<Moravskoslezský kraj> wants EU money for a scientific library

Ostrava - The Moravian-Silesian Region wants to obtain funding from the European Union for the construction of a scientific library. The library is still located in inadequate and small spaces in the Ostrava town hall, and due to a lack of funds, the commencement of its construction has been postponed for several years. The costs of building the new library will be at least 600 million crowns, said Governor Evžen Tošenovský (ODS) to ČTK today.
    "For years we have been unsuccessfully striving for a dignified building for the scientific library. Already today, there is practically nowhere to place books, and many services that are now common in the world are urgently lacking for readers. And since the state budget for next year does not include the commencement of construction, we are already trying to obtain support from European Union programs," he stated.
    He expects that in the next planning period, the region could have a better chance than before, because there was no suitable program from which money could be drawn in the planning period from 2004 to 2006. A site for the library has already been selected, and the state should be in close proximity to the regional office.
    "It is clearly a necessity. We have to store some books on the floor because the shelves are full. We had calculated that the library would be built earlier; we still did not want to believe that there would be no funds for the Moravian-Silesian Scientific Library in the state budget," said the library director, Lea Prchalová, to ČTK. She added that all necessary documents for drawing funds from the EU will be prepared on time so that the construction of the library will not be further delayed.
    The Moravian-Silesian Region, along with the scientific library, has now published a publication dedicated to the history of librarianship in the region on the occasion of the library's 55th anniversary. The book titled "Libraries of the Moravian-Silesian Region" captures the current system of public libraries, their numbers, and regional distribution. It includes photographs of renovated spaces and new buildings. The print run is 400 copies.
    Today, there are about 800 libraries in the region. Of these, approximately half serve the public. The others are also public, but they include, for example, libraries of museums, schools, galleries, archives, or prisons. The region itself manages the Moravian-Silesian Scientific Library, whose budget is 24 million crowns this year, and the region has additionally bolstered the budget with another five million crowns intended mainly for the purchase of the library's collection and its protection. In the next year, according to the proposal, the library's budget could be around 30 million crowns.