About the Library | Knjižnica Lendava

Membership and Information about the Reading Materials

Services of the Library

The mission of the library is providing library services for free to the public. The library items are collected, saved, processed and given into use. This makes it possible to spread knowledge, education and culture. That information Is given to all segments of the public regardless of their age, sex, education, religion, belief, nationality or language. As a public library it is always updating its collection. And afterwards gives it to the users. The library provides the following services. It makes its collections freely available to its users. The usage of mutual catalog, other digital collections and databases is also provided. It also provides the access to electronic sources of public authorities and its usage. It gives information about the materials and found in the collected materials. It lends its reading materials into home use. Additionally, the library lends its reading materials between the libraries. Furthermore, the users are also taught how to use the library. They can also get help when searching for reading materials. Information about the usage of the library is given. New arrivals are presented. Copying of the reading material that is owned by the library is possible. And they also can reserve the reading materials in advance. The library also provides the access to technical equipment, internet, services and events.

Membership and Information about the Reading Materials

In the year 2024 the Lendava Library had 1,643 users. The library was visited 26,298 times. And lent 73,843 items of reading materials. The library has its function of the central library of its external libraries. In the correlation to it mission in the accordance to the rules of library services as a public institutions. According to the data collected in the year 2024. The library collection consisted of 168,946 items of reading materials. Out of this number the 161,558 are books and 7,388 other materials. It has to be noted that 32,892 items of reading material are in the Hungarian language. The specialty of this library is that books in Sloven and Hungarian language are on the same shelfs. The reading material is sorted by the system UDK.
Annual purchase plan of reading materials for the year 2026

Catalogs

The library database COBISS started operating in 1997 on the basis of the government ordinance. There are about 928 members of the system COBISS. Those include special, city in regional libraries. Also, University, professional colleges, school libraries and other institutions. The system works under the umbrella of the Institute of Informational Science (IZUM). Its main function is the catalogization of the bibliographic data of Sloven and foreign literature. Additionally, the institute manages more scientific, research and general databases. The database includes bibliographic information of the monograph publications, periodicals and articles. It also includes the biographical information of other library materials. The main function of the centralized data base in Slovenia is the ability to access to all the databases included in COBISS.

Reading Room

The users have access to the newest editions of newspapers and magazines in the reading room. The visitors can take a look at the reading materials. And the materials that are available for free to the general public. This is the room in which most of our events are held.

Microfilm

The library has a microfilm reader. The following materials are on the microfilm.

Népújság, a szlovéniai Magyarok hetilapja 1956−2002
Ljudska pravica 1934−1958
Magyarországi történeti helyiségnévtára; Zala megye 1773–1808.

Digitalized Materials

The computer which is assigned for searching of local studies material. The following contents are available.

Alsólendvai Hiradó
Alsó-Lendva és Vidéke
Délzala
Muraköz
Muraszombat és vidéke

Additionally, the website of the library gives access to the digital library. This gives us the ability to browse in local studies materials online. It is also possible to access to important databases in Sloven and Hungarian language.

E-Library

In the adult department users can use 4 computers. The function of those computers is web surfing, reading e-mails and searching in the COBISS database. It is also possible to handle documents and print them. In the youth department there is 1 computer. The library provides the possibility of printing (black/white/colour) and scanning of documents. The librarians help with the services.

Events

The library regularly organizes events. Which help to promote books and reading. Some of the events are literary evenings, storytime, library hours, travelogues, lectures, concerts, exhibitions and competitions. There is a strong emphasis on the library education of kindergarten kids, school children and high school students. The library collects the feedback of the readers and selects the reader and young reader of the season. For an easier overview of the coordination of the event. The web portal KjeKaj/HolMi, which allows the overview of all the local activities. And keeps up the website of Bálintu Bellosicsu, Oskarju Laubheimerju and other famous people from Lendava.

National Program

The law of libraries came into effect in 2001. It dictates that the tasks of public libraries in nationally mixed areas. It provides the library services that are catered to the national minorities in their language. Additionally, the Library – Cultural Centre Lendava provides its services to the Hungarian national minority in the municipality Lendava and Dobrovnik. The library collection in the Hungarian language expands for thousand unites yearly. The library also has local studies collection that is increases constantly. Under the umbrella of local studies are reading materials in Hungarian, Sloven and other languages that play a significant role for the local community. The reading materials have local origin and is connected to the areas which the library covers. The following materials can be found in the collection. The Hungarian minority weekly Népújsága. Magazines Muratáj, almanaha Naptár, Lindue iand other local periodical publications. In the national minority program has the task of dialog between the Hungarian library professionals. For more than five years there is a successful cooperation between our library and the library Deák Ferenc Megyei és Városi Könyvtár iz Zalaegerszega. In the recitational József Attila contest. There is also a frequent contact with other libraries in Hungary and other Hungarian minority libraries.

History of the Library

The first religious books in Lendava can be traced back to 16. Century. What was typical for this period is the dating of books by famous writers. The Banffy Family had its own chronicle. Which they printed in calendar. In addition, a church school was present. However, the reading culture developed with the creation of religious texts, prayer books and layman texts. Another important factor was the emergence of local periodicals in the 19. century. The increase of printing presses made it possible that reading groups emerged. Those made the relatively expensive books more accessible to the general public. And Lendava was no exception. Reading groups in Doljni Lendavi developed in late 19. Century and early 20. Century. Even the local printing press Balkanyi lent their books. This service was later overtaken by the local schools. The difference was that the schools lent their books for free and the monetized lending fell out of favor. The two wars and the interwar period were difficult periods for books. The next date that notes the existence of the library was in the late 40s and early 50s. At this time the number of reading materials was 6000. And the readership about 50 people. This following period was marked with the constant change of the location and the librarians of the library. Furthermore, a big factor was also an irregular financing of the library. The big change cam in the 60s when a librarian was employed, the financing was provided and the location was secured. In the early 70s the library developed into a central one. The location was in the former villa of the king’s notary Oskar Laubhaimer. The villa was the seat of national forest economy in the 20s. In the war years and after it was used by the military. The library in this location opened up 1976. The reading materials were constantly growing. Also, the number of employees increased. As well the library services. In the 80s the current form of the institution was established. It keeps Sloven and Hungarian reading materials.