We would like to invite you to our International Week that will be held from September 21 to September 25, 2026 at the Central Library of the Hellenic Mediterranean University, located in the city of Heraklion in Greece.

Academic libraries face significant challenges resulting from declining budgets and aging staff. Hard times require hard work and collaboration and the exchange of experiences is important. Getting together and sharing our knowledge and ideas is the basic purpose of this international week that we organize. Our program appeals mostly to librarians with a background in Open Science, Library Services for Persons with Disabilities, Library consortiums, Information literacy, Empowerment of local communities.

Presentations and social events aim to provide our participants with both knowledge and leisure that they expect to find in a country like Greece!

The programme comprises presentations, library and cultural site visits, and social events.

The main themes that will be covered include:

• Library consortiums
• Library Services for Persons with Disabilities
• Open Science, Open Access
• Information literacy
• Empowerment of local communities

An additional main objective of the training week is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise between the participants and the Hellenic Mediterranean University’s library staff and of networking prospects. The programme outline is a preliminary one and does not include the social programme activities (these will be included in the final programme).

We invite every person involving in the library field to join our International Week. You will  have the opportunity to enjoy Greek hospitality and get to know the Cretan culture which is influenced by Minoan, Venetian and Turkish culture.