Workshop 2.2 | Imagining and Co-creating LIBER’s AI Futures: A World Café for Futures Thinking and Strategic Priorities
Date: Thursday, 2 July 2026, 16:00-18:00
Location: R22
Speakers:
Sara Kjellberg, Malmö University Library, Sweden
Karin Rydving, Oslo University Library, Norway
Greete Veesalu, National Library, Estonia
Mia Ridge, British Library, United Kingdom
Arben Hajra, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics – ZBW, Germany
Tamara Pianos, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics – ZBW, Germany
Organised by the LIBER AI Taskforce
This workshop aims to explore both long-term perspectives and immediate strategic priorities for LIBER’s work with AI. It seeks to actively engage LIBER members in forward-looking discussions on the future role of libraries in relation to artificial intelligence (AI). By creating a collective space for futures thinking, the workshop also aims for the results to contribute to the topic of AI in the LIBER strategy beyond 2027.
The session will be structured as a World Café, a well-established participatory method designed to support iterative, in-depth exploration of complex questions through focused group dialogue. Participants will rotate between themed discussion tables, allowing ideas to be developed, deepened, and connected across multiple rounds.
The discussions address key AI themes and the role of libraries, guided by principles of responsible AI use. The themes are drawn from the LIBER working groups workplan of AI, formed during 2025 coordinated by the LIBER AI Task Force. The Task Force consists of members from LIBER working groups, ensuring strong anchoring in ongoing activities and initiatives related to AI across the organisation. In the workplan the suggested activities and topics have been organised in the following headings: copyright, law and ethics; security and infrastructures; AI literacy (for us as librarians as well as for our communities of users); applications (why, not how); and networking within and beyond LIBER. Inspired from these headings the themed discussion tables will have an open question that serves as a starting point for discussion. The questions are not intended to be easily solved, instead they will support an explorative approach to avoid getting stuck in present-day problems. Members of the AI Task Force will introduce the themes and questions with short lightning talks and then chair and facilitate the different thematic tables in the World Café.
By collectively focusing on future-oriented perspectives, the workshop aims to move beyond isolated initiatives and instead generate shared priorities, starting points and concrete formulations to guide strategic work ahead. The outcomes will serve two main purposes:
- to inform and support the development of a forthcoming LIBER strategy
- to capture valuable insights on where LIBER should already focus its efforts and resources today
In addition, this collaborative approach will allow the workshop participants to learn from one another and gain new inspiration around AI and the role of libraries.