Characterised as anything from temples of learning to instruments of democracy, libraries and their potential futures appeal to the imagination. What kind of places could memory institutions like libraries be in the future? Which roles could they fulfil in people’s everyday lives? To which new meanings could they give rise? These and other questions we have been exploring together with a select, yet diverse, group of people at the Brussels-based Muntpunt.
Muntpunt came into being 5 years ago, as a result of the fusion of HOB (Hoofdstedelijke Bibliotheek Brussel) en OPB (Onthaal en Promotie Brussel).
With a new policy plan due in 2020, Pantopicon was approached to support the creation of a future vision for the organisation.
Within this framework, a few subgoals were clearly stated:
– visioning process aimed at developing building block for the 2020-2025 policy plan
– attention for finalising the integration of Muntpunt as a merger organisation
– creating a synergistic framework for innovation
To this end we devised a series of workshops, with a select group of people from within and outside of the organisation,
aimed at exploring the following question “How can Muntpunt remain relevant, now and in the future, given a strongly changing environment?”.
Relevant (future) developments gave rise to a set of challenges; upon those a future vision was then crafted;
which in turn was used as a framework for formulating strategic goals and action paths.
