Earlier this year, Region Stockholm’s culture department decided to take down and move the International Library. The main reason cited was that there wasn’t enough interest (read: book loaning) to keep it going. The International Library, currently housed in the the Stockholm Public Library near Odenplan, specialises in books and magazines in languages other than Swedish.
The people who frequent the library – and those who don’t, really, but want it to stay open anyway – have protested the closing by organizing massive book loaning actions. Over a thousand activist book loaners have streamed to the library during its few Saturday open hours to browse and borrow – loans increased by 400% already the first day. Books have been borrowed by the suitcase, SvD reports ().
Most people had no idea the library was even in danger of closing – and anyone who has stayed in Stockholm over the summer knows just how dead town is, or seems to be. Nothing happens over the summer, or is supposed to. The suspicion is that this decision was deliberately taken at this time so no one would get around to doing anything about it. Also because this particular library focuses on books in other languages (where else can you loan books in Thai or Ukrainian?), the protest (and perhaps the closing) has a political bent. As Viola Bao writes in DN (), Stockholms Commission for Sustainability (hålbarhetskommissionen) (and yes, there is one) found that new Swedish or foreign born girls use the library frequently. Plus, this is a time when the Sweden Democrats are exercising their electoral muscles – so what kind of signal is the local Stockholm blue-green government sending? (Blue being the Moderate, Liberal, Center and Christian Democratic Party and the green being the Swedish Green Party, currently in a coalition since the election in 2018.)
Whether this closing lands on the devious scale or not, it does reflect a distressing trend for both reading and city priorities.
PS If you feel like taking action yourself, check out the Facebook page for Rädda Internationella bibliotek.