Marie Østergaard

Libraries as democratic infrastructure – co-creation and cross-pollination at Aarhus Public Libraries | Convegno Stelline 2025

Community, partners and staff are all essential motors of development in todays public libraries. Marie Oestergaard will share how the Aarhus Public Libraries over the years have worked strategically with co-creation and partnerships in the continuous development of library services and spaces. She will talk about Aarhus’ interdisciplinary mind-set and recruitment that is core to the organization and how working with design thinking is instrumental in the on-going development of the libraries to the benefit of the citizens.

BIOGRAFIA

As Library Director of Aarhus Public Libraries, Marie oversees Dokk1 (the main library) and 17 branches. Since the beginning of her library career she has been part of Aarhus Public Libraries’ development of the library as a democratic space – a non-commercial space that empowers citizenship, sustainable communities and human growth.
Focusing on user-involvement, partnerships, design thinking and rethinking of library space, she has investigated new technologies, involvement processes and organisational learning in library development. From 2005-2015 Marie was the project leader of the building of Dokk1, implementing and developing these ideas as well as introducing new formats of user- and citizen involvement in the planning and building of Dokk1, that opened in June 2015.
Dokk1 is the largest public library in the Nordic Countries and won the Public Library of the Year Award in 2016. It has been highly acclaimed both in- and outside the library world for its rethinking of library spaces, partnerships, involvement of users and part-taking in city development.
As library director she has also overseen the building and development of the Gellerup Branch, nominated for Public Library of the Year Award 2022.
Throughout the years she has worked intensely with co-creation and partnerships – nationally and internationally – to push development, network and innovation in the library sector.
She is the co-inventor of Next Library – a biannual international conference gathering thought leaders and innovators from over 30 countries around the world in a highly interactive forum discussing the development of libraries for the benefit of communities.
Marie engages in international conversations and co-operation across the world about library development, democracy, advocacy and leadership. She serves as chair of the board of PL2030 – a non-profit European organisation aimed to put public libraries on the EU agenda and strengthen international network. She is a board member of METRO – Metropolitan New York Library Council and is an elected member of the IFLA MetLib Standing Committee. In Denmark she serves on the board of the Danish Library Directors’ Association and is the vice-chair of the Danish Digital Library Association.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 16/01/2025