Sanna Barsk in Kiruna is the 2024 Aurora Fellow

At the regional library conference in Kiruna, the 2024 Aurora Fellows in Norrbotten were announced. Sanna Barsk from Kiruna City Library was awarded the award for her work in including the views of children and young people in the design of the library.

Since 2007, library staff in Norrbotten have met every two years for inspiring lectures and discussions about library development. During the conference, the Regional Library awards the Aurora Scholarship to a person who has worked with particular brilliance on developing the library's operations. The award comes with money that can be used for skills development. With the award, the Regional Library wants to highlight the important work done by staff at libraries around the county.

When the name of this year's winner, Sanna Barsk from Kiruna City Library, was called out and the hall filled with applause, the scholarship recipient looked happy but very surprised.

Sanna and her then colleague Malene Jensen started the project ahead of the construction of Kiruna's new city library. They wanted to create a library based on the wishes of children and young people in the town. By listening and taking in their opinions, they also marketed the library as an attractive place to be, and the work has largely influenced how the children's and young people's department at Kiruna City Library looks today.

– It felt really important to do this when we had the opportunity to create a completely new library. We wanted to base it on what children and young people actually want instead of us guessing, says Sanna shortly after she received her diploma and flowers.

When the new library was ready, they organized a VIP opening for the school classes that participated in the project. Also present was Lilla Aktuellt, The feature can be seen here.

And their work has paid off, because there is a clear increase in young visitors to the library. The library has a completely different type of operation than before.

– As library staff, it is easier to build a relationship with the children now that they feel like it is their library, Sanna concludes with a big smile.

The methods Sanna and Malene created have been noticed by library colleagues all over the country. By inviting them to workshops and really working with the children, they were able to create a deeper understanding of the needs that existed. We hope that more libraries can benefit from their lessons.

– I was moved when Sanna went on stage, she is fantastic. We are having a big celebration for her at the library tomorrow, says Carina Bergsten, who works as a library manager in Kiruna.

The justification is:

Sanna Barsk has developed innovative methods to include children and young people's views in the design of Kiruna City Library in an educational, clear and impressive way. The work has been based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children's right to be heard in all matters that affect them.

The needs and opinions of children and young people have formed the basis for systematic development work in the design of the new library. Since then, the influence and co-creation of children and young people has continued to be a fundamental and obvious part of Sanna's work and the library's operations. Clearly prioritizing children and young people as a target group at the library has inspired colleagues and received widespread attention, not only within the Libraries of Norrbotten but also in the rest of Sweden's libraries.

At Kiruna City Library, children can make their voices heard!

Contact Aurora grantee 2024

Sanna Barsk
Librarian, Kiruna City Library
0980-755 51

Aurora Scholars Through the Years

2024 Sanna Barsk, Kiruna City Library
2022 Jenny Johansson, Piteå Library
2019 Susanne Joki, Haparanda City Library
2017 Inger Mäkimaa, Arvidsjaur Library
2015 Irene Wallin, Kalix library
2013 Åsa Wilén, Piteå Library
2011 Karin Stridsman, Tornedalen Library
2009 Anders Fredriksson, Luleå City Library
2007 Doris Paavo, Kiruna City Library

Norrbotten Regional Library

The Regional Library is a hub and a unifying actor for the development of public libraries in Norrbotten. The region and the municipalities cooperate within the organization Biblioteken i Norrbotten to ensure residents' access to library services. Together, Biblioteken i Norrbotten runs the digital libraries Bibblo.se and Polar bibblo.

Text and image: Linda Kvenås