The relocation of the Pedagogical Library’s collections from the Town Hall to the new section of the former Kutuzov Museum is nearing completion. Recognizing the facility’s needs, the city authorities made efforts to provide—in view of the existing possibilities—the most suitable premises.
The 270-square-metre area allows the collections to be arranged more advantageously than under the previous conditions. The improvement mainly concerns the Reading Room, which will finally accommodate the entire reference collection and approximately 20 places for its users. Reader service desks, the Lending Library and Reading Room catalogues, bibliographic files, and a separate cloakroom corner will be located in the spacious hall, impressive in size.
The costs related to adapting the building amounted to approximately 150 million zlotys. This money, invested from the city budget, was reimbursed by the Education Authority in Jelenia Góra.
The facility has operated in the city since 1951. Its beginnings were very modest. One room measuring 16 square metres housed a collection of 1,600 volumes. Books were made available three times a week for 14 hours. The readership was limited exclusively to teachers.
Over the years, the collections steadily grew. In 1970, they exceeded 10,000 items, and just five years later they had doubled. The 1970s were the period of the Library’s most dynamic development. Today, books and periodicals together comprise more than 50,000 volumes. As many as 90 percent of the literature consists of academic and popular-science books. Today, approximately 10,000 readers visit the library.
We hope that the new location will create prospects for proper development while also enabling more effective work.
Taking this opportunity to appear in the pages of our local newspaper, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported us during the move. Special words of appreciation go to Col. Mieczysław Rosiński. The students of the Mechanical Technical School and I General Secondary School also provided invaluable assistance. We also thank the employees of the Recyclable Materials Collection Centre for lending us cardboard boxes. The list of all those who selflessly and most kindly supported us in this undertaking could go on and on, so to everyone—once again—our sincere thanks.