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Editor:
Presscouncil City of Chemnitz
Pressrelease: 341

150 years of Chemnitz City Library

2 July 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of Chemnitz City Library.
This is an occasion to look back at the milestones in its 150-year history, reflect on the present and take a look into the future.

Hour of birth

The city library was founded at a time when Chemnitz was developing into the leading factory and trading city in the Kingdom of Saxony.
On 2 July 1869, the city library opened its doors to the public with 444 books in the Lechla villa at Annaberger Straße 44. The Zschopau factory owner Jacob Georg Bodemer donated a number of valuable books, which were the foundation stone for the town library. In the same year that the library was founded, its holdings tripled thanks to further donations, the acquisition of the writings of the council library and the former lyceum library with the monastic book collections still remaining in Chemnitz (in 1543, the majority of this collection went to Leipzig to establish the university library). It was only possible to become a reader of the library with financial security. As a result, only interested members of the upper middle classes used this academic institution. It was open two hours a week. The collection continued to grow, so that after an interim solution in the town hall, the municipal library took over the building of the former citizens' school at Theaterstraße 9 in 1893. In addition to the study library, a public library was opened here in 1912 as a book and reading hall.

Progressive, pioneering development

A huge image change has taken place in the 150 years. The librarians of Karl-Marx-Stadt/Chemnitz have often achieved pioneering achievements in the development of the German public library system. For example, the reconstruction of the city library in just six months after its complete destruction by bombing in 1945, the transition from over-the-counter lending to an open-access library in 1955, the founding of the in-house library system in 1967, the establishment of an audio-visual cabinet in 1969, and the founding of the "International Library" in 1976 as the first foreign language library in the GDR. With the introduction of the Internet, Chemnitz City Library was once again a pioneer in innovative developments after Düsseldorf and Cologne.

Since the central library moved to the Kulturhaus in 2004, a new era has begun for the city library. With up-to-date media, modern information technologies (including RFID technology) and professional information provision, it has become a hub in the municipal cultural and educational network, a place of encounters and communication. Customer testimonials prove it: the people of Chemnitz feel "at home" in their library, it is "their oasis".

Success trend

The library network currently includes two larger libraries (in the Yorck and Vita centres) and two smaller district libraries (Einsiedel and Wittgensdorf), as well as two volunteer-run lending libraries (Röhrsdorf and Klaffenbach) and the book bus. A very special branch is the "ChemNetzBib", as it provides electronic media for loan 24 hours a day at any location. Furthermore, a convenient research portal allows users to search for information in various databases simultaneously. With 261,000 current physical and 23,500 digital media as well as 171,000 media in the stacks, it preserves knowledge in printed products from 9 centuries and forms the literary memory of the city.

The city library has 515,000 visitors and an additional 313,000 virtual visitors every year. This makes it the most frequented cultural and educational institution in Chemnitz. An average of 2,000 people pass through the SBC's facilities every day, and each item is borrowed an average of 5.1 times. It has created a large network and is a co-operation partner of numerous educational institutions and associations. For this, it was awarded 2nd place in the "Library of the Year" competition in 2006. Even nationwide
comparison. In the nationwide performance comparison for public libraries (BIX) at the time, the Chemnitz institution took second place in 2010 and third place in 2011. In 2012, it received the "Saxon Library Award" for its outstanding work. These honours prove that Chemnitz City Library is coping well with the challenges of media change in the 21st century.

Change

Change at Chemnitz City Library is more than just the introduction of new media, platforms, licence models, streaming services and technologies. It is also a cultural change that affects all areas (staff development, marketing, outreach) and requires cultural education to help shape social change in a positive way. Change does not mean unconditionally replacing the old with the new, but rather the coexistence of print and digital media. The public library was once a "storehouse of knowledge", but digital change means that the focus is no longer on circulation figures and books, which can no longer represent knowledge in its entirety. Today, it is the people, the visitors, with their different needs, who form the centre of the library. The quality of time spent there is becoming increasingly important - a place to exchange information and skills, a meeting place for people to learn and read, be creative, play and be active themselves ... with the longest possible opening hours. The central task of imparting knowledge for lifelong learning remains.

What is planned in the medium term?

We are focussing on the following challenges in the medium term:

  • Taking on a fundamental pioneering role in media change in order to also be able to impart digital skills
  • Taking a leading role in social change (inclusion, integration)
  • Stefan Heym Library
  • Replacement of the book bus
  • The start of the remodelling of the library areas (creation of gaming and creative zones)
  • New homepage