The Ivan Potrč Public Library

The Ivan Potrč Library falls within the major public libraries in Slovenia and in the pursuance with the legislation serves to almost 70,000 residents in the 16 communities of wider region of Ptuj. The library, named after the established Slovene writer, playwright countryman Ivan Potrč, has been located in the restored building of The Small Castle (Mali grad) since 2000. The building was first mentioned in the written sources from 1231. However, during the renovation process it was proven that there had been buildings already in antiquity. The beams preserved are dated 1766. The Small Castle had its own lordship and from the 15th century also courthouse under which were in 1763 six villages. After the second world war the castle was turned into dwellings. The renovation of the monument, a group of three houses, started in the 1980s and finished in 2000. The library has four departments: Adult Services Department, Youth Services Department, Mobile Library with a bookmobile and extensive Local Research Department. There are three incunabula preserved in the library, two copies of the Dalmatin's Bible (Dalmatinova Biblija) and The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Slava vojvodine Kranjske) from 1689,Italian edition of Notes on Muscovite Affairs (Rerum moscoviticarum commentarii) written by Sigismund von Herberstein from 1550, the collection of music manuscripts from the middle of the 18th century and several other items of a great value. The library stores over 350,000 items, the annual increase is over 19,000 items. The library has over 14,000 active readers, over 150,000 visits are recorded annually and 670,000 items are loaned each year. There are over 300 different performances held each year (exhibitions, evenings of reading, library lessons etc.). The library is incorporated in the Cobiss and dLib systems. It employs 27 workers.