Children's and youth library "Hallescher Komet"
The “Hallescher Komet” children's and youth library is a specialist department of the Central and State Library Berlin Foundation (ZLB), which has existed since 1995. It emerged from the merger of the America Memorial Library with the Berlin City Library ; later the Berlin Senate Library and the Berlin General Catalog were added.
history
The America Memorial Library was built in 1954; In 1957 it was supplemented with the children's library that had been planned from the beginning. This was set up in an extension which, like the main building, was also designed by the architect Fritz Bornemann . The America Memorial Library, built on the model of the American Public Library, has had a youth library since it opened in 1954, which was set up as a “library for young people” in the eastern corner of the 1,200 m² reading room.
Independently of this, the children's library with its own rooms was opened in 1957. A reading room with many reading places and the open architecture created an atmosphere of transparency and generosity. The four wings of the square extension are grouped around an atrium garden, which is used as a reading garden for visitors in summer.
Initially, the offices of the children's library staff were also housed in this extension; these areas were later rededicated as public areas. Space was and is scarce: the children's library opened in 1957 with 10,000 volumes presented on 350 m². Today (2010) the media inventory has grown to 130,000 media units, which are available for use in the open access area, which has been expanded to a good 400 m², in the close-up magazine and in the external magazine. Of course, not only books are now part of the inventory, but all types of media.
In 1978 the youth library of the America Memorial Library was closed, the children's library was retained. When the Central and State Library Berlin Foundation was created in 1995 through the merger of the America Memorial Library and the Berlin City Library, this brought about considerable changes. Due to restructuring and relocations, rooms in the children's library, which had been used in the meantime by the Berlin department of the America Memorial Library, became free again. The "Hallescher Komet" youth library was opened there in 1996, and its innovative concept achieved great success from the start. Together with the children's library, over the years this became the “Hallescher Komet” children's and youth library.
Development since 2009
Since 2009, a development concept has been gradually implemented that the children's and youth library developed in response to changed framework conditions (changed school entry phase, new school qualifications such as MSA, etc.). Due to the clear separation of the three areas - children's leisure area, youth leisure area and the Berlin learning center as a material media department for students of all grades and school types - the library can better meet its tasks as a city-wide educational and cultural institution. The development of the Berlin learning center into a city-wide extracurricular learning location has been carried out as an ERDF-funded project since 2010. In 2010 the comprehensive renovation of the building as part of the economic stimulus package II began; At the same time, the infrastructure of the children's and youth library is being improved with funds from the ERDF-funded project to expand the learning center and, as planned in the development concept, expanded and adapted to the changed user needs.
Offers from the children's and youth library "Hallescher Komet"
In addition to the extensive, differentiated media inventory, the children's and youth library offers its visitors accompanying offers and an extensive calendar of events.
One of the offers of the learning center is free daily homework help: on one day of the week, girls stay among themselves, on the other school days homework help is available to everyone. For school classes, introductions to library use and catalog research are offered as well as group visits on selected topics. In cooperation with other organizers, workshops and project days for career orientation for young people take place. Research support is currently being set up in the Berlin learning center, which aims to support individual students in information research for the MSA or an extensive presentation as an individualized offer.
The library offers numerous events for daycare centers and school classes, from children's cinema and puppet theater to author readings and musical hands-on events. Events during opening hours are not common as the library does not have an event room. An exception is the series “Vocabulary - Storytelling in the Yurt”, which has been offered in the winter months since 2008, in which fairy tales and stories for children are told in an original Mongolian yurt, which is set up in the garden of the children's and youth library from October to March . Oral tradition is at home in many cultures; a team of professional storytellers maintains this tradition in the yurt. The heated yurt creates a very special, dense atmosphere in which the meeting of different cultures is experienced harmoniously.
A special offer of the “Halleschen Komet” are the reading hours for hearing impaired and deaf children and their parents “Bookmarks - listening to children's books with your eyes”. This monthly event has been held since 2005 in cooperation with the Deaf Association of Berlin to improve access to children's books and the written word for this special group of visitors. The event and the use of the library services are supported by a sign language interpreter. The LionsClub Berlin-Pariser Platz supports these offers by financing selected events such as B. a puppet show with a sign language interpreter, etc.