Working with library events in the academic library – how can our work with library events be an inspiration to others?

Abstract

OsloMet’s library lunch events “Lunsjpåfyll” started in 2012, and has since become an important arena for dialogue and debate in our user centered academic library. Our experience is that our model is not that common in academic libraries. Our arrangements committee consists of members working at different library units at OsloMet. We have many categories of events: Lectures, discussions, exhibitions, book events and research communication. We have experienced that combining different categories creates a synergy, for example lectures combined with exhibitions, and book events combined with debates. Example: The Norwegian library: photojournalist Jo Straube presented his photo project on The Norwegian Public Library with both an exhibition and a lecture. This event was followed by a debate where teachers from different departments at OsloMet and an representative for our student organization discussed how the University Library can become an arena for culture, art, debate and research communication. This illustrates how our events can involve and unite different people within our organization.

The poster consists of the description of our work, data samples and photographs of past events. Our goal was to inspire and give ideas to other libraries on how to make their own events.