EAHIL, the European Association for Health Information in Libraries, give an event every year. This year, NTNU acted as hosts for the EAHIL 2023 event, and I have been leading the international programme committee. The event took place last week, 12-16 June, in Trondheim, and I am happy to say that it was a success! I am, of course, not unbiased here, but all the feedback so far has been positive. It was a lot (a lot!) of work, so I am happy that people enjoyed themselves and was able to learn something.
The theme this year was: “Radical positive change agents”. It is part of a quote from R. David Lankes. The original quote goes as follows:
To be a librarian is not to be neutral, or passive, or waiting for a question. It is to be a radical positive change agent within your community.”
R. David Lankes
I have always found this quite inspiring, and I think it is something that we should be reminded of from time to time. I think librarians generally tend to be good at the details, and less good to engage with the bigger picture. We tend to be all about the daily operations, and that stuff is important, but we talk less about the “WHY”. As Simon Sinek said: Start with why, then do the how and the what. I think we need to think more about the big picture, and that is why I find this quote inspiring.
We were fortunate enough to secure R. David Lankes for one of the keynotes, and the video is available from the EAHIL 2023 website now. In the keynote he amended his former quote:
To be a radical positive agent is to fight for your whole community, your values, and for democracy itself.
R. David Lankes, EAHIL 2023 keynote
David’s keynote was very interesting, and pretty tough to hear. He addressed issues like attacks on libraries and librarians, banned books, issues with lawmakers wanting to influence what libraries can stock, imposing laws that make it a felony for librarians to have certain books on the shelves etc. I think, however, that we all need to be reminded what is at stake, and that it could just as easily happen here. It was a great conversation starter.
On day 2, we had another good keynote, though very different in style and theme. It was given by Mia Høj Mathiasson, and the recording is also available on the website. It was Mia’s first keynote, but it went well! Mia is a Danish library researcher, and she was talking about how the libraries can be proactive partners in sustainability issues. Mia talked about what sustainability is, and how it relates to libraries. Libraries have taken the UN sustainability goals to heart and engaged with them. It was very interesting to hear what she had to say, and she used examples from her research during the UPSCALE project, financed by the Norwegian Research Fund.
The final keynote, on Friday 16 June, was given by Aslak Sira Myhre, our National librarian. The title of his keynote was: “Change and constant: the role of the modern library”. The recording has not yet been made available, but it will be up on the website soon.
Aslak talked about how the National library has digitized material in a grand scale, and that most of the Norwegian cultural heritage is being digitized and therefore made available to the public. He continued to say that while the National library has a physical building and printed collections, that is not what most patrons have been used. Most of the National library patrons, Aslak said, has never set foot in that library at Solli place in Oslo. They only associate it with the digital format on nb.no. That is not to say that the library as a place is dead. The libraries are Norway’s most used cultural arena, and 58 (or was it 54?) percent of the population has visited a library during 2022. It is more than ever. The printed book has been deemed dead for decades, but it is still not so. Teachers and librarians still see that children and teens want to use the printed materials. Aslak also entered into the discussions on AI and the future role of that. Stay tuned for the video on the website.
I felt very lucky and proud to be able to welcome three such keynote speakers, and I really feel like they contributed in a positive manner to the overall conference theme and just lifted the profile of the event. I heard people talking about them in the hall after each keynote, and that is a positive thing, I think. I mean, the keynote speakers are supposed to give us big picture things, ideas and their perspectives on the conference theme, but often when I am at conferences, I find that the keynotes don’t stick afterwards. I think I will remember key takeaways from these.
More on EAHIL to come, so watch this space (as they say) – or rather, just turn on notifications/ RSS to save you the bother 🙂
Karen Marie 