Impacting Sustainability Transitions through Libraries and Partnerships: the case of DB2030

This short paper summarizes key findings from a longitudinal case study of the Danish interorganizational and inter-sectoral library-based initiative DB2030, which centers on the UN 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through an emphasis on knowledge aggregation, its support for and motivation of engagement, its strategic partnerships, and significant political advocacy, the DB2030 initiative has successfully expanded and upscaled niche-level ideas to national, regime-level realities, shaping rules and attitudes and, ultimately, influencing the sustainability transformation through libraries at the international, landscape-level, nationally and internationally. Arguing that DB2030 is an example of a successful “change agentry” (Lunenburg, 2010), the paper ends with a discussion of potential learnings and practical implications for libraries, library associations, and cultural institutions seeking to impact sustainability transitions.