Thursday, November 5, 2009

Bibliothèque Montreuil


Montreuil is a suburb of approximately 100,000 on the eastern edge of Paris. The city has a very diverse population, including the largest population of Malians outside Mali’s capital city of Bamako. Montreuil’s lower housing prices attract many artists, writers and movie directors who can’t afford or do not want to pay the high cost of housing in Paris. Historically the city has had a communist government, but the green party captured city hall two years ago. The city offers many social services, and encourages dialogue between its disparate groups. These are some of the reasons, according to the vice major, Montreuil escaped the riots that wracked many of Paris’s suburbs in 2005.

The decision to create a municipal library in Montreuil “to give the average citizen access to the domain of ideas and the world of literature “was made on May 7, 1875. The library opened in September 1879. It has occupied its current building since November 1974. The library has a central library and three branches. Three annexes, or branches, were opened in 1964, 1970 and 1971.
Generally it costs nothing to join a municipal library in France, but there is an annual fee for borrowing CDs. In Montreuil, the director has removed this fee. Access to the music collection at Montreuil is free.

The director has introduced to keep the Montreuil municipal library relevant to its customers and the way they live today. The Café Literaire is one example. October is an important month for the introduction of new books in France. To coincide with this event, the library’s recent Café Literaire (literary café) gave customers an opportunity to enjoy coffee and refreshments, talk to the librarians about new books and take a “behind the scenes” look at the library.

Another example of the innovations the director has introduced is a publicity campaign the library ran to tell customers about the services available and to encourage them to suggest or request other services. Using full-page announcements under the headline “Un jour de + (one day more)” in Tous Montreuil (All Montreuil), the free weekly newspaper the city government distributes, the campaign told customers, “the library is this. It is this. It is this. Here you will find…” And then it asks, “And why not ….”

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