Norrköping City Library - Sweden Who are we?

Bono -- in U2 -- once stated the difference between a pop band and a rock band that when the pop band is pleased the rock band is angry. When the pop band trolls on the rock band always is in search for something else, some alternatives to the present. That's why we are a rock band. Not because we are generally ill-humoured but for the dimension in the dissatisfaction - of curiosity, discoveries, a pathos for improving the world. Pop bands are satisfied, rock bands wants to develop. That is a backbone, an attitude towards the world, a philosophy. Rock band or a library -- makes no difference.

Norrköping City Library (NCL) answers for the general public library service in Norrköping, Sweden's eighth largest city (125.000 inhabitants). NCL includes a big central library, eight branch libraries and extensive outreach library activities. In the central library there are also public activities such as Agenda 21 (environment), Citizens Service (help in public sector) and the Media Central (service to schools).

Since several years the Central Library is the most visited library in the whole of Sweden. The average figure is about 4.000 visitors a day. Situated in the central of the city, very generous opening hours (also most in Sweden, 70 hours a week), a well known and wide selection of information technology (IT) applications, the fact that it is free etc. makes the central library to the natural meeting point in the city. If the relation between loans and patrons for Swedish libraries in general is 1 - 1 the correlation for NCL is 0,5 -- 1, which shows that people do a lot more at the library then just borrowing media. A lot of immigrants lives in Norrköping (about 12% of the citizens). For them the library is very important for keeping contact via computers with their homecountrys. The role of the library for integration can not be stressed enough.

The political stated task says that NCL shall be a library for everyone. It shall be a meeting-place for people with different kinds of information needs through a function as a centre for knowledge as well for culture. Three areas are to be given priority: concentration on children and youth, technical development and lifelong learning, and accessibility to culture.

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Film & Animation

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• Norrköping
• library
• bibliotek
• book
• books