Šentjur Public Library

The library of Šentjur is a public library with 6,35 employees in the service of 19,688 residents. The collection fund includes over 80,000 items; each resident visits the library five times a year on average. Here, more than 60 events take place annually. The materials from the fund are available to the visitors freely. They are orderly arranged in two floors in the adult section, children/youth section and in the media library. There is also an e-library available to the users and here they can use, free of charge, the internet or other services related to the use of the computers. The library has an automated loan system for the items working through the COBISS software, which assures the COBISS/OPAC online information about the accessibility of a particular library material. The youth aged 18 or younger represent more than half of all membership.
The beginnings of the librarianship in Šentjur date as far back as 1902. The work of the librarians used to be amateur or a part-time occasional job. The first permanent employment of a librarian took place in 1976. The opening of the modernized library occurred in 2006 and this was the first purpose-built building in the municipality satisfying the needs of a library.

Title of library in local language

Knjižnica Šentjur

Year of completion

2006

Address

Knjižnica Šentjur
Mestni trg 5B
3230 Šentjur
Slovenija

Size of library:

1000m²

Category of library

Public Library

More info on the building

http://www.sen.sik.si/knjiznica.html

Awards and recommended reading

Kozinc, Željko: Vrata v vse čase: podobe splošnih knjižnic v Sloveniji=Doors to the past, present and future: portraits of public libraries in Slovenia.

Architectural idea or principle

The library is an ideal place for meeting the classical and virtual needs of the users exploiting library services. It is an emotive place which attaches its users emotionally. The building is daring and soft, with the concave glazed terrace. The library represents the synergy with the rest of the complexes in the same location: the post office, insurance company, bank, shop.

Interior design

Miran Lasič, udia

Special features, internal

The library is aimed at its users, so particular emphasis was placed, as far as the interior design was concerned, on the latter, that is the residents of Šentjur, their orientation inside the library and also on the contemporary usage of the library materials and the available media in it. One might say that the library functions as a common space, a place where everyone feels at home and where numerous residents’ needs are fulfilled. Genius loci "the spirit of the town" is present through the renowned ancestors like the composers Ipavci and Bishop Slomšek, whose lives and work are incorporated as an organic whole into the design of the counters functioning as a light, non-material, timeless bridge connecting the past and the future. The furniture and the remaining equipment are designed in three colours: white, brown and predominating blue. Reading rooms with comfortable settees can be found in both floors, while the children/youth section extends to the concave glazed terrace, which seems like a sun room, into the part symbolizing the top architectural quality of this building.

Special features, external

The design of the building is basic and light, enriched with the red glasses in the south west and with the concave glazed part in the eastern side of the facade.