The Europe Challenge

This is your library as STORYTELLER. Librarians bring stories to life in multiple formats, fostering literacy, language skills, and cultural understanding. At a time when literacy levels are declining across Europe among both children and adults, they support early readers, help to develop narrative skills, foster reader identities, and nurture future library users while building cultural capital.

By offering activities in different languages, including foreign and national minority languages, librarians promote inclusion in diverse communities. As storytellers, librarians preserve cultural traditions and local histories, and through intergenerational reading events, build bridges across age groups.

You’ve watched one of seven video portraits of libraries as trusted community spaces, based on seven key roles of libraries identified in the forthcoming OMC report Strengthening Europe through Public Libraries.