As part of its ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge and policy dialogue on public service transformation, LibrarIN participated in the Eu-SPRI Forum Annual Conference 2025, held from 11–13 June 2025 at TU Dortmund University, Germany. The conference, themed “Shaping societal futures with STI Policies,” brought together leading scholars and practitioners to explore how science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies can support inclusive and resilient societal transitions.
On 12 June, during a session in the context of Track 17: How Can We Change Organisations Through Innovations?, Doris Schartinger of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, a core partner in the LibrarIN consortium, presented project results in her paper, titled “drew on insights gained through the LibrarIN project’s case studies and stakeholder engagement activities.
The presentation focused on how organisations survive and evolve in the long run under adverse external conditions while at the same time realising various opportunities, presenting the examples of the Vienna Libraries and Oodi Library in Helsinki.
Key takeaways from the presentation included:
- Data on library services: Presented data on how library services have evolved from past in many ways: Roughly half of all the events and services in the time period have no connections to media/reading as such.
- Networks and collaborations: Libraries collaborate and co-create with outside partners, local NGOs and associations to complement their resources and competences.
- Sourcing complementary competences: Collaboration with outside partners takes mainly place in events/services beyond their core of media and reading, where libraries need complementary competencies and access to the target groups.
By showcasing these findings at Eu-SPRI 2025 — a prominent venue for interdisciplinary exchange on STI governance — LibrarIN reinforced its position as a key contributor to the debate on public sector innovation and organisational change. The session also provided an excellent platform for engaging with researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working on adjacent themes.
The outcomes presented align with LibrarIN’s broader objective: to empower libraries and other public service organisations to become active drivers of social innovation and co-creation. Interested readers can further explore the project’s resources, including research publications and policy briefs, at librarin.eu/resources/publications.