Bielefeld City Library

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Bielefeld City Library
Bielefeld City Library.JPG

Buildings of the main office, the city archive and the regional history library

founding 1905
Duration 504,900
Library type Communal library
place Bielefeld
ISIL DE-131 (City Library at Neumarkt)
operator City of Bielefeld
management Katja Bartlakowski
Website http://www.stadtbibliothek-bielefeld.de

The Bielefeld City Library is the main municipal library for Bielefeld . In addition to the main office on Neumarkt, it has eight branches in the city area and, based on its holdings of around 505,000 media items, is the largest public library in East Westphalia-Lippe and the seventh largest in North Rhine-Westphalia .

history

From reading hall association to public library

On April 22nd, 1898, the reading hall association founded in the same year opened the first reading hall in the Volkskaffeehaus am Niederwall in Bielefeld. Mainly magazines, but also individual literary works were made available for inspection here. The main target group of this initiative , which was part of the popular education movement at that time , were single young workers who were to be kept away from alcoholism and at the same time were given an opportunity for educational diversion. The opening times were set up in the evening hours accordingly. In this respect, developments in Bielefeld were in keeping with the spirit of the times. Just one year later, the then Comenius Society issued a general appeal for the creation of bookhouses (see also Bookhalls Movement ), which should make a contribution to general popular education and offer everyone a contact point for individual acquisition of knowledge. Linked to this was the desire to survey the existing bookhouses and analogous institutions. The city's magistrate was able to refer to a corresponding reading room here. This was financed by donations and, from 1901, also by grants from the Oberpräsidium Münster . The director was Charlotte Steinhaus (1878–1944). She pushed for a further opening of the library and was largely responsible for the establishment of the Bielefeld Public Library , which was opened on December 1, 1905 with a media inventory of over 3000 volumes. In 1906 37,691 loans were made. Due to the development, 1905 is considered the year the library was founded.

Until the end of World War II

The increasing number of readers was further reflected in purchases. In 1911 the collection had grown to 12012 volumes, mainly financed by municipal grants. Due to the increasing popularity and constant expansion, it was decided to rededicate the first library into a fully communal facility called Stadtbücherei Bielefeld . The city of Bielefeld has been the sponsor since then. With the growth of the inventory, around 60,000 volumes were available for loan in 1933, the workforce also grew, so that in 1928 three library secretaries and seven assistants found work who obviously knew how to provide an attractive offer. The writer Josefa Metz, murdered in 1943 in Theresienstadt concentration camp , declared in 1930 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the public library that it had become "the most beautiful hostel for science and literature". Programmatically, the city library was set up rather liberally, which at the time meant being open to all media and all visitors and not limiting the holdings to supposedly valuable content by preselecting them. Nevertheless, the number of offers was drastically reduced during the National Socialist dictatorship , as unwanted literature had to be removed. This was kept under lock and key since Bielefeld was a single library that was also available for scientific work. In the last year under the direction of Charlotte Steinhaus, in 1938, the loanable inventory only amounted to 30,937 volumes. Under the following leader, Dr. Bernhard Rang, the aim was to unite the municipal archive and the libraries under one roof. However, Rank, who was suspended as a National Socialist after the Second World War and who finally retired from service in 1950 after two years at the Bielefeld Home Library, was unable to implement these ideas any further. The library, which can now be found on the Alter Markt , was badly hit in the bombing on September 30, 1944. 60% of the stock was lost.

From World War II to 1978

On October 1, 1947, the city library was able to reopen in a makeshift facility on Wertherstrasse. It offered 8,000 volumes, but also had a stock of classified information, as the National Socialist literature of the area was collected here due to Order No. 4 of the Allied Control Council . From 1949 onwards, the library was expanded in a decentralized manner with the establishment of three district libraries by 1955 and three more by 1963. The old main office on the Alter Markt was relocated in 1954, and in 1959 a mobile library was set up that lasted until 1993. At the end of the 1960s, the main office moved into a new building at Alfred-Bozi-Straße 14. With the municipal reorganization of 1973, the area of ​​responsibility of the library increased, which was reflected in the construction of the district libraries Senne I , Sennestadt , Brackwede and Gadderbaum . The mobile library could not meet the needs in the more rural parts of the city, so that in 1975 the libraries in Heepen , Jöllenbeck and Baumheide were opened. Due to the increased space requirement, the main office moved to the building of the former Kreissparkasse in Herford Street 4-6 near Jahnplatz in 1978 . In addition, the city library was renamed Bielefeld City Library .

Since 1978

The media range was expanded to include video cassettes in 1987 . Since 1993, the city library has had to accept savings due to the financial situation of the municipality. The budget for new acquisitions was cut by two thirds from 1993 to 2001, and the number of district libraries was reduced to eight after the Brake and Dornberg locations were added in 1988 and 1992 . The number of loans fell to less than 1 million. Other district libraries were only retained because of voluntary work . In 2013, 3864 library opening hours were guaranteed in the Baumheide, Dornberg, Heepen and Jöllenbeck district libraries. The Dornberg branch could even be expanded and moved from a small shop on Wellensiek to new rooms in a community center in the former official building. Loans increased again and totaled 1615346 in 2013. Due to the structural situation of the main building on Jahnplatz and the fundamentally changed requirements for libraries (computer workstations, reading lounges), it was decided to move the main office. In March 2012 it moved to its new location on Neumarkt. This was accompanied by the amalgamation of the regional history library and the city archive in one building and with a uniform loan system. A 24-hour return machine could also be installed. There are also separate seminar and work rooms, a TeenBib and a café at the new location. On September 2, 2019, the central library on Neumarkt started "open library" operation. This means that the previous opening time was extended by 35 hours per week to 60 hours per week: Monday to Saturday 10 to 20 pm .

Key figures and locations

The key figures for 2013 can be found in the following table:

Locations media Visitors Loans guides Literature series Events to promote reading
9 505710 548298 1615346 278 28 703

Of the total number of visitors, 276 661 went to the district libraries in 2013, where 477 165 media were borrowed. The following table gives an overview of the district libraries:

Location opening media image Remarks
Tree heather - here 1975 approx. 10000 Bielefeld Baumheide City Library.JPG supervised on a voluntary basis
Brackwede - here 1973 approx. 23000 Bielefeld district library Brackwede.jpg existed as a library since 1911
Dornberg - here 1991 approx. 9000 Bielefeld Dornberg library.jpg supervised on a voluntary basis
Heepen - here 1975 approx. 9000 AlteVogteiBielefeldHeepen.JPG supervised on a voluntary basis
Jöllenbeck - here 1975 approx. 9000 Bielefeld City Library Jöllenbeck.JPG supervised on a voluntary basis
Schildesche - here 1971 approx. 9000 Bielefeld City Library Schildesche.JPG also the school library of the Martin-Niemöller-Gesamtschule
Sennestadt - here 1973 approx. 18000 Bielefeld Sennestadt City Library.JPG
Stieghorst - here approx. 18000 Bielefeld City Library Stieghorst.JPG also the school library of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Comprehensive School

Cooperations and events

In addition to collaborating with other libraries and educational institutions, the city library claims to work with the Bielefeld youth welfare office, the municipal utilities in the field of data processing and the Gütersloh city library . The Bielefeld volunteer agency has its contact office on the premises, as well as the literary society OWL - Literaturhaus Bielefeld and Spielwiese Bielefeld clubs can be reached via the city library as part of a cooperation. In addition to the usual events, the Bielefeld Literature Days and exhibitions have been taking place in the city library since 1996. Separate rooms are available for special occasions, such as the children's room or the literature stage.

Web links

Commons : Libraries in Bielefeld  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Positions and Perspectives - Annual Report of the Bielefeld City Library 2014
  2. ^ German Library Association: Individual evaluation at bibliotheksstatistik.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on October 16, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bibliotheksstatistik.de
  3. ↑ on workdays from 7.30pm to 10.30pm, on Sundays from 8pm to 10pm
  4. ↑ Pilzer, Harald / Puhlmann, Harald: Nothing is more constant than change - Hundred Years of Bielefeld City Library 1905–2005. In: ProLibris 2/2006, pp. 51-52
  5. ↑ a b Pilzer, Harald / Puhlmann, Harald: Nothing is more constant than change - Hundred years of Bielefeld City Library 1905–2005. In: ProLibris 2/2006, pp. 53-55
  6. ↑ 25 years Bielefeld City Library - 1905–1930. Bertelsmann. Bielefeld 1930
  7. ↑ a b c Pilzer, Harald / Puhlmann, Harald: Nothing is more constant than change - Hundred years of Bielefeld City Library 1905–2005. In: ProLibris 2/2006, pp. 56-57
  8. ↑ Pilzer, Harald: Did you do everything right? One year city library, city archive and regional history library in Bielefeld. In: ProLibris 3/2013, pp. 120-123
  9. ^ District libraries of the Bielefeld City Library. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 25, 2014 ; accessed on October 16, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadtbibliothek-bielefeld.de
  10. ↑ Portrait of the Martin-Niemöller-Gesamtschule Schildesche. Retrieved October 16, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Cooperation partner of the city library. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on October 15, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadtbibliothek-bielefeld.de
  12. ↑ Information from the City of Bielefeld on the Literature Days 2014. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 21, 2014 ; accessed on October 16, 2014 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bielefeld.de
  13. ↑ Calendar of events of the city library. Retrieved March 1, 2016 .


Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 36.4 ″  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 13.7 ″  E