30th Anniversary of the Nordic Library at Athens

The Nordic Library at Athens celebrates 30 years of activities. We are delighted to invite you to join us for the jubilee events on 4–5 December 2025.

Founded through the joint efforts of the Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian Institutes in Athens, and supported by the Nordic Council, the Library opened its doors on 20 October 1995. Its inauguration, attended by Ministers of Education George A. Papandreou (Greece), Gudmund Hernes (Norway), Ole Vig Jensen (Denmark), Olli-Pekka Heinonen (Finland), and Deputy Secretary of State Carl Lindberg (Sweden), underscored the strong commitment to Nordic–Greek academic collaboration.

Thirty years on, the Nordic Library remains an essential meeting place for scholars and a vital pillar of Nordic cooperation in Greece. The anniversary offers a moment to reflect on its achievements, reaffirm its importance to the academic community, and look ahead to future opportunities for collaborative research—within the Nordic region and beyond.

On Thursday, December 4, we look at the past and present of the Nordic Library at Athens, starting with a ceremony in the garden of the Finnish Institute at Athens (Zitrou 18) which will feature the launch of the publication ΒΟΡΕΑΣ – On the Occasion of the 30 Year Anniversary of the Nordic Library at Athens and a presentation of the exhibition Our First Steps, Thirty Years of the Nordic Library. Furthermore, his Excellency Per Fabricius Andersen, the Ambassador of Denmark to Greece and Cyprus, will speak on behalf of the Nordic Ambassadors, and Øivind Andersen, who as the first director of the Norwegian Institute at Athens was central to founding of the Nordic Library, will offer his thoughts and memories. This is followed by a reception in the garden and at the Library. 

On Friday, December 5, the Danish Institute at Athens (Chairefondos 14) will host a Colloquium marking the Library’s 30th anniversary, entitled “The Future of Research Libraries in a Digital World”. There, Karin Grönvall (National Librarian, National Library of Sweden), Kimmo Tuominen (National Librarian, National Library of Finland), Maria-Carme Torras-Calvo (Deputy Director General, University of Bergen), Jennie Jonas Gunnarsen (Librarian, the David Collection), Astrid Capoferro (Head Librarian, Swedish Institute in Rome), and Evi Charitoudi (Head Librarian, British School at Athens) will offer their thoughts and perspectives, followed by a discussion. Their abstracts can be found below.

We look forward to celebrating this milestone together.

Attached file: Programme, Colloquium Programme