In 1994, when the Mayersche bookstore launched the first edition of its “Shock your parents, read a book!” campaign. wanted to tempt young people to consume reading fodder, the community library of Vaterstetten had been laying the right foundations for such an undertaking for more than twenty years.
Because right after it was founded in 1972, “children and adults, and especially young families, flocked here in droves” to get one of the library cards that were still free at the time, says Christl Rohrbach. The bookseller, who was based in Munich at the time, had applied for the management of the institution that was praised in an issue of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from the same year as “the largest public library in Upper Bavaria” with 400 square meters.
Rohrbach doesn’t remember the exact number of media available, but he does remember very well that the titles from the areas of fiction, non-fiction and, above all, children’s books were all printed copies – “I didn’t even have magazines at the time. “
This is what the library premises looked like in the 1970s.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Although the operation was manageable, the opening times were limited. She was on duty a few hours a day and by no means the whole week. Nevertheless, she soon needed help, as the library had quickly become a magnet for people who were hungry to read from surrounding districts such as Neufarn and Purfing.
They still come today, as Patrizia Schukowski knows, who has been in charge of the community library in Vaterstetten for four years and has been working there for more than ten years. Unfortunately, the available space has not changed significantly either, which the then director Christa Fargel criticized as early as 2005. Today, the inventory, which has meanwhile increased to around 38,000 media, “is pushing our premises to their limits,” Schukowski regrets.
Around 38,000 media are located in the 400 square meters of the library.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
The library was built for the needs of the time, but in the meantime Vaterstetten has grown a lot. In numbers, this means: Compared to the 11,500 people at the beginning of the 1970s, there were already more than twice as many citizens at the end of 2020 (24,789 according to official statistics).
Around 3,000 people have a reading card, which is free for new residents for a year. Some people have even been there for 50 years. Like Sigrid Bertram, who moved from Trudering to Baldham with her family in 1971 and was delighted when a year later she was able to borrow Astrid Lindgren and Otfried Preussler for her three children, Simone de Beauvoir for herself, or biographies for her husband.
Her nine grandchildren now also know the library
“I was famous for lugging baskets of books home,” says the retired pharmacist, laughing. Even today, the 83-year-old likes to get reading material from Jean-Luc Bannalec, Donna Leon or Isabel Allende. You can also meet her often in the children’s book department, since she now has nine grandchildren, “who also know the community library of Vaterstetten well, although they also have a good library at home in Markt Schwaben.”
After a long Corona break, there will finally be third-class readings again in summer 2022: Here author Jörg Steinleitner presents his “Barefoot Gang”.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
The large selection of children’s and young people’s books, with around 12,000 printed books alone, is no coincidence, as the community library has made reading promotion and cooperation with schools a priority. Even pre-school children can get a “library driver’s license”, when they start school there are “ABC bags” with a book and library card, followed by readings by authors in the third grade and various offers for research skills in secondary schools.
This is also good and important in this respect, because according to Schukowski, as everywhere else in Vaterstetten, the young people will eventually disappear as a target group. This matches the results of the KIM study from 2020, which is carried out every two years, which shows that 6 to 11-year-olds use the medium of books (almost) daily or several times a week at a fairly constant rate of almost 60 percent falls abruptly by around 15 percent. “They only come back when they have children of their own.”
In total, around 160,000 items are borrowed over the course of a year – books, audio books, magazines, games, films, tonies (special audio play characters for children) and e-books. The frequently expressed fear that the latter could crowd out the lending of “real” books has not been confirmed in Vaterstetten. “There are still many customers who want a tactile experience and lug books home in bulk.”
Everything has been thought of so that library customers are not left out in the rain.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
On the other hand, those who provide themselves with new material via Onleihe get by without any back-damaging weight exercises. The six library employees who took part in the picture submission campaign in January may have had some of their favorite reading spots, but they have actually never seen them.
The team even visits others privately in addition to the 30 opening hours per week. This is thanks to the delivery service for non-mobile customers born out of the Corona emergency, to whom the desired titles are brought home if someone lives in the municipal area. One would like to maintain this service even after a possible end of the pandemic. This is a blessing, especially for senior citizens who live on a higher floor and have difficulties climbing stairs.
Not much has changed on the outside since the 1970s…
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
… inside and even more so when it comes to the offer.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
For years, old and young have been catered for by an institution that, according to an industry insider who doesn’t want to read her name in the newspaper, is one of the most underrated extracurricular cultural venues that also supports educational equity. “Nevertheless, the public takes far too little notice of them. Why? Because you mainly meet women there. They’re rather quiet.” And that despite the fact that one of the few female titles in the “Blätter zur Berufskunde” established in the 1950s was “librarian”.
Fortunately, for Patrizia Schukowski and her employees, who will be joined by a trainee from September, “being quiet” does not apply. The creative program of events set up as part of the 50th anniversary brought them the “Bavarian Library Prize 2022”. The jury justified this by saying that “it expresses the many facets of public libraries particularly well and takes all age groups into account”.
The lucky tree has encouraging sayings for customers throughout August.
(Photo: organizer/oh)
For the rest of August you can, for example, pick encouraging sayings from the “Tree of Luck”, put together by Bettina Scharnagl and Monika Peters. The big anniversary celebration with Thomas Maria Peters awaits at the end of September and there is also a different special offer every month for the rest of the year.
Christl Rohrbach, who has been running the small library in her current home in Hohenlinden for many years, soon set up reading hours for children in Vaterstetten – “Where the wild guys live” by Maurice Sendak was particularly popular.
What Patrizia Schukowski is holding in her arms is only the fabric Frieda. Young book fans can experience the real one from September.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Even if the titles may be different today, the enthusiasm for reading aloud is unbroken and everyone is already looking forward to the different offers starting in September in the “Red Salon”. Then, in addition to the picture book cinema and reading aloud for everyone from the age of 4, the French bulldog “Frieda” awaits little book fans. In order to pick up a book in their company or have someone read to you, you definitely don’t have to animate anyone with a poster campaign.
Which other regular and anniversary year highlights are offered can be found directly on the website of the community library of Vaterstetten: https://opac.winbiap.net/vaterstetten/