Local services
From the 6th of May 2024, the Méliusz Juhász Péter Library will become free of charge and open longer.
Although the difficulties of recent years have not favoured face-to-face visits, the number of people visiting the library in the city has increased significantly. The library complex’s collection of almost 400,000 items will now be available free of charge.
The library is the DNA of society, Director Lóránt Béla Kovács said at the press event held on the 26th of April 2024 at the Méliusz Juhász Péter Library’s central building. He said that they are finding that readers want to access more and more documents.
“The library is an institution of natural intelligence, which is complemented but not replaced by artificial intelligence. Digitisation is part of our lives, but it cannot replace books, knowledge is stored here in a very large way, so there is essentially harmony between the digital world and the analogue world,” he said.
The city government recognised the importance of the library and the need to facilitate access to knowledge. All the libraries belonging to the Méliusz use the same system, so that within the institution it makes no difference to which sub-library a reader returns a borrowed book. They would like to increase this to county level in the near future.
Mayor of Debrecen László Papp pointed out that despite the difficulties of the past few years, the number of people visiting central libraries and network libraries has increased by 40% and 20% respectively compared to 2019.
“With this new approach and solution, the administrative burden is reduced as there is no need to re-enrol year after year. On the other hand, there will be no annual library fee – a saving of HUF 800 for adults and HUF 400 for students and children,” the mayor said.
The library’s lending stock currently stands at around 400,000 items. This includes not only books, but also slides, sheet music and photographs, for example.
Source: Debrecen.hu
