The National Association of Public Librarians and Libraries in Romania (ANBPR) organized, on April 28-29, 2025, the BiblioNEXT National Conference, with the theme “Libraries of the Future – Testing and Innovation Laboratories”. The event brought together librarians, developers of technological solutions, business leaders, representatives of cultural institutions, users belonging to vulnerable groups and European partners, in a constructive dialogue about the directions of evolution of public libraries in Romania in the context of accelerated digitalization.
A central moment of the Conference was the Pilot coordinated by ANBPR entitled “Romanian History and Customs Explained to Digital Natives”, organized within the framework of the European project SHIFT – MetamorphoSis of cultural Heritage Into augmented hypermedia assets For enhanced accessibiliTy and inclusion, funded by the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 program. The project aims to increase the accessibility of cultural heritage for people with visual and hearing disabilities, by integrating AI-based solutions, haptic and digital storytelling tools, containing narratives improved in terms of language register, style transfer and emotional charge.
This pilot consisted of impact presentations on the latest technological developments by experts from the project consortium, live demonstrations of the main functionalities of the SHIFT platform and detailed explanations on the usefulness of customized solutions for libraries, which will lead to the reconfiguration of library services and the rethinking of the public display of cultural artifacts.
Dragoș-Adrian Neagu, President of ANBPR, emphasized the strategic value of ANBPR’s involvement in large-scale European projects, such as SHIFT, and evoked the current role of the librarian in the digital age: “The BiblioNEXT conference confirmed once again that public libraries are living, relevant spaces that can integrate cutting-edge software developments to offer accessible, interactive and personalized services. The SHIFT pilot carried out in Romania through the combined effort of the partners is not only a technological success, but above all a long-term investment in the role of libraries in their relationship with communities. The librarian has the socio-professional profile that predisposes him to be a qualified validator of AI-generated content, which makes the librarian-AI binomial a functional and performing one.”
In turn, Ioana Crihană, Executive Director of ANBPR, brought to the attention of the participants at the BiblioNEXT Conference the main benefits of the SHIFT project’s value proposition: “Through this pilot, ANBPR demonstrates that public libraries can be more than providers of cultural services. They have the potential to become true platforms for inclusion, social innovation and democratization of access to knowledge. The tests and demonstrations carried out within the SHIFT Pilot in Sibiu validate the power and influence of these technological solutions to transform users’ interaction with cultural heritage, reducing the barriers imposed by disabilities and creating learning contexts for all”.
The conference included presentations dedicated to innovative solutions such as text-to-speech in Romanian, adaptive image descriptions, digital narrations with synthetic voice and affectively enhanced machine translations. User feedback collected in a dedicated post-technology demonstration session provided clear directions for optimization, confirming the usefulness of these tools for diversifying cultural experiences in libraries. BiblioNEXT 2025 in Sibiu has demonstrated that public libraries can become catalysts for innovation and digital inclusion, and through the involvement of ANBPR and SHIFT partners, they become part of the European gallery of good practices in the field of cultural heritage accessibility.
