From May 6, 2024, the use of the library will be free and the opening hours will be longer in the Péter Méliusz Juhász Library. Although the difficulties of recent years have not been favorable to institutions that can be visited in person, the number of people going to the library has increased significantly in the city of Debrecen. From now on, readers will be able to choose from the library complex’s nearly 400,000 collections for free.
The library is the DNA of society – it was said at the briefing held on April 26, 2024, in the central building of the Méliusz Juhász Péter Library. At the event, it was announced that a new chapter in the life of the complex will begin on May 6, 2024: the use of the library will become free and the opening hours will be extended. Director Béla Lóránt Kovács said that they find that readers want to access more and more documents.
The library is the institution of natural intelligence, which is supplemented, but not replaced, by artificial intelligence.
Digitization is part of our lives, but it cannot replace books, knowledge is stored here to a serious extent, that is, in essence, there is harmony here between the digital world and the analog world
– he said.
The city administration recognized the importance of the library and the need to facilitate access to knowledge. The libraries belonging to Méliusz use the same system, so within the institution, it does not matter to which sublibrary the reader returns the borrowed book. I would like to raise this to the county level shortly. Mayor László Papp highlighted that despite the difficulties of the past few years, the number of people visiting central libraries and network libraries increased by 40 percent compared to 2019.
With this new approach and solution, on the one hand, we reduce the burden from an administrative point of view, since we do not have to re-enroll every year. On the other hand, there will be no need to pay an annual library usage fee – it is HUF 800 for adults, HUF 400 for students and children – so we want as many people as possible to visit the Debrecen libraries free of charge
– he declared.
The Péter Méliusz Juhász library currently has around 400,000 items available for loan. In addition to books, this also includes loanable slides, musical scores, or, for example, photos.
(debrecen.hu)
