This case is centred on a public library in Norway and its role in building psychological resilience. While the term psychological resilience (psykologisk motstandskraft) is in circulation in Norway, it has not yet been institutionalised or formally defined within Norwegian policy. Instead, the concept is anchored in the term egenberedskap, which can be translated approximately as "self-preparedness." The term has undergone a gradual expansion in recent years, moving from a relatively narrow association with household supplies and emergency equipment toward a broader understanding that includes social networks, mental preparedness, and mutual support during times of crisis and uncertainty. This conceptual broadening has partly been driven by the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made visible the importance of psychological and social dimensions which had previously received less explicit attention.
The conceptual expansion of self-preparedness is also evident in the recent national policy document on the theme, Totalberedskapsmeldingen (white paper on total preparedness; Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet, 2025). Using the term civil resilience (sivil motstandskraft), the document explicitly names libraries, archives, and cultural institutions as instrumental to supporting "the population's ability to be informed and think critically" (Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet, 2025, p. 90). It links cultural participation to democratic values and argues that a well-informed population with a strong sense of cultural identity will make better decisions for themselves and their community in times of crisis. While the policy is not operationally prescriptive for libraries or other cultural institutions, it was quickly taken up by library practitioners after its publication and prompted engagement with preparedness questions that the library sector had not previously addressed in any systematic way.
This case study focuses on the Tønsberg and Færder library, a public library located in Vestfold County, which initiated contact with the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB) following the publication of the total preparedness white paper. What followed was a collaboration that produced a guidance document distributed to every municipal library in the country. The case demonstrates how a bottom-up process, arising from the initiative of a single practitioner, scaled to the national level. It also raises questions about what it means for public libraries to take on a preparedness role, and where the limits of that role are drawn.
Success factors for developing resilience
The collaboration itself was initiated after an employee from the Tønsberg and Færder library contacted DSB. What began as an inquiry about borrowing equipment for the annual preparedness week developed into a formal partnership to explore how public libraries can meet the expectations set forth in Totalberedskapsmeldingen in practice. The tangible outcome of the partnership is a practical guidance document which offers libraries a framework for understanding their potential role in civil preparedness, offering applicable advice on how libraries can spread preparedness knowledge through events, displays, and local partnerships (DSB, 2025). It also outlines how they can serve as trusted information hubs if an emergency occurs. A central recommendation is that the library manager and the municipal emergency coordinator sit down together and ask what the library can do to support local preparedness.
In Tønsberg and Færder, that conversation produced a series of concrete learnings which reoriented how library employees understood their own role. The emergency coordinator attended a staff meeting at the library, giving all employees a common understanding of crisis scenarios most relevant to the local context and of the potential needs of residents in each of them. This shared knowledge changed how staff approached their ordinary work, making them more attentive to the library's informational role under conditions of uncertainty. The meetings also surfaced constraints that the library employees had not previously considered: the building's glass walls make it unsuitable as a gathering place in certain acute scenarios (e.g., an earthquake), and the failure of heating systems in a prolonged power cut would limit how long it could function as a public space.
One significant learning from these conversations was the distinction between an information point (informasjonspunkt)—where residents go for verified information—and a safety point (trygghetspunkt)—a place of physical refuge. Through their meetings, the library management and the municipal emergency coordinator agreed that the library would serve as the former: a place residents could turn to for reliable information during a crisis, rather than a designated shelter or emergency facility. There is currently no national framework that formally designates libraries as information points, and the agreement in Tønsberg and Færder was reached through local conversation. The guidance document encourages other municipalities to have similar conversations and reach their own clarity based on their context and capacity. As a practical expression of the information point role, the library has prepared a folder of printed posters containing information about the municipality's safety and crisis contact points, ready to be placed at the entrance if power and connectivity fail. A further model that emerged from the collaboration is the concept of an open preparedness office (åpent beredskapskontor). This is a temporary stand in the library where municipal emergency staff are available for public questions, making the emergency coordinator visible and accessible in a space where residents already feel comfortable raising concerns.
The collaboration also made explicit a resilience function which the library, in many respects, had already been performing. Over the last years, the Tønsberg and Færder library had been working with themes adjacent to preparedness, though not all of this work was framed as such. The library has hosted public events that engage with everyday resilience through indirect means: an evening on traditional food preservation techniques drew participants who came for practical knowledge rather than the crisis rationale and introduced preparedness thinking to an audience that would not have attended an explicitly safety-oriented event. A joint event with the regional Red Cross brought together speakers addressing international security, national defence capacity, and local voluntary response networks, informing people about which measures were being taken to prepare for crises. The library also runs regular programming on source criticism and digital literacy, subjects framed as part of its core democratic mandate rather than as preparedness activities, though the distinction, as one interviewee noted, has become increasingly difficult to maintain.
Less visible but perhaps equally significant is what the library has done without any preparedness framing at all. Reading groups, community craft evenings, cultural events, and children's programming continued through the COVID-19 period and were described as having functioned as anchoring points for people who had lost ordinary social contact. These activities were not designed for crisis conditions, and their value of fostering community during that period was a byproduct rather than an intention. They demonstrate that the library's resilience function is embedded in its everyday practice in ways that are unnecessary to disaggregate from the rest of its operations.
Challenges in developing resilience
A persistent challenge in developing resilience concerns the reach of preparedness communication. According to interviewees, those most in need of support in building critical media skills, accessing verified information, and navigating public services under pressure are also the least likely to attend a source-criticism course or engage with preparedness programming of their own accord. Those with limited digital literacy, limited familiarity with public institutions, or limited language access may be simultaneously more vulnerable in a crisis and harder to reach through existing programme formats. The library's work with adult education services and multilingual materials represents a step towards addressing some of these challenges, but it is an incomplete one. Reaching those who do not currently use libraries, and who may be among the most vulnerable in a crisis, requires active outreach strategies and institutional partnerships that go beyond the standard service model.
Sustaining awareness among the general population and relationships between formal and informal preparedness actors over time is a difficulty that recurred across the interviews. Preparedness receives more attention during and after crises, and the current geopolitical moment has translated into higher public interest around preparedness efforts than in previous periods. However, momentum from moments of heightened attention tends to dissipate before it becomes a sustained practice—a pattern witnessed in previous cycles of preparedness attention in Norway.
These challenges are partly compounded by the institutional conditions under which the work takes place. DSB operates with a mandate that is deliberately broad, covering the full spectrum of civil protection, from natural disasters to hybrid threats and information operations. The breadth allows for flexibility, and the collaboration with Tønsberg and Færder library was itself a product of that flexibility. But it also means that no single area, including psychological resilience, commands sustained institutional attention. The guidance document has been distributed to all Norwegian public libraries, but there is no mechanism to ensure that it is read, acted upon, or used as a basis for contact with the local emergency coordinator. DSB has limited capacity to follow up at the local level, and the reach of the guidance in practice may be considerably smaller than its physical distribution suggests.
Future opportunities for resilience
Several transferable observations emerge from this case. The library's value in a crisis is an extension of its value every other day, and preparedness policy that understands this will be more durable than policy that treats libraries as emergency infrastructure to be activated when needed. The most significant outcome of the collaboration described here is the shared understanding between the local emergency coordinator and the library staff of the library’s potential and limitations. For other libraries (or even other community-based facilities), the guidance document can serve as a useful prompt for a local conversation that might not otherwise happen.
One of the more persistent frustrations expressed in the interviews concerns the difficulty of making the softer dimensions of preparedness legible to decision-makers. Interviewees described a political climate in which investment in military capacity and material infrastructure is easier to justify than the long-term, community-based work that determines whether a population can function under pressure. The absence of metrics that capture social cohesion, mutual trust, or psychological readiness without misrepresenting them means that this work struggles to compete for sustained institutional attention. The white paper on total preparedness makes clear that cultural participation, access to independent information, and a shared sense of civic identity are components of resilience. This understanding is also present among practitioners and in other parts of the preparedness field, where libraries are increasingly acknowledged for their role in building resilience. Nevertheless, this recognition remains largely rhetorical as it is not accompanied by any dedicated resources, institutional changes, or concrete policy follow-through, leaving the active role in resilience work dependent on the priorities and capacities of each local library.
Underlying these concerns is also a fundamental tension. The library's value as a resource for resilience rests on the perception that it is institutionally neutral, and that it is genuinely open to everyone, regardless of their political orientation or relationship to public authorities. As libraries become more closely associated with official preparedness messaging, that perception may gradually erode. The population most likely to disengage if the library becomes a channel for state communication is also among the most vulnerable in a crisis: those whose trust in public institutions is already low, and who may have few alternative sources of reliable information. How the library's preparedness role develops, and how its independence can be actively protected in that process, is a conversation that has not yet been confronted.