Kick-off BALTIC UKH

Creating a methodological toolbox for transformative hybrid library and information spaces

From August 22nd-25th, the project’s kick-off was held at the State and University Library in Hamburg. Our lead partner organized a mixture of input on the relevant documents, time slots for finalizing our individual work plans, and social activities in order to better get to know everyone who is on board.

We started the event with an informal reception at the library upon arrival. After a brief tour through the library, the director – Robert Zepf – mentioned that the idea for an international project amongst libraries from the Baltic Sea Region had been in the making for over ten years. During the subsequent meet and greet, we were able to enjoy the view and take our first group picture, including the partners that had already arrived, some representatives of the local Associated Organizations, the library’s director, as well as the National Contact Point IBSR in Germany. After a nice dinner and an early night, we started our two full working days.

Day one was kicked off with some socializing activities in order to get to know everyone within the different national teams. This was done with some World-Café-style speed meeting activities. Subsequently, we jointly brainstormed values, tools and techniques for a successful collaboration. After lunch, we got more concrete and started looking further into the development of our methodological toolbox. Therefore, Jamie Johnston from OsloMet had prepared a practical and theoretical input as a starting point for some group work afterwards. After sharing our findings amongst all partners, we finished the day with a short wrap-up. During our evening activities, we were able to explore Hamburg via boat and discover different parts of the globe inside the largest Model Railway in the world.

We used our second working day to further develop the Partnership Agreement and its annexes. Therefore, we started the day with some input on key documents and procedures before we yet again divided up into our local teams to refine our individual work plans. Finally, within the big group, we agreed on possible dates for further on-site partner meetings in Riga, Oslo and Copenhagen, as well as online meeting schedules. We ended the day quite early, after some further input on reporting, as well as a short overall wrap-up of our first on-site partner meeting.
In the slightly rainy evening, we crossed the old “Elbtunnel” and were able to appreciate Hamburg from the other side of the river, all lit up. And a small part of the group even strolled down the “Reeperbahn” until the “Große Freiheit” before reluctantly saying our goodbyes.

Overall, we believe this kick-off created a strong base for the work we set out to get done within the next two years!

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