Appenzell Bibliobahn
| X 1025 | |
|---|---|
 The Appenzell Bibliobahn in Waldstatt
|
|
| Numbering: | X h |
| Number: | 1 |
| Manufacturer: | SIG, ABB Zurich |
| Year of construction (s): | 1909, 1942, 1988 |
| Retirement: | 2009 |
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) |
| Length over buffers: | 13,200 mm |
| Height: | 3.5 m |
| Width: | 2.5 m |
| Empty mass: | 14 t |
| Power transmission: | Overhead line |
| Coupling type: | GF |
The Appenzeller Bibliobahn was one of the world's few mobile libraries on rails, which from 1988 to 2008 lent books weekly in a specially converted railway wagon of the Appenzeller Bahnen at various train stations in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden .
The Bibliobahn
prehistory
In 1965 a Swiss delegation of librarians traveled to Denmark to study the local system of public libraries there. Peter Wegelin, the head of the Cantonal Library of St. Gallen at the time, was also on this trip . In a small town on the North Sea, he noticed how the local library filled wooden boxes with books and gave them to the seafarers who again spent a few days on the high seas. The idea of bringing books to the reader fascinated Peter Wegelin for a long time and was to become the key experience for the establishment of the Appenzeller Bibliobahn. When he went on a trip to the Hohe Kasten with the Swiss library service in 1979 and overlooked the Appenzellerland , he noticed that the railway lines that ran through this area could serve several villages with books. And if such a "railway library" even encouraged one or the other community to create their own community library later, it would have achieved an additional goal. However, it would take another nine years before the vision of a rolling library could be realized.
founding
After years of planning and preparatory work, a discarded type X1025 railway wagon from the Appenzeller Bahnen built in 1909 was rebuilt and initially equipped with 1,800 books on around 25 m 2 . The wagon was AB 53 of the SGA . Initially there was no pantograph; the heating current was led from the contact line to the heating socket with a flexible cable (heating rod). The Bibliobahn was financed mainly with 88,000 francs from the Julius Baer Foundation in Zurich . The Appenzellische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft , AGG for short, will take over their patronage with an annual guaranteed contribution. The canton and the municipalities involved also supported the Bibliobahn financially. In addition, the Appenzeller Bahnen did not charge anything for the annual shunting costs of around CHF 20,000. Since the Bibliobahn was never officially registered as an association and therefore did not have any statutes , from a legal point of view it represents a " simple society " in accordance with Article 530 ff. Of the Swiss Code of Obligations .
business
The Appenzeller Bibliobahn was officially inaugurated on March 12, 1988. There were representatives of the municipalities involved, the Appenzell Cantonal and Council of States Carlo Schmid-Sutter and the «founding father» Peter Wegelin. This made the Bibliobahn one of the few mobile libraries in the world that brought their books to users in a train carriage. Radio SRF praised the occasion in a preview and the daily news broadcast on SRF broadcast a short article. In the following year, Swisslos produced a 30-second television commercial about the Bibliobahn, which was broadcast on television in 1990 (on this one can still see the wagon with the white color, which was replaced by blue in 2000).
The Bibliobahn quickly established itself in the locations approached Herisau AR, Waldstatt AR, Bühler AR , Gais AR , Appenzell and Gonten AI. The Bibliobahn met with great interest right from the start, especially in the area of children's and young people's books. For the next 20 years, she supplied the communities visited with an ever increasing range of books every week. The average daily loans leveled off at 40 to 50 issues, while at peak times between 6,000 and 7,000 loans per year were recorded; the main target audience remained children and young people.
Right from the start, Appenzell and Herisau were only considered to be a short-term approach, as they were already pursuing efforts to establish their own permanent libraries in 1988. With the opening of the Herisau village library (1994–2006), Herisau library from 2006, and the Appenzell public library in 1994, both communities left the Bibliobahn. In December 2006 Gonten also said goodbye to the Bibliobahn; the proximity to the Appenzell public library and its larger range were certainly the main reason for this.
The Bibliobahn was initially looked after by Werner Näf, who was replaced by Stefanie Altherr in 1999. In 2000 Kurt Sallmann took over the management. This included work such as looking after the car, compiling and coordinating book boxes for schools, maintaining the library and purchasing new media. By 2008, the media inventory comprised around 5000 books, of which around 3000 could be presented in the car. The remaining books formed the depot stock. The work at the stations was carried out by volunteers two hours a day; on Monday in Bühler, on Thursday in Waldstatt and on Friday in Gais. The loan in the car itself worked without electronic aids with a card system. A catalog for users did not exist. However, the entire inventory was formally indexed electronically and could be viewed by the employees.
Shutdown
Since the car that served as a library track was in increasingly poor condition, it became clear that it had to be taken out of service at the end of 2008, exactly 100 years old. With the timetable change of the Appenzeller Bahnen on December 14, 2008, a temporary solution came into effect for the use of the Bibliobahn: Until a new solution was finally worked out, the Bibliobahn car was deposited on a siding at Gais station; On Friday afternoons, books could still be borrowed until further notice, at least in this community. The AGG also promised that the contribution for 2009 would be paid out again.
So the question of the future of the Bibliobahn arose relatively early on. A new car, including equipment, would have cost 130,000 francs. In October 2007 the affected communities met with Kurt Sallmann to discuss how to proceed. Possible financing models such as donations, community contributions, lottery funds or the establishment of a foundation were discussed. At this point in time, opponents of the Bibliobahn also got in touch: They questioned its continued operation, as they saw the Bibliobahn primarily as a purely nostalgic place and criticized the low number of users compared to other libraries. The library, which has been on wheels for 20 years, has become a political issue.
The feasibility study
Survey, evaluation
Since it was a six-figure amount, a feasibility study was requested from a neutral party. The central question was whether the Appenzellerland should stick to this unique facility or whether the Bibliobahn had done its job, which not least consisted of encouraging the establishment of new libraries. The feasibility study was carried out from spring to autumn 2008 by HTW Chur . In order to collect data, two large-scale surveys were carried out in all affected communities (divided into children and adults). In addition, targeted interviews were used to ask people who had something to do with the Bibliobahn. In addition to the analysis of the Bibliobahn operation itself, the surrounding community and school libraries were also included.
Results
In September 2009 the conclusion of the feasibility study was presented at a public press conference. The study came to the conclusion that it would not make sense to invest 130,000 francs in a new car in order to continue running the Bibliobahn in its previous form. The following points were decisive:
- Despite its undeniably nostalgic charm and its uniqueness, the unique feature of the Rolling Library met with too little interest from the population; This is especially true in the three affected communities Bühler, Gais and Waldstatt.
- In recent years, lending has declined overall.
- Compared to 1988, the Appenzellerland had a high density of libraries (as of 2008: 19 libraries).
- The public libraries in the vicinity of Bühler, Gais and Waldstatt were all easily accessible (also by public transport ) and also recorded increasing numbers of users from the communities of the Bibliobahn every year.
- The offer and opening times of the neighboring community libraries were more attractive.
- The school libraries from Bühler, Gais and Waldstatt were the primary suppliers of the Bibliobahn's large customer base (children and young people).
- Out of pure “goodwill”, the Appenzeller Bahnen invested CHF 20,000 a year in a project that returned too little in terms of advertising.
End of the Bibliobahn
Thus, after 20 years of operation, the end of the Appenzeller Bibliobahn became a fact. The last return date for books in the wagon deposited in Gais was on September 11, 2009. The car was scrapped a short time later by the Appenzeller Bahnen.
consequences
Shortly after the closure of the Bibliobahn was announced, discussions about further possible scenarios began in Waldstatt, Bühler and Gais. Very quickly it became clear that in two of the three affected communities, private initiators had great chances of founding their own village library.
Buhler
Bühler was one of the first communities to use the end of the Bibliobahn to create its own library: Lydie Looser, a former employee of the library lending department, initiated the construction of a community library, so that just two years later, with the help of the community, a new library was built in the upper school building . The holdings consisted of the Bühler school library and half of the books from the former Bibliobahn.
Gais
Also in 2011, the “BiblioGais” foundation was established in Gais , offering books for children (from the other half of the remaining stock of the Bibliobahn) and adults in the village. Here, too, a former Bibliobahn employee was the driving force behind the new offer: Kurt Sallmann, who headed the Bibliobahn for the past nine years, was now on the «BiblioGais» board of trustees. Four years later, by merging with the school library and the toy library , the Gais public library was created .
Waldstatt
Only Waldstatt decided not to set up a replacement offer. The main reason for this was the geographical proximity to the Herisau library (3.2 km) and the fact that it already had over 300 registered users from Waldstatt in 2007.
literature
- Hermann Grosser: History of the Appenzell Libraries. In: Appenzell Year Books , No. 79, Appenzeller Medienhaus, Herisau 1952.
- B. Hermann: A library bus . In: The youth and their reading , Pro Juventute, 1954.
- Bérengère Sins, Michèle Steveaux: Avec le bibliobus, découvrez l'Alsace. Colmar 1972.
- Werner Näf: The Appenzeller Biblio-Bahn and the Appenzell library system (diploma thesis). Self-published, St. Gallen 1989, Cantonal Library Appenzell Ausserrhoden, App 2347.
- Appenzellische non-profit society (publisher): Appenzellische Jahrbücher , No. 124. Appenzeller Medienhaus, Herisau 1997.
- B. Laux: A unique piece rolls and rolls. The Appenzeller Biblio-Bahn has not yet gone out of fashion. In: Appenzeller Zeitung . October 23, 2002.
- Martin Hüsler: The train to the book stops: [...] but libraries in the Appenzellerland also help to ensure that books are still picked up frequently. In: Appenzeller Magazin , No. 11, Appenzeller Verlag, Schwellbrunn 2004.
- Evaluation report regional libraries AR. Appenzell media company, Herisau 2007.
- L. Moser: Appenzell libraries with a model. Appenzellerland - library land. In: SAB-Info-CLP, No. 2, 2007.
- B. Schmid-Pfänders: Tension from the Bibliobahn. Over 100 new books are waiting for readers - the old Biblio cart is slowly getting on in years. In: St. Galler Tagblatt . June 1, 2006.
- Gerold Ebneter: Feasibility study «Appenzeller Bibliobahn». Master thesis. Self-published, Trogen 2009. Appenzell Ausserrhoden Cantonal Library, App 2348.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerold Ebneter: Feasibility study Appenzeller Bibliobahn , (Master's thesis), self-published, Trogen 2009, Cantonal Library Appenzell Ausserrhoden, App 2348
- ^ Werner Näf: The Appenzeller Biblio-Bahn and the Appenzell library system (diploma thesis). Self-published, St. Gallen 1989, Cantonal Library Appenzell Ausserrhoden, App 2347
- ↑ Hanspeter Strebel: A Europe-wide unique. ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Appenzeller Zeitung , November 4, 2005.
- ↑ Corina Hugentobler: The Bibliobahn continues. ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: St. Galler Tagblatt , January 16, 2007.
- ^ Peter Wegelin: Annual Reports Bibliobahn . In: Appenzell Yearbooks , Appenzeller Medienhaus, Herisau 1989 - 2009
- ↑ Tagblatt Online: Master's thesis on Bibliobahn ( Memento from January 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Article from August 27, 2009
- ↑ Guido Berlinger-Bolt: After the four-axis library. In: Appenzeller Zeitung , vol. 182, No. 212 (September 12, 2009), p. 49.
- ↑ Hansueli Hilfiker: From Reading Club to BiblioGais - How Gaisers Came to Reading Books , self-published, Gais 2015
