From vision to reality
Department of Service and Innovation Annual Report 2025
Department of Culture and Sport
The Department of Culture and Sports plays a vital role in strengthening and enriching public life in Reykjavík. The department oversees the City's cultural institutions and sports facilities, supports vibrant grassroots efforts in the arts, sports, and children's culture, and helps stage the wide variety of events and festivals that bring the city to life year-round.
Reykjavíkurkortið — digital city card
In 2025, Reykjavík City completed the procurement process for a new digital city card. The City selected PassCreator as its partner at the conclusion of that process.
The new digital city card lets residents access passes for Department of Culture and Sports services — including city swimming pools and museums — directly from their phones. This solution directly addresses service users' clear demand for simpler, more accessible services. The Reykjavík Card also offers flexibility, giving each user the ability to choose which services remain active on their card at any given time. The project's rollout will continue through 2026.
Security and operation of camera systems
Work began on a centralized surveillance system to cover all security cameras at Reykjavík City swimming pools.
The project aims to simplify the operation, monitoring, and management of these camera systems through centralized control, improving overall efficiency.
In tandem, the city upgraded servers at the swimming pools, significantly strengthening operational reliability and information security.
Web projects and content sharing
Efforts continued to simplify and consolidate the City's web environment. The Web Division and the Office of Service Transformation collaborated to shut down older standalone websites and migrate their content to reykjavik.is. This initiative improves access to information and provides a consistent experience for service users across all City websites.
New website for Reykjavík City Library
Work also moved forward this year on a new website for Reykjavík City Library. The project aims to create a powerful, user-friendly digital hub for patrons where the library's collections, services, events, and diverse cultural programming will be accessible in one place.
The new website is slated to launch in the first half of 2026.
A new and improved fristund.is
Development on fristund.is reached a major milestone when the site launched in April 2025. The website consolidates information about recreational activities for children and families in one place, drawing on automated data gathering from multiple information systems.
This new solution replaced the old website, establishing a more automated and efficient environment that reduces duplication and delivers reliable information. Discussions also began this year about potential participation from other municipalities. After the website launched, the Department of Education and Youth assumed product management responsibilities in collaboration with the Department of Culture and Sports.
Public Life on reykjavik.is
The office of the Department of Culture and Sports played an active role in the Public Life (Mannlíf) development project on reykjavik.is.
This project advances the City's website by introducing new features and content that reflect the vibrancy of Reykjavík's public life.
Building on design work completed the previous year, the initiative increases the visibility of department services and activities on Reykjavík City's shared website.
Integration of websites and booking systems
The City migrated the websites gufunesbaer.is and hladan.is to reykjavik.is this year. Simultaneously, a new Microsoft Bookings service launched for Hlaðan's services, simplifying administration and helping service users more easily access what they need.
Stronger collaboration on operations and services
Staff from Reykjavík City IT Services and the Department of Culture and Sports firmly established their collaboration on operations and services this year. Focused collaboration strengthened technical support for Reykjavík City Library and better supported the operation of public libraries across the city.
