Stockholm Public Library goes live with new Danish library solution

On 17 February at 12 noon, Stockholm Public Library was able to open its doors to lending at the city’s 40 public libraries shortly after implementing Cicero, a new library system delivered by the Danish software company Systematic.

It marked the culmination of a comprehensive digitalisation project, which saw the public library replacing its core operating system while staying open to library users and carrying out extensive renovation work.

All in one go, 1.5 million items, 400,000 end-users and 260,000 active loans were correctly migrated. At the same time, the details of 12.7 million historical loans were preserved. Therefore, the city librarian was both very happy and quite relieved on the day, reporting:

“Today at 12 noon, we opened all the city’s public libraries – equipped with a new technical system at their heart. It has been no small order training all the employees and testing the working procedures and configurations. The project group has done an outstanding piece of work. We’re now running the new system, which is fully operational,” wrote Daniel Forsman on LinkedIn, and sent heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the ambitious project:

“Extreme professionalism from everyone involved. Switching systems was one of the biggest projects I’ve worked with in my time as city librarian in Stockholm. And it’s very satisfying to see the new system up and running 11 days before I step down.”

Employees well equipped

Daniel Forsman has been on board since the very start of the project but is taking up a new job as chief archivist and head of the Swedish National Archives on 1 March 2026.

His replacement Elisabeth Aquilonius has followed the project closely in her role as assistant city librarian in Stockholm, and she is naturally delighted that everything relating to the project has gone according to plan:

“Implementing Cicero has been a well-structured and close collaboration between our organisations and Systematic. The project has been very well managed throughout, with a high degree of organisational involvement and a strong focus on our needs. We have every confidence in the solution, and feel very well equipped to use the system,” she says.

Automation frees up time for core tasks

More than 400 employees have been trained in how to use the new system which supports daily tasks throughout the library – from reservations and loans to the flow of materials between the various library branches.

For users, it means faster service, a better overview of library materials and more reliable reservations. When a book is reserved, the system can automatically find and identify the item, place it on the picking list or instruct sorting robots to ensure that it is sent to the right library while informing the end-user when it is ready for collection – without any manual procedures.

This means that employees can be available to a much greater extent than previously in the library itself, and become involved in dissemination, events and providing a personal service to library users.

“Cicero gives us a library system that facilitates daily work for our employees. It gives us a better overview, more efficient working procedures and greater possibilities for developing our services in line with citizens’ needs,” explains Elisabeth Aquilonius.

Cicero now expanded and ready for more Swedish public libraries

In recent years, several large European libraries have chosen Cicero, including the Deichman libraries in Oslo and Bücherhallen in Hamburg. In Sweden, several school libraries are also using the solution, but Stockholm Public Library is the first Swedish public library in the portfolio.

According to Jakob Ilum Damsgaard, Director of Systematic Library, a number of Swedish municipalities will soon need to replace outdated systems. In order to support its growth in Sweden, Systematic has recruited more employees for its Stockholm office, and Cicero has been expanded with integrations that support Sweden’s library infrastructure:

“Now, details about library materials such as bibliographic data, subject headings and classifications can be downloaded from national sources and automatically updated. This results in less manual routine work, more uniform registrations and improved data quality across the collection. Thanks to these integrations and a wide range of expanded functionalities, Cicero fully supports Swedish standards and working procedures and contributes to more efficient and coherent library operations,” says Jakob Ilum Damsgaard.

Stockholm Public Library

Stockholm Public Library and its branches have more than 11.7 million visitors a year, including 6.7 million digital visitors. The library has more than 1.5 million items on its shelves and organises more than 9,000 events a year. The City of Stockholm has almost one million residents, of which more than 420,000 Stockholmers possess a library card.

Cicero

Cicero, which was developed by Systematic, is used by all public and school libraries in Denmark as well as by key public libraries in Norway, Sweden and Germany. The solution serves more than 12 million users a year and handles about 7 million loans each day. Cicero is supplied as software as a service (SaaS) with regular updates and maintenance.