Library visits with guided tours

Public Libraries in the City of Gothenburg

The library network of Gothenburg consists of the centrally located Gothenburg City Library and 25 branch libraries for the different city districts, as well as two mobile libraries which drive to the city districts. These libraries have a common website  and a common online library catalogue.

We would like to show you how our public libraries strive to achieve “open access to knowledge promoting sustainable progress” through their activities for children and young people, their support for adult students, their extensive range of cultural programmes, and their provision of accessibility for disabled users.

Gothenburg City Library

During the opening hours of Gothenburg City Library, one person goes through the entrance every 10 seconds. This means that the Library is the most visited cultural institution in the city, with more than 1,100,000 visitors per year. As a library user you can take advantage of exhibitions, hundreds of events taking place every year, CDs, TV and computer games, films on DVD, magazines, comics, newspapers, and – last but not least – 350,000 books in more than 60 languages. The City Library is striving to inspire and guide its users, and to provide a wide range of media that is up to date and currently relevant.

We will show you how the City Library works with accessibility for disabled users, events and meeting places for children and young people, civic information and citizens’ influence through the Parliamentary Corner and through Europe Direct – the Gothenburg Region, and the International Mobile Library, which won the Swedish Mobile Library of the Year award for 2009.

Guided tours in English for 15 people/group. Within walking distance.
Library Visit 1         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.00
Library Visit 2         - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.00

Majorna’s Library

Majorna’s Library is one of the oldest libraries in Gothenburg and a meeting place for culture and information in Majorna, one of the city districts of Gothenburg. Through our Citizens’ Pilot, we spread guidance and information concerning our local cultural life, municipal services, the environment, and consumer issues. We would like to tell you about the library’s history, and present our work with environmental certification, our Health Pilot project and our Citizens’ Pilot.

Guided tour in English for 10 people. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 3         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.00

Västra Frölunda Library (resource library) / Frölunda Kulturhus (Frölunda Cultural Centre)

Västra Frölunda Library is situated in Frölunda Cultural Centre, which also houses a cinema/theatre, workshops, a swimming pool and an exhibition hall. The Library is also host to the School Library Centre, which provides a library service to all the schools in Gothenburg.
Guided tours in English for 20 people/group. Bus/Tram.

A. General tour of Frölunda Cultural Centre. We will describe the varied activities going on in the Centre and present the joint-projects being conducted by the Centre, e.g. in co-operation with South Africa. The tour ends in the library.
Library Visit 4         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30

B. The children’s librarians will show you around the children’s section of our library and inform you about the different activities being conducted within the framework of the children’s library. We are engaged in many different projects, on both the small and the large scale, to increase children’s interest in books and reading.
Library Visit 5         - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.30

C. Information on and presentation of the One Step Further learning environment at our library. Our activities in this field target adults pursuing studies and the aim is to arouse a greater interest in further education in adults with a low level of education.  An additional aim is to function as part of the lifelong learning process.
Library Visit 6         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30

D. Information on the activities of the School Library Centre and the service provided for the schools of the City of Gothenburg.
Library Visit 7         - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.30

E. General tour of Västra Frölunda Library, with concise information on its assignment as a resource library.
Library Visit 8         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30

Hisingen Library

Hisingen Resource Library has an extra large selection of audio books and literature in languages other than Swedish. We have the One Step Further learning environment for adult students, homework assistance, language cafés and Internet surfing for senior citizens. We will show you how we provide assistance and guidance for adult students and students attending the Swedish for Immigrants course, in the form of language cafés and homework assistance.

Tours in English, Finnish, French, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. (Please state whether you want a language other than English.) for 20 people/group. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 9         - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30
Library Visit 10       - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.30

Kortedala Library

Kortedala Library is a resource library in the multicultural north-west Gothenburg. We strive especially to acquire media in many different languages. We have the One Step Further learning environment for adult students. Integration and diversity are important guiding principles for the activities of our library.

Tour in English for 20 people. Bus/Tram
Library Visit 11       - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30

Bergsjön Library

Bergsjön Library is a branch library situated in the multicultural north-west Gothenburg. Here we have the One Step Further learning environment for adult students, with language cafés, homework assistance and computer courses. We co-operate with local authority staff working with recreation and school activities. We would like to show you how the library conducts its activities for children and present the One Step Further learning environment for adult students.

Tour in English for 15 people. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 12       - starts at 12.30 and ends at 15.30

Tuve Library

Tuve Library is situated in Kulturpunkten Tuve-Säve (the Cultural Focal Point for Tuve/Säve), which is a centre of culture and knowledge. We would like to show you how the library conducts its activities for children. We have media in more than 30 languages and work in co-operation with the staff of the School of Culture and the pre-school. Together with the Red Cross, we run language cafés to enable adults to practise the Swedish language.

Tours in English, Spanish and Finnish for 20 people/group. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 13       - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30

Härlanda/Örgryte Library

This is the newest library in Gothenburg, having opened in 2007 in Kulturhuset Kåken (the Nick Cultural centre), which is situated in Härlanda Park (the former Härlanda Prison). We would like to show you a modern library and cultural centre which are housed in old but modernised industrial premises and which strive to maintain a broad programme of activities.

Tours in English for 10 people/group. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 14       - starts at 08.30 and ends at 11.00
Library Visit 15       - starts at 11.30 and ends at 14.00
Library Visit 16       - starts at 14.30 and ends at 17.00

Högsbo Library

Högsbo Library is situated in Axel-Huset, Högsbo’s cultural centre. We would like to tell you about the special efforts we are making to arrange broad cultural activities for everyone, and in particular for children and young people, with events like Rhymes & Verses with Singing, Babydisco, and Singsong with Live Music. Teenagers can, for example, listen to DJs and find out their literary profile in Club Bibliotiki or Afternoon Tea.

Tours in English for 15 people/group. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 17       - starts at 10.30 and ends at 13.30
Library Visit 18       - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.30

The Röhsska Museum of Design and Decorative Arts

The Library and the Museum's collection of bookbindings
The Röhsska Museum is the only museum in Sweden that covers fashion, art handicraft and design, and it is situated in the middle of Gothenburg city centre. The collections of the Röhsska Museum include a collection of bookbindings which consists of 1,200 volumes and exemplifies the historical development of bookbindings from the Middle Ages to the present day. The main components of the collection are books from the 16th, 17th and 18th century, as well as around 30 incunabula. Also included are medieval illuminated manuscripts and a letterpress collection of around 100 books from the 15th century and onwards which facilitates study of the development of typography with examples of different typefaces.

In the area of book art, different European countries are represented, with books from the leading bookbinders’ workshops in each country: Italy, with bindings signed by Aldus and Gjunta, and a few later volumes once owned by Queen Christina of Sweden, and France, with two Grolier bindings. Swedish bookbindings are well represented, with bibles and statute books bound by the leading master bookbinders of Stockholm. This is a significant collection which can also bear comparison with its international counterparts.

The exhibition Nordic Bookbindings, consisting of 81 exhibits assessed by a jury on the basis of craftsmanship, design and choice of material, will be held between 1st June and 15th August 2010.

Tours in English for 10 people/group. Within walking distance.
Library Visit 19       -starts at 12.30 and ends at 14.30
Library Visit 20       -starts at 15.00 and ends at 17.00

Gothenburg University Library

Gothenburg University Library consists of ten separate libraries, including Learning Resource Centres. We are one of the most frequented research libraries in Sweden, with 1.6 million visits per year. Gothenburg University Library is a meeting place for students, teachers and researchers at the University of Gothenburg. Besides this, the Library is a cultural institution for the citizens of Gothenburg, as well as a knowledge and culture resource, open and accessible to the general public. Visit our website for more information.

Central Library

Close to Svenska Mässan (the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre), you will find the University’s Central Library, with its collections in the humanities and social sciences. This library houses the University’s large collections of older literature and manuscripts, as well as KvinnSam (the National Resource Library for Gender Studies). During your visit here we will show you examples of how we work when we digitize our collections of older books and our unique manuscript archives. We will also take you on a guided tour of the library’s premises.

Tours in English – 50 people/group. Within walking distance.
Library Visit 21       - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.00
Library Visit 22       - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.00

Biomedical Library

The activities of the Biomedical Library are focused on the disciplines of medicine, odontology, the health and caring sciences, and sub-areas in the natural sciences. During your visit here we will inform you about our activities, with a special focus on our endeavour to provide first-rate user education.

Tours in English – 25 people/group. Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 23       - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.00
Library Visit 24       - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.00

Three Libraries in One Visit - Walking tour

Three of Gothenburg University’s libraries are located in the city centre and very popular among students. We take you on a walking tour to the libraries, which are situated within a 15 minutes’ walk from one another – the Economics Library, the Undergraduate and Newspaper Library and the Education Library. Each of these libraries has its own special architecture and offers services and premises adapted to the needs of students and faculty. Our tour ends with a short presentation of how the three libraries are organized into one unit, and how we work to improve information literacy skills among our students.

Tours in English – 25 people/group. Bus/Tram and walking
Library Visit 25       - starts at 09.30 and ends at 12.30
Library Visit 26       - starts at 13.30 and ends at 16.30

Chalmers University of Technology Library

Chalmers Library is a university research library specializing in science and technology. Our most important assignment is to be a central resource for information support to Chalmers students, researchers, teachers and other staff. This is also a public research library, open to all those who need to use our collections and the combined skills of our librarians. The library comprises three entities: The Main Library and the Architecture Library at the Johanneberg Campus and the Lindholmen Library at the Lindholmen Campus.

The Main Library on the Johanneberg Campus:
We will present the activities of our library with a special focus on our activities for students, in the form of user education (which we have been providing for 35 years) and our reading studio. We will also inform you about the work involved in planning our silent reading room.  After that, we will take you on a guided tour of our premises.

Tours in English – 30 people/group Bus/Tram.
Library Visit 27       - starts at 9.30 and ends at 12.30
Library Visit 28       - starts at 12.30 and ends at 15.30