Cesena’s residents reinvent the libraries

BAM! is working alongside the Municipality of Cesena in the configuration and establishment of an integrated network comprising all the libraries, reading points and other reading experiences across the city. Con.te.sto is a participatory programme that aims to involve local people, cultural and social organisations in the Comune di Cesena’s new library network.

The project aims to use active listening and the involvement of local people and organisations to identify potential new visions and functions for the libraries and reading points that make up the local library network.

Setting out by listening to the criticisms and needs expressed by the stakeholders it has identified, the programme will offer an opportunity to restore a sense of civic ownership and communal responsibility in order to design services in line with the needs of local people.

The participatory activities will also offer the chance to restore libraries to the heart of the local debate, assigning them a role as a civic venue for coming together and for cultural promotion, able to contribute to the creation of a new cultural welfare system in Cesena.

There will also be a specific focus on what the younger generations have to say.

BAM! will be starting by mapping libraries and dedicated reading centres on an international level for the Comune di Cesena, with a view to basing the programme on an innovative services and operating methods benchmark. At the same time, it will also map the cultural and social organisations on a local level, with the objective of getting them involved in the participatory programme.

The programme will involve a series of meetings with local people, guided by BAM! and structured on the basis of design-thinking methodology and a human-centred approach. There will also be specific actions designed to engage the world of innovation and young entrepreneurs. The objective of the programme is to uncover existing requirements and needs on the one hand, while identifying themes and potential activities to be carried out in the various network points on the other. The programme will lead to the drafting of a proposal document, which will be presented to the administration in April 2021.

BAM! will also be looking after project communication: from the creation of the visual identity to the production of content for the Comune di Cesena’s communication channels.