Moravian Regional Library is relocating part of its books to a new depository through a tunnel

Brno - From today, books and magazines are flowing through an underground tunnel into the new depository of the Moravian Library in Brno. Each year, the collection grows by approximately a kilometer's worth, which is why the library located on Kounicova Street needed new storage space. This was created by renovating the neighboring building on Bulínova Street, with costs amounting to roughly a quarter of a billion crowns from the state budget.

Thanks to the underground connection, volumes in the depository are quickly accessible. Readers can access requested books within an hour, said Přemysl Kachlík, head of the lending services and collection management department, to ČTK today.

The new depository, with two underground and four above-ground floors, was handed over to the library from the builders back in January. However, the transportation of books was delayed until the conditions in the new building, particularly the humidity, stabilized. The total capacity of the depository is 40 kilometers of books, which should sustain the library for four decades at the current output of publishers. The library receives a so-called compulsory copy of each published title in the Czech Republic.

The relocation of some less-demanded titles to the depository will be gradual. Today, librarians loaded older foreign magazines onto carts, for example. Everything follows a precise order, Kachlík emphasized. Books must arrive in the new shelves in the exact same order as they had in their original storage location.

By the end of summer, the librarians plan to move three kilometers of books and other materials from the main building to the new depository, Kachlík added.

Architecturally, the depository is the work of Adam Rujbr Architects. The original building from 1976 to 1978 served as a computing center. The architects designed part of the building to be preserved and renovated, while demolishing other parts and adding four above-ground floors.

"A depository in close proximity to the main building, both in the wider city center, is a dream for any large library and only a few fulfill it,” library director Tomáš Kubíček stated earlier.

Given that the library currently only needs part of the depository, it has rented out the second above-ground floor for 30 years to the Moravian Gallery. The Brno Museum of Art will thus temporarily resolve its space issues and gain facilities for its archive and research room.