The library and theater are the first cultural institutions that originated in the III millennium BC and survived to our times. The birthplace of the first libraries are the ancient civilizations of China and Egypt. On the territory of Europe, the libraries of Babylon and Kuta are referred to the first book depositories.
Library metamorphoses
Over the centuries of its existence, the library and its functions have changed significantly. From, in fact, the book depository (and this is how the term is translated from Greek), it passed a long period of service to the elite. Then, as democracy developed, it turned into a public institution accessible to all walks of life. Its main functions are obtaining comprehensive information in all areas of knowledge, strengthening and maintaining cultural and social ties in society.
To sow the reasonable, good, eternal ...
The same high goals are served, like any other, by the Lermontov library. Penza - a city located in the central part of Russia - is justly proud of it.
And no matter what revolutions take place in the communication sphere, libraries will for a long time be the center of the cultural life of any city, which it would be impossible to imagine without them. The conditions for servicing visitors, the arrangement of reading places will change, the old technologies will replace the old ones, but the library as a center and source of knowledge will retain its role for a long time. New technologies require new buildings or reconstruction of old ones, which, as a rule, have historical and architectural value.
The emergence of a city reading room
The new building was also received by the Lermontov library. Penza built a beautiful building for her pride - the city book depository, which in 1992 turned 100 years old. At the very beginning of history, the Lermontov Society of the city rented the house of the wife of the provincial secretary, E. M. Vakulenko, to open here in 1892 a public reading room, now called the Lermontov Library. Penza considers the first day of issuing books to the population of the city - October 2, 1892 - the date of foundation of the city book depository. Moscow Street, 7 - a place where the library lasted more than 9 years. Then there was a move to the more spacious wooden house of the chamber-cunker A.P. Dubensky.
The need for a separate specialized building
Considering that neither an apartment, nor an apartment building can be a city library, even if only because of its size and layout, the city Lermontov society allocated funds from the Belinsky fund for the construction of a special building for the city library. Funds from the jubilee edition of the book dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the death of
Vissarion Belinsky, a native of these places, also went for these purposes. In 1909, the Penza City Council decided to allocate space for the construction of a stone house. In 1910 the project was improved, a place in 472 square fathoms and 80 thousand rubles was allocated for free, followed by an annual, over 10 years, surcharge in the amount of 4000 for the construction of the building, in which, until the opening of the new modern building in 2012, the Lermontov library was located. Penza decorated herself with a new, beautiful body that meets all the requirements of the time.
Time matching
Today, testing times have come for libraries. The revolution that has taken place in the communications sector raises vital questions for them. It is necessary to develop new development concepts, which should lead to fundamental changes. Otherwise, the libraries will turn into archives. Therefore, in order not to lose the reader, the bookstores are not only being modernized, but they are also combining various public organizations and cultural objects on their premises in order to turn the library into a regional multifunctional information complex. All the challenges of the time are fully answered by the current Lermontov Regional Library. Penza responsibly approached the construction of a new building, which is located in Arbekovo, a junction located in the Oktyabrsky district of the city.
New time - new conditions
A new multi-storey building with a total area of 25 thousand square meters. m. is a well-equipped research center and entertainment complex at the same time. A book depository and reading rooms, an electronic room of dissertations and a digital library, a children's information center and a huge concert complex, a cinema and a cafe were comfortably located on its territory. In the center of the city, in an old classic building on 10 Belinsky Street, there was a library for the blind and visually impaired, a computer literacy training center, a foreign library, and the editorial office of the journal Sura, of which the library is especially proud of it. Lermontov. Penza could not part with the old building, which is connected with the life of several generations of citizens.