Zweibrücken city library
| Zweibrücken city library | |
|---|---|
 Petrihaus, Herzogstrasse 9
|
|
| founding | 1903 |
| Duration | 48,000 |
| Library type | Communal library |
| place |
Zweibrücken 
|
| operator | City of Zweibrücken |
| management | Roswitha Christian |
| Website | Zweibrücken city library |
The Zweibrücken city library is a public institution of the city of Zweibrücken . With a history of over a hundred years, this library is one of the traditional institutions of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The inventory comprises 48,000 media and 120,000 loans annually (as of 2002).
history
The foundation goes back to the book hall movement , which had also reached the cultural circles of the former ducal city of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate (Bavaria) since the 1890s . Zweibrücken had, also due to the democracy movement around the Hambach Festival , a large modern-liberal citizenry with its protagonists Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer and Johann Georg August Wirth , who promoted the desire for public education. This is how the Zweibrücken Reading Hall Association was formed in Zweibrücken , asking the city to provide tables and chairs in the fruit market hall. The city also paid for the heating and lighting of a reading room.
Beginnings
On December 19, 1903, the city council decided to support the association financially in the amount of 500 marks to cover the initial installation costs. The library's first address was Schillerstraße 2. The library initially comprised 300 volumes, which could be acquired through donations and purchases.
The acceptance among the population was enormous, and as early as March 26, 1904, the city council approved three rooms in the old hospital for free use of the association "in an always revocable manner". This document, written in Sütterlin , is still available in the city archive.
Up to 1910 the book inventory grew continuously to 1,500 volumes, the annual loans to over 8,400. From 1912 until the beginning of the Second World War, the teacher Karl Ewig volunteered for the library. During this time the transformation from an association to a municipal institution also took place. From January 1, 1925, the institution was called the Städtische Volksbücherei, which had been housed in the basement of the Ludwigschule since the early 1920s because the old location had become too cramped. Forever noted for 1937: 4518 volumes and 16,015 books on loan.
Books in the "Third Reich"
The time between the NSDAP seizure of power in 1933 and the annexation of the Saar area to Germany was a difficult time for the library, because attempts were made, especially in the West Palatinate , to ideologize the libraries with “suitable literature”. In the eyes of the authorities, a wave of “Marxist propaganda” came from the west (Saarland), which had to be neutralized by “high quality” National Socialist documents.
In 1938 there was another change of location: Now the library moved to the second floor of the old hospital on Ixheimer Straße, and during the war there was also a move to Fruchtmarktstraße. Ms. Marhoffer became the new director after Eternal. In the period from mid-1944 to March 14, 1945, the library was completely closed. It was destroyed by bombing. Only 31 volumes could be included in the new collection, which was available again from June 3, 1946. At the beginning there were now 322 books in stock through a foundation of the Swiss weekly newspaper Die Weltwoche . Otto Herzog has been the library manager for almost 40 years. The location was now in the basement of the modern high school in Himmelsbergstrasse. It was not until 1952 that the old rooms at Schillerstrasse 2 could be moved into again.
With appeals from the newspapers and, in some cases, generous private donations, the stock of books had grown to nine and a half thousand volumes by 1948. In the same year a reading room was opened. In addition, a so-called traveling library was set up in boxes.
Modern librarianship
As the inventory grew, the library had increasingly overwhelming space problems in the early 1960s. Despite the expansion of the opening times to 8 p.m. in some cases, dissatisfaction grew due to longer and longer waiting times. 1962 presented the library from the classic counter library with books collated to modern freehand library to. The freed up space of the magazine could be used by the visitors. However, the solution was short-lived, as acceptance grew along with the new technology. In 1965 over 70,000 volumes were already loaned out.
The city fathers hoped for a great success with the construction of a new cultural center at Herzogstrasse 11, which also included the library. On July 4, 1969, the rooms, which had been designed according to the latest research in the library system at the time, were opened to the public with almost 28,000 volumes. The Rheinpfalz headline: “a real gem” (July 3, 1969). Despite a renewed lack of space in the mid-1970s, a second construction phase for the planned expansion was never implemented.
Instead, one relied on the establishment of branches in the suburbs and in schools. The inventory reached 33,000 in 1971 and 65,000 ten years later. In the course of the 1980s, bills of exchange were introduced in the branches and internal lending was established between the main and branch offices. Due to the lack of space, the children's and young people's book stock was completely outsourced to the secondary school north in 1986. Since 1987 the collection has also stocked comics and audio tapes.
In 1983 the long-time director of the city library, Otto Herzog, said goodbye. His successor was Dr. Roland Driver, who was also head of the cultural office and the municipal music school. Under his aegis, the city's various cultural institutions were networked and more public relations work was established. His efforts also included the author readings in cooperation with the Literary Association of the Palatinate. It was possible to win well-known German-speaking authors such as Martin Walser , Ulla Hahn and Peter Bichsel for Zweibrücken. In the children's and youth book department, an extensive program of events with children's theater, puppet theater and readings by authors was developed.
Computer age
In 1993 there was another change in the management of the house. After driver, the SPD administrator Fritz Presl followed . Recessions in the city also forced the city library to implement massive restrictions. Opening times have been reduced from 24 hours a week to 15 hours. The budget for new acquisitions was cut to two thirds. Annual fees were also introduced. The young people also had to pay rental fees, which led to a decline in lending. Except for the Rimschweiler branch , all branches had to be closed at the end of the 1990s.
Since 1996 the Zweibrücken public library has been switched to the electronic lending procedure. All books have been electronically cataloged and renamed. The old punching machine and the reading books were history. The simplified loan process increased loans by 10 percent in the first year. Andrea Grothe becomes the new director. So-called new media have also been part of the portfolio since 2000 . Two public internet sites were also set up this year. The current head is Roswitha Christian.
swell
- City of Zweibrücken: 100 years of the Zweibrücken City Library 1903-2003. Festschrift for the anniversary.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Wagner: Public Libraries and Library Policy in the Palatinate 1921-1996, p. 93ff.