Professional paper
Forty years of the mobile library service of the Rijeka City Library
Ljiljana Črnjar
orcid.org/0000-0003-1475-6397
Abstract
On June 9th 2009 the mobile library service of the Rijeka City Library has completed the forty years of its work. During this period many things have been changed, like the vehicles, areas of coverage, stopping point locations; new services have been introduced according to the users’ needs and circumstances, but the main task has remained the same – to provide library services in areas where there are no regular libraries, especially outside the city centres.
This paper will present an overview of the key moments in the last four decades of the mobile library services in Rijeka.
In the eighties, after overcoming the initial difficulties, the mobile library service reaches its peak period providing library services to the wider areas of Rijeka, Opatija, and Crikvenica. The nineties were characterized by the work with a specific user groups - refugees and relocated persons who required a particularly careful approach, especially the children.
The mid-nineties brought a new regional and local administrative system, and with it the risk of service termination. But the new conditions presented a challenge for the library and its workers who conceived a different organization and the concept of a mobile library service which would cover only the city of Rijeka.
In 2004, the favourable conditions resulted in starting the second, county mobile library service which would cover the region of Gorski kotar and other mountainous regions which were previously without public library services.
Today, the mobile library service of the Rijeka City Library, with its two vehicles, has a very important role in the modern library network in the city of Rijeka and the County of Primorje-Gorski kotar.
Keywords
mobile library; mobile library service; Rijeka City Library
Hrčak ID:
80479
URI
Publication date:
7.6.2011.
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