Experiences are now also part of the library: In order to attract young people, events are planned, such as the reading night in 2017. And there are no longer only books here. © Puchheim Public Library
The idea of borrowing books is very old. In Puchheim, too, the first attempts to build a library go back a long way. This year she celebrates her 40th birthday.
Puchheim – The silent temple has become a place of entertainment. This is also shown by the anniversary programme.
Although the city library will celebrate its 40th anniversary in the next few days with a colorful program, the dating is not quite correct. After all, the library has only been urban since the community was elevated to the status of a city, and the people of Puchheim were already reading books to borrow before 1983.
It is no longer known today whether the itinerant library, which Mayor Josef Steindl wanted to set up in 1937, has become anything, but an application to the municipality by the Catholic clergyman Thomas Bauer for Puchheim station has already been handed down from 1954. "In accordance with the wishes of the population and obeying the necessity of the time", he wanted to set up a parish library and asked for subsidies, which, as far as he knew, were customary elsewhere. How generously the funds flowed is unknown, but in 1964 there were actually already 250 books stored in the rectory cellar.
First we went to the fire station
Two years later, the parish and public library, as it was now called, moved into a 40-square-meter room in the parish center. From 1973 onwards, the municipal council regularly granted funds for the purchase of books, but it was not until 1980 that a cooperation agreement was concluded with the church: At that time, the common library was created, now under the name of the parish library, but still connected to the Catholic St. Michael's League.
The program
The reading evening with the Kluftinger authors is fully booked, but there are other interesting dates in the coming week. On Monday, Nina Müller will read from her children's book "Kuschelflosse" to the little ones, even on the Kennedywiese when the weather is nice. Also for the youngest on Thursday is a playful introduction to robotics with Bee-Bots and Ozobots. Young people from the age of 13 can and should solve puzzles on Wednesday to crack the code that frees them from the "escape room".
Domino Day on Friday could be fun for all ages: 23,000 stones are to be set up in the library rooms and, of course, knocked over at the end. Finally, Saturday is dedicated to the street festival in and in front of the library with concerts, exhibitions and poetry slams. More information on www.puchheim.de
The library team consisted of ten parish volunteers (including one man) who were available six hours a week. In the meantime – according to figures from 1976 – around 1600 children's books, 1300 non-fiction books and 1200 novels had already been purchased. And finally, in 1981, the then cultural advisor successfully demanded that the fire station, which had just become empty, be converted so that the library would have clever premises "for the next few years". At least until she finally finds accommodation "in the future community centre". That's how it was done. Two years later, and poorer by 685,000 marks, the community opened the 200-square-meter library on Poststrasse, where it remains to this day. City archivist Mandy Frenkel has reconstructed the prehistory from old files and summarized it in a brochure.
The first full-time director
For 35 of the 40 years since, Otto Linseisen was the face of the library as the first full-time director. If it was ever a dusty collection of books, the library came to life under the new man at the latest. Old recordings show him reading aloud, surrounded by children who became an important target group. The first reading night was still about Captain Bluebear. Later, the little ones brought a flashlight to the detective night in addition to the sleeping bag, received service cards with photo and fingerprint and solved their cases until two in the morning. But the library also went outside, performing with children's book authors in local schools.
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There was also a murder mystery night for the adults. Then with a relevant author for the imagination and forensic pathologist for the facts. Linseisen brought prominent names to the literature meeting, often in cooperation with the bookstore and the city: Hildegard Hamm-Brücher was there as well as Otto Schily, Doris Dörrie left a "Thank you very much, I had a lot of fun" in the guestbook after her reading.
New kind of customers
In the new millennium, a new type of customer emerged: readers who leafed through reference books or read newspapers or surfed the Internet workplace, in short: spent their time there without borrowing anything. Actually, a big compliment for the ambience and the team in a library.
In 2002, there were 2800 active readers, around 30,000 media and, for the first time, over 100,000 loans – figures that are no longer reached except for the media today. Towards the end of his term of office, however, Linseisen sounded somewhat resigned. The readers became fewer and, according to his impression, less demanding. The book itself seemed to be in danger of becoming an analogue obsolete model.
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By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular FFB Newsletter.)
His successor Janine Weinberger, who at the age of 31 belongs to a different generation, does not seem to be infected by cultural pessimism. Today, digital media make up half of her holdings, while the classic book accounts for only a third with around 21,000 copies. Small play and learning robots are on the move in the library, where there is a 3D printer and consoles for gaming. The latter, like the manga, are attracting customers to a clientele that had made itself scarce: young people. They now have their own area. And: "They don't think we're that uncool and come back," says Weinberger.
Students study here on weekends
Another offer is also intended for this target group: the "learn-end" instead of the "week-end" for students before their final exams. They have the library to themselves for a few hours on Sundays for concentrated work. Trail mix and earplugs are provided.
Weinberger is not afraid of the accusation that the silent temple of the book is becoming an entertainment location. A public library should offer both quiet reading and experience. A library must also be a place of discovery and experimentation. In any case, in the opinion of her boss, she is on the right track: The city library is "more exciting today than ever before," enthuses Mayor Norbert Seidl in the foreword to the festival brochure. (Olf Paschen)
You can find even more up-to-date news from the Fürstenfeldbruck district on Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.
