The year comes to a close, and as in previous years, we take a look back. We look back at a rich and interesting time, appreciating the collaboration and engagement we experienced with you in 2025. The staff of the CENL Secretariat would like to express our sincere thanks for the pleasant and trusting cooperation during the past year. Above all, we remember the fabulous AGM in Edinburgh with some unforgettable moments.
Not only do we at the Secretariat look back, but also the CENL members, whom we asked about their achievements in 2025 and their plans for 2026. You can find their answers on our website, which will be updated regularly.
We are excited about everything that 2026 will bring and remain committed to working closely with you. Starting in January, we will have a new Network Group within CENL, and in June we will meet in Luxembourg to „Commemorate the Future“. We look forward to our next AGM and to continuing our fruitful collaboration in 2026.
Please note that the Secretariat will be closed from 22 December 2025. We will be back on 2 January 2026.
Season’s greetings — and our best wishes for a restful year’s end and a successful, fulfilling start to 2026.
Frank Scholze, Director General of the German National Library and Chair of CENL
Michaela Mayr, National Library of Austria, Deputy Director
Assoc. Prof Kalina Ivanova, National Library of Bulgaria – Director General and colleagues
Ivanka Stričević, National and University Library of Croatia – Director General
Dear colleagues, in 2025 we celebrated major milestones, completed projects that significantly enhance the work of the Library and its wider community, and prepared for new steps in 2026.
This year marks three decades since the Library moved into its current home, the well-known “glass cube.” The anniversary offered an opportunity to reflect on that pivotal moment, explore possibilities for sustainable growth, and begin planning additional space for the ever-growing national collection.
Our collections were presented in In the Beginning Was the Kingdom, a joint exhibition marking eleven hundred years since the establishment of the Croatian Kingdom.
This year also brought the publication of Incunabula Croatica, a new monograph documenting decades of research into Croatia’s earliest printed books and their place in European cultural heritage.
A major technological achievement was the full implementation of the plan to connect our Library with nearly 85 academic and research libraries through a cloud-based library services platform within the e-Universities project. Since 12 November, the National and University Library has been live with Alma.
We additionally adopted the Library’s first Communication Strategy, created by a team of employees to support the overall development strategy.
In 2026, we look forward to completing the e-Universities project by implementing digital collaborative study and research spaces. We will continue developing and implementing the integrated strategic project Security and Risk Resilience, and begin work on a new development strategy. We will also intensify activities within the Croatian Digital Library and strengthen our efforts in the field of open science.
Dear colleagues, on behalf of the National and University Library in Zagreb, and on my own behalf, I wish you a successful and peaceful year 2026.
Martin Öövel, National Library of Estonia – Director General
Judith Gerencsér, National Library of Hungary – Deputy Director General
Chrysa E. Nikolaou, National Library of Greece – Director
Dear CENL Members and Colleagues,
In 2025, the National Library of Greece (NLG) successfully completed its Operational Action Plan and laid the foundations for its Strategic Goals for the next five years. Major achievements included organizational restructuring, policy updates, ISO certification progress, and initiatives to strengthen human resources through staff exchanges, new recruitments, and targeted training—building a more agile and resilient institution.
This year was a milestone for infrastructure and collections. We have initiated restoration works at Vallianeio building, our historic headquarters in Athens. Another highlight was the Secure Storage project, relocating over 32,000 archival boxes under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to safeguard our heritage. Significant progress was also made in modernizing technological infrastructure, improving reliability, and preparing for a major upgrade of digital storage systems.
As a cultural hub, NLG hosted exhibitions, book clubs, and educational programs at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, attracting diverse audiences and fostering dialogue. NLG also strengthened its role as coordinator of the National Network of Libraries, promoting collaboration among public, academic, and special libraries through shared services and joint initiatives. Additionally, we launched a partnership with ICCROM through the Our Collections Matter programme, acting as the National Node for libraries and supporting the adoption of UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We look forward to continuing this journey with dedication, creativity, and collaboration.
Season’s greetings and best wishes for a peaceful and successful New Year!
Audrey Whitty, National Library of Ireland – Director General
Dagnija Baltiņa, National Library of Latvia- Director
In 2025, the National Library of Luxembourg (BnL) reaffirmed its commitment to accessibility, digitisation, historical research and community building. This dedication was reflected in initiatives such as the extension of our opening hours, the online publication of 63 historical periodicals or the organisation of the 3rd bibnet.lu Network Day – a key event bringing together librarians across Luxembourg. The value of the BnL to society was further confirmed in the impact study we conducted among our users in 2025, which impressively confirms that the BnL is a worthwhile investment.
Looking ahead to 2026, our ambition is to build on the strong foundation of innovation and collaboration that defines our work. Continuous improvement requires openness to new perspectives, and we believe international exchange is essential to achieving this goal. In this spirit, we are delighted to be hosting the CENL AGM next year, celebrating 40 years of connecting knowledge.
CENL stands as a cornerstone for collaboration and shared vision among Europe’s national libraries. Over the years, it has fostered a strong network that promotes the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions to shared challenges. Through its unwavering commitment to cooperation and progress, CENL has strengthened not only our institution but the entire European library landscape. More than just a network, CENL is a unifying force, guiding libraries toward a future defined by inclusivity, technological advancement, and the enduring preservation of Europe’s cultural memory for generations to come. Together, we are ensuring that libraries remain the heart of knowledge and culture in an ever-evolving society.
Claude D. Conter & Carlo Blum
Aušrinė Žilinskienė, National Library of Lithuania – Director General
Wilma van Wezenbeek, National Library of the Netherlands – Director General
Tomasz Makowski, National Library of Poland – Director General
Diogo Ramada Curto, National Library of Portugal – Director
Eva Augustínová, National Library of Slovakia – Director General
Óscar Arroyo Ortega, National Library of Spain – Director General
The National Library of Spain (BNE) completed its 2021-25 Strategic Plan in 2025, and among the most important achievements of this last year, the launch of the new technological resource called BNE Digital stands out in particular. This replaces the various repositories that had to be consulted separately to access its digital collections. Overall, we are providing access to more than 160 million digitised pages with a single access system.
Looking ahead to 2026, a new Strategic Plan is scheduled to be launched for the period 2026-28, which will include five areas of focus: Infrastructure, Collections, Services, Human Resources, and Partnerships and Communication.
In 2026, particular emphasis will be placed on the implementation of agreements with other administrations and library institutions in Spain to extend access to the BNE’s digital services and collections (including those with current copyright) through specific terminals in more than 50 public libraries throughout Spain.
Likewise, during 2026, work will be done to find a solution to the space needs of the institution responsible for storing bibliographic collections. We hope to have good news to share with our colleagues at CENL in the coming months.
Finally, the BNE considers the work shared with CENL over the years to be very important. Projects from other European national libraries inspire and stimulate us in our daily work and offer us approaches that improve our developments. We also hope that our Mediterranean and Ibero-American library vision will serve as a stimulus for national libraries in other parts of the world and as a possible connection for transcontinental projects.
From Spain, to all our colleagues at CENL, we wish you a happy and prosperous 2026.
Karin Grönvall, National Library of Sweden – National Librarian
Taner Beyoğlu, National Library of Türkiye- General Director
Damian Elsig, Swiss National Library – Director
After initial resistance from the copyright organisations and in Parliament, a workable compromise was found. In the 2025 summer session, both houses of Parliament finally passed a legal deposit law for digital publications for the SNL.
Although the construction project at the SNL headquarters in Bern had to be scaled back for financial reasons, the team of architects was able to find good solutions for the remaining work. The employees, who were presented with individual elements, responded positively.
The temporary location, where we will be relocating our operations for three years, continued to be prepared for its conversion into a library. We expect this building to be ready for occupancy from around mid-2026.
The political timetable for the formal approval and thus financing of the overall renovation has now been set. We hope to receive the green light from the government and parliament soon.
The relocation of workplaces to the temporary building is expected to take place over the course of the following year. The move will involve considerable effort and we will have to rebuild our administrative and public operations at the temporary location in a building near Bern railway station.
The relocation represents a cultural change: the implementation of the ‘new working environments’ means that there will be hardly any individual offices available and most employees will work in shared offices. In addition, the number of workplaces will be reduced to 0.8 per person in order to plan their occupancy sensibly. This is our response to the reduced presence of employees, some of whom spend up to 60% of their working time in their home office.
Once we have moved into the temporary premises, the way will be clear to start work on the main building. We naturally hope that the overall renovation and modernisation of this historic building will be tackled swiftly in 2027.
For me, CENL primarily means an extremely valuable exchange with my colleagues from other European national libraries. The annual meetings are not only stimulating and informative in terms of content, but also enjoyable and friendly from an interpersonal perspective. I greatly appreciate the talks, panels and discussions and am already looking forward to the next AGM in Luxembourg
I would like to take this opportunity to wish a happy birthday in advance for next year’s anniversary.
The key event of V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine in 2025 was the annual International Scientific Conference “Library. Science. Communication. Current Priorities and Future Prospects”, held on 1–3 October. It brought together 816 participants (400 onsite and 416 online), featured 177 presentations, and included 10 thematic sections, round tables, and project sessions.
The Library’s collections comprise around 17 million items, nearly 4 million of them unique. These rare materials remained the main focus of digitisation efforts: despite wartime conditions, 389,000 images of unique sources were digitised in 2025. Projects with partners in Sweden, Poland, Germany, and the United States supported digitisation, preservation, and the creation of shared digital collections. Cultural events were organised jointly with the Embassies of Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Hungary, Lithuania, Türkiye, and others. International registers of musical and museum heritage continued to expand. Staff also contributed to the initiatives of the Ukrainian National Committee of UNESCO.
Throughout the year, 21 book and art exhibitions were presented, including two international exhibitions. The Library published 28 scholarly and scientific-information editions, several periodical research proceedings, and two specialised journals: Bibliotechnyi Visnyk and Manuscript and Book Heritage of Ukraine.
At the request of national institutions, including the National Security and Defence Council, the Constitutional Court, and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament), the Library developed thematic information and legal resources. These included the database “Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons”. In cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada, the Library launched “Foresight Ukraine”, a digital platform supporting forecasting within global futures studies.
The Library successfully passed state and academic accreditation and received confirmation of continued funding. Looking ahead to 2026, we hope for the end of the war and the opportunity to work in peaceful conditions. The Library will focus on studying artificial intelligence and, where possible, integrating its elements into VNLU’s operations.
With heartfelt gratitude for your support and solidarity,
Yours sincerely,
Lyubov Dubrovina
