Rijeka Library: the living body of the city

An innovative library, created with EU cohesion funds, in the former industrial area of ​​Rijeka, now redeveloped and transformed into an authentic artistic district. We met the director of Rijeka City Library Niko Cvjetković

When was Rijeka City Library founded?

We can trace the origins of the current library to 1849, when the first reading room was founded in Rijeka. Of course, over time this place has experienced various developments and its concept has changed, but it is still part of our history.

The actual institution of Rijeka City Library was born in 1962 by merging a number of reading rooms – “Mlaka” “Zamet”, “Sušak”, those in Kastav, Bakar and Kraljevica – and two children's libraries, “Sušak” and “Beli kamik”. Althought they remained in their original locations, the reading rooms began to operate under the same ombrella, with headquarters first in Sušak and from 1966 in the so-called Palazzo Modello in the very center of Rijeka.

Why was it decided to move the library to the location where we are today? How did citizens experience this change?

Perhaps it would be interesting to start by analysing the habits of the citizens of Rijeka in enjoying their city. Initially, the library was located near the "Korzo", the pedestrian street that crosses the city. Rijeka is a city where if something happens outside Facebook or the Korzo it's as if it hadn't even happened.

At a certain point, in 2012, the idea was born to expand that first small library and move it to the former Benčić industrial complex. There was a mixed reaction to the project, from those who considered it an exceptional idea, to those who feared that moving the library would have led to a decline in users.

However, the results show that when people are offered an adequate space with adequate services, they soon accept innovations. I confirm this both as an observer, who sees this structure pulsating with life every day with the many citizens who enter it, and by analysing the data, that is, the number of entries in the first six months since the opening, which were 100,808. This data alone demonstrates how much citizens have welcomed not only the library in its new conception, but also the new location and the entire cultural district.

A cultural district born together with the library?

The new library was inaugurated on 21 December, 2023 in the former Benčić industrial complex which remained in a state of abandonment in the 1990s. At the same time, in the various facilities of the former industrial complex, an authentic artistic district, the Art-kvart Benčić was born: the library was built in what is called the T building, due to its shape, next to another H-shaped building which houses the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMSU), the City Museum, and a short distance away the red brick building that today houses the Children's House.

The cultural district was born in stages. First the MMSU was opened and in front of it the Civic Museum, and then the Children's House and the library designed as part of a single project co-financed by European Cohesion Funds. The district has become a social hub where different activities are organized, as the result of collaboration between various entities that are located here. For example, the "Vrisak " festival, a book fair and festival dedicated to the authors of the Croatian and international cultural scene, now in its 17th edition. All the entities of the district are involved, including the library. We also use the premises of these entities, so that citizens perceive the Art-kvart as a single body.

Who are the most frequent visitors to the cultural district and library?

I can say that today it is an important social hub for citizens, from newborns to senior citizens. In addition, we have seen a significant increase in the presence of students, especially university students, who use our spaces to study and socialize, not just to borrow books. Also, what surprised me, foreign tourists who come specifically to visit the Art-Kvart. I must admit that ten years ago hearing a foreign language spoken in the library was very rare, today it is completely normal.

We have a collection of about 150,000 volumes, mostly in Croatian but also in other languages, especially English because it is more used and, among others, mostly languages traditionally linked to the city of Rijeka such as Italian and German. Italian remains one of the most deeply rooted languages. Consider that we have four Italian compulsory schools and a high school, and each school has its own library. The Italian community also has its own library.

Currently, in addition to our library fund, Rijeka has six active libraries with books in Italian. Italian culture and language are an integral part of the city, not necessarily in a 'national' sense, but I can say that it is in the genes of Rijeka. Not only for historical reasons or geographical proximity to Italy, but because Rijeka has always remained an open city. I would say a city that “does not measure and does not judge”.

For example, I have no Italian origins, my parents do not speak a word of Italian, but they made me attend Italian schools from kindergarten onwards. I am not a member of the Italian community, but I can say that, since I was a child, I belong to the Italian culture to the same extent as I belong to the Croatian one.

Speaking of children, the space dedicated to them was created within the same European project. Can you tell us how it works?

The Children’s House is a space dedicated to children from 0 to 14 years of age where various cultural institutions, associations, and individuals organize activities. The place has its own formal life – which includes all the organized activities – and an informal one, that is when during the 12 hours in which it is open there are no activities but it is still full of children and those accompanying them.

There are a book section, a cinema room, and other spaces where workshops, exhibitions, lessons, and other activites are held. Just think that in 2,500 square meters of the House there are only two small offices not accessible to the public. And obviously, there is always a connection with our library, because the parents or grandparents who accompany the children also frequent our spaces.

What spaces and services does the city library offer?

The new library has four floors, three of which are fully usable, and has been designed in such a way that the “noisier” activities take place on the ground floor: the youth section, the newspaper reading room and the meeting room for presentations, debates etc.

As for the youth section, called “Rasadnik” [plant nursery], we didn't want it to be simply a “media library”. In fact, there is a recording room with some musical instruments, an audio editing studio, a cinema room. There is also the American corner, dedicated to the study of the history, social and cultural reality of America. In Italy there are two similar spaces, while in Croatia there are five.

As you go up, the spaces become increasingly quiet: on the first floor there is a narrative section, while the second floor is occupied by a space dedicated to scientific research where there are the so-called “silent rooms”, made of glass, for those who need maximum concentration for their research.

We are talking about almost five thousand square meters connected by stairs and elevators, where a “knjigomat” – (literally a “book ATM”) allows the delivery of books 24 hours a day, thanks to the second dispenser built on an external wall of the library. This is possible thanks to the RFID – Radio Frequency Identification system, used for the first time in Croatia, that is, an automated system for recognizing and transporting books to different floors, along conveyor belts.

The European project has ended, but the library project, of course, lives on. The library is a living organism, so we constantly have to think about how to develop it further to meet the needs of our users.