On September 9, 2025, we received the prestigious Bibliotheca inspirans award for libraries.
What made us stand out? Our visionary, technology-based, and human-centered concept for the libraries of 2050.
Three perspectives on the future: people + services + technology
Our colleague Tereza Šedivá (Tvríková)—the creator of this award-nominated vision, which brings a new perspective—focused her design on three different perspectives:
- The Librarians – librarians as creators of meaningful experiences and guides in a hyper-informational world.
- The Users – the library as a center for meeting, discovering, learning, and creating.
- Technology – using AI and digital tools as partners for learning and tools that will lead us deeper – to ourselves and to others.
Our interactive web vision is a playground for the imagination.
It is not a plan. It is an invitation.
Dialogue. Inspiration. Development.
The future of libraries does not begin in 2050.
It begins now.
What is Bibliotheca inspirans?
Bibliotheca inspirans is an award given to libraries that provide examples of good and inspiring practice.
It is the only award in Czechia that did not originate within the library community but comes from outside, which underlines its prestige and significance.
The jury appreciated not only the idea, but also the way it was implemented:
- AI (ChatGPT, Canva Magic Media, Sora), working with personas, digital media.
- A model that goes beyond the Pardubice library building – and can inspire libraries throughout the country.
What does the Pardubice Regional Library take away?
- Microgrant – funds to support other activities and develop our services.
- Original fragrance – a fragrance by Irena Kozelská that evokes mental alertness and highlights the power of our nature.
- Aroma diffuser – a tool for applying fragrance, based on fungal mycelium from the domestic company MYCO, evokes the atmosphere of spring – the fertile ground for new ideas that can spread throughout the entire library network.
- A vision that cannot be written down in tables – a concept that inspires, asks questions, and opens the way for a network of libraries.
- Real proof that AI in libraries is not science fiction, but a tool for innovation – if you know how to play with it, rather than letting it play with you.
What does this mean for us?
Confirmation that we are heading in the right direction.
Motivation for further development.
Commitment: to make the library a place that inspires, educates, and connects.
Because libraries play a key role in building an informed, critically thinking society.
