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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Jon Henley, Europe correspondent

Libraries for the future: Europe’s new wave of ‘meeting places for the mind’

A low angle photo shows a bright yellow building looming towards the sky, its sharp corner and edges contrasting with a front side that curves down to a recessed entrance
The Oodi, Helsinki’s central library, sits close to the central station, music centre and museum of contemporary art. Photograph: Subodh Agnihotri/Getty Images

Outside the futuristic glass-and-metal tiers of De Krook, Ghent’s city library, stands a statue: four giant, brightly painted figures leaning tightly in towards each other, their heads all but touching – as if telling each other something.

“And that’s really what it’s about,” said service and communications coordinator Els Van Rompay. “This is more than a library, though books are its core. It’s also a place to learn, connect, develop, collaborate. Or just to be. A meeting place for our minds.”

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