Jane Kunze presented a new model of library: Modern family patterns, learning, Library 2.0 and cocreation are some of the ingredients in the development of the Danish children’s library in Aarhus (Denmark).

During her speech in our Children's Literacy Lab (in Salamanca Lab) Jane stated that if we want to create a library that is adapted to urban family life today we need to work with the values of these families: togetherness, creativity and communication.

When using cutting edge technology she thinks it's necessary to change our mindset and not just our hardware – working with the concept of Library 2.0 And we need to do it together - to co-create with our citizens and library users and this way try to raise commitment and community in connection to the library.
 

Traditionally libraries in Denmark have secured access and dissemination of information and later on also introduced new media to the public. In that way the library has played an important role in securing equality in our society and in supporting access to public debates. Making information available and preserving it for future generations is still a part of the library portfolio, but services and demands are evolving. People in general are more capable of finding information themselves and more offers are made widely available through the Internet, TV and so on.

Furthermore our basic living circumstances have changed. We live in an individualized culture where personal goals, ambitions and values dominate and family life becomes a priority more then a necessity. Those kinds of change also affect the development of future library services,
 

You can read her whole paper by Jane Kunze, it highlights some of the projects and developments in particularly Aarhus that have experimented with new services and methods in an attempt to meet these changing conditions.