From History

bývala podoba knižnice
One of the past library sites
pobočka na Bulvári
Branch on Bulvár
knižnica pred rekonštrukciou
The library before reconstruction

 

 

 

 

 

1919 – The Regional Library had not existed yet, but the Act about Libraries (Knižničný zákon) was passed, which imposed an obligation on Czechoslovak townships to build libraries. What is even better – the act set the amount of contribution based on the number of residents. It was between 0,30 and 1 crown.

1924 – The Regional Library still had not existed, but its predecessor, the Public City Library in Žilina, did. It officially started operating on 15. 10. 1924 and its first librarian was a professor at a state grammar school, Raymund Žižka. Andrej Hvizdák-Podlučinský, a known labor poet and publicist, became its first professional librarian in 1931.

1952 – After a “deaf” war and afterwar period when the library stagnated and almost stopped its operation, this year brought a revival to the library practice in Žilina thanks to the Regional Library being founded. It opened on 07. 01. 1955, in the Slovan hotel and consisted of five rooms. Jozef Páv was its director. A year later, the library had branches over the whole city and its outskirts. The most beautiful one was in the Astória hotel. Lovely spaces were also in Studničky with a big, well-equipped reading room opened daily until 10pm.

1960 – The Regional Library became District Library in Žilina during regional reorganization. It became the headquarters of informational activity in the whole district. Gradually, new specialized departments (methodological and bibliographic) arose. They performed regional functions in the network of public libraries. Central purchase of books for public libraries started in 1964.

Core library indicators continued to rise; the library had more than 30 employees and many branches in different parts of the city. They peaked at 24 in 1989. Let’s remind ourselves of these two:

pobočka Bulvár
Fiction was read mostly on Bulvár.
politické oddelenie
Scientific Literature in the Political Department

1991 – The management of the District Library fell under the Ministry of Culture, local libraries under self-government. It had negative effects on public and city libraries. Some still haven’t recovered from them. Even the District Library in Žilina found itself in a worse financial situation. In addition, the large fragmentation of services at the branches became limiting.

1994 – The library acquired the dreamed central object on the Bernolák St. no. 47. Thanks to the Ministry of Culture, debarrierization of the object was soon carried out. However, employees and users had not anticipated the surprise that was waiting for them – a leak in the roof.

After years of war with water and melting snow, a superstructure was finally built which helped the library gain not only protection from one of the natural elements but also new spaces for events, Children and Youth Literature Sections, and Specialized Departments. This was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the modern library.

1997 – the Regional State Library in Žilina was removed from Severopovažské Cultural Centre and the functions the library had until then (district library for the Žilina and Bytča districts and city library for Žilina) were extended by the function of regional library for the Žilina region.

2002 – This year brought yet another organizational change and a new establisher. After a long time of being governed by state, it changed to be managed by the newly founded Žilina Self-governing Region on 01. 04. 2002. It changed its name again to Žilina Library and in 2008 changed it once more to the Regional Library in Žilina based on the request of its establisher.

2020 – The ground floor of the Regional Library in Žilina underwent a significant reconstruction of the flooring, electrical grid, ceiling and lighting.

2021 – As of 01. 07. 2021, the original library branches (Hájik, Vlčince, Solinky, Bytčica, Trnové, and Strážov) finished their operation as service places of the Regional Library in Žilina. The city of Žilina took over them and formed City Library Žilina.

In accordance with the charter of incorporation, the library is a cultural, informational, scientific, and educational institution which provides unlimited access to information in its regional jurisdiction. It is a coordinating, educational, statistical, methodological, and specialized-consulting center for regional libraries in Čadca, Dolný Kubín, Liptovský Mikuláš, and Martin, and for city and public libraries in the Žilina and Bytča districts. It also covers tasks connected to documenting the state and development of library and information services in the region, coordinating bibliographic and editing activities, and functions as a city library for the city of Žilina.