Women's association F.A.C.T. e. V. hands over book bus to Chemnitz City Library
The lending centres in Röhrsdorf, Wittgensdorf and Klaffenbach are once again part of the library network.
Since the beginning of the year, the book bus has once again been operating under the umbrella of Chemnitz City Library. The women's association F.A.C.T. e. V. handed over the mobile library to Chemnitz City Library after 16 years of voluntary work. The lending centres in the districts of Röhrsdorf, Wittgensdorf and Klaffenbach will also be part of the city library's network in future. The handover of the book bus and the lending points to the city library ensures that a mobile library service will be available for numerous neighbourhoods, schools and social institutions in the coming years.
The book bus reaches remote neighbourhoods and travels to schools, retirement homes, institutions for the disabled and other facilities. The book bus service is aimed at all age groups, especially children and immobile, elderly citizens. The mobile library includes media for school and leisure as well as fiction, non-fiction, magazines and audio books. The takeover will improve and expand the library service. The stock will be updated and users will benefit from comprehensive advice on the city library's entire range of media.
Other new features include educational library events and the provision of media boxes on various topics. The media boxes are mainly offered at stops with schools and can be used for project days and lesson planning.
Over the past 16 years, the women's association F.A.C.T. e. V. has worked hard to ensure the operation of the book bus and the lending points in the "Mobile Library" project. Due to the loss of funding opportunities via the second labour market, the association has asked the city of Chemnitz to reassign the tasks. The continued operation of the "Mobile Library" project would have significantly exceeded the association's resources. The City of Chemnitz has therefore worked with the organisation to develop a proposal for the reassignment. The employees of the association, who had previously been responsible for lending on the bus and in the lending centres, were taken on as municipal employees with the transfer of operations.
The book bus has now been operating in Chemnitz for almost 22 years. Financed by funding from the Free State of Saxony's "Cultural Infrastructure Programme", the mobile library was first used by Chemnitz City Library on 1 September 1994 and was intended as an alternative to the closure of several branch libraries and a large district library. Five years later, in 1999, the book bus was handed over from the city library to the women's organisation F.A.C.T. e. V.. The reason for this was consolidation measures in public administration.
Federal labour support measures, material cost subsidies from the City of Chemnitz and the extensive voluntary work of the F.A.C.T. e. V. staff formed the basis for the continuous continuation of the "Mobile Library" project. In particular, the City Library would like to thank the volunteers Doris Müller, Margitta Meißner and Margitta Lerchner for their many years of work and extraordinary commitment.
Locations and opening hours of the book bus and the lending centres:
www.stadtbibliothek-chemnitz.de/die-stadtbibliothek/buecherbus.html
For further information please contact:
Uwe Hastreiter
Chemnitz City Library
Moritzstraße 20, 09111 Chemnitz
Telephone: 0371 488-4202
E-mail: hastreiter(at)stadtbibliothek-chemnitz.de