The Europe Challenge

Join us at the Public Vitality Camp 2026 in Berlin for a session exploring how libraries can strengthen their role in building resilience, without adding further pressure to already stretched teams. The session will be presented by Ania Rok, Programme Manager at the European Cultural Foundation.

​Drawing on Strengthening Europe through Public Libraries, participants work with concrete scenarios to explore how Berlin libraries can strengthen their role as spaces to build and practice ecological, social and economic resilience (and what we can all do to help them). By the end, we aim to leave with a shared vocabulary for resilience across libraries, a first collective mapping of needs, and named individual commitments that connect directly to the European Cultural Foundation’s Libraries for Europe work and Berlin’s post-election advocacy window.

​Welcome perspectives

​The working language of this session is English, with openness to contributions in German. We particularly welcome different perspectives on libraries, public space and social resilience, including:

• ​public libraries and library networks
• Berlin district and Senate administrations
• community organisations and neighbourhood initiatives
• social infrastructure, welfare and care
• ​climate adaptation and heat resilience
• digital inclusion and access to information
• ​cultural institutions and other non-commercial third spaces

​No prior knowledge of resilience frameworks or the European library report is required. Particularly valuable are experiences from adjacent networks and non-public social infrastructure who are interested in understanding and / or contributing to the role of public libraries as a resilience node. It’s for all library lovers, community organizers and social infrastructure enthusiasts.