 years ago.
1891:
• “a public library for all classes, with reading and
writing room and a lecture-hall”
• “ a combined library and swimming pool where
“boys could be lured into reading and
bookworms to the swimming pool”

5. Why collaboration and co-creation?
1. Tight budget – important
how we spend the money we
have and to share costs
1. Children's reading decreases
– new methods to support
reading and information
skills
1. Increased gap between those
who have access to
information and those who
have not – Important to
attract people who doesn’t
use the libraries today
Photo: Henrik Sikström

6. More than co-operation and co-location
Kaospiloterna, Aarhus, Denmark. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström
“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”
Collaboration and co-creation are built on:
• common values
• shared costs
• joint competencies
• the wishes and the needs of the users – and the non-users
• the library as an active part in the society they serve

7. ”If you find a path with no obstacles, it
probably doesn’t lead anywhere!”
/Lydia Namugera, Makarere University Library, Uganda
IFLA Library Buildings and Equipment’s Satellite Meeting, Singapore 2013
Photo: Jeff Scherer

8. How do people experience a library?
“The library has
everything you need
- but it is impossible to
find anything”
/ Petter, age 15
Idea Store, Whitechapel, London. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

9. Cross Border Collaboration
Illustration: White Architects, Umeå

10. General buildings for flexible usage
Illustration: Stig Bergqvist

11. Why change a winning concept?
• “Everything is great
• “The library is the city’s most
important place”
• “Please, do not move the
library”
• “Great location as it is”
The wish-list:
• Longer opening hours
• Quiet study areas
• Clean toilets that you can pay
with text messages
• …

12. The “life-cycle” of Umeå City Library
1926-1935
1936-1954
1954-1985
1985-2014
2014- ?

13. Part of strategic city development
Meeting places. Cultural activities. Experiences. Small-scale business. Eating-places
“Other establishments that contribute to making the area
inhabited, safe and full of life all year around”.
Photo: Henrik Sikström

14. Wish list for innovative design
• Support to individual/informal
learning:
– Offering open collaborative
learning spaces and quiet
individual spaces
• Support to curiosity and
creativity:
– Offering “labs” equipped for trying
new ways of expressions and an
arena for performances
• Support to understand the
society we live in
– Offering space and information
about the city’s modern history
• Be a place “to meet up and tweet
up”, for people and different
kinds of activities Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

15. ”Most of our problems can be solved.
Some of them will take brains, some of them will take patience.
And some of them will have to be wrestled with like an alligator in a swamp”.
Wallpainting Chicago Public Library. Quote: Harold Washington, Mayor Chicago 1983-1987. Photo: Inger Edebro Sikström

16. Photo: Henrik Sikström

17. Photo: Henrik Sikström

18. Photo: Henrik Sikström

19. Photo: Henrik Sikström

20. Photo: Henrik Sikström

21. Photo: Henrik Sikström

22. Photo: Henrik Sikström

23. Photo: Henrik Sikström