On borrowed time
Read any good books lately? It seems that a lot of Varsovians have. Warsaw's 112 gmina-funded public libraries are reporting growth in the number of customers using their facilities. In 2000, the gmina estimated that 195,205 people used Warsaw's public libraries and this figure is only expected to keep increasing. It's thought that there are two reasons for all these new bookworms. First is the poor economy, which is impacting the number of people who can afford to buy books and periodicals. Second is the steady growth in private colleges and schools, which has seen more students searching out additional study resource materials. Despite this growth in readership, the level of funding from the Warsaw gmina has not kept pace and some libraries fear they are facing a crisis.
In Żoliborz, at the little Broniewskiego Library, founded four years ago, senior librarian Małgorzata Kocot said they have reduced the number of books they buy and are being more selective in their purchasing, often choosing more expensive titles. And the readers are lapping up their books. Since Broniewskiego Library opened, the number of customers has been growing by 40% every year. "This is really because of the slowdown in the economy," Kocot said. "People do not have money to buy new books and I think our library is so popular because it is quite new and its book resources are constantly updated."
Across town, at the 95-year-old Capital City of Warsaw Public Library - Warsaw's largest public library - senior librarian and manager of the borrowing department, Elżbieta Czerwińska-Witczak, said that in the mid-1990s around 1,500 people a month used the library. Now it's closer to 2,200. And she said that students from private education institutions account for most of this growth, borrowing more books on marketing, economics, management, psychology, computers and software. The economy is also playing a role in the library's popularity resurgence, Czerwińska-Witczak added. "Some people coming here are so poor they can't afford to buy a newspaper, so they come and read them each day," Czerwińska-Witczak said. "Particularly the foreign newspapers because they are expensive."
Despite all these new customers, the deputy director of the Capital City of Warsaw-Śródmieście Public Library, Maria Wyszyńska, said funding was cut last year by 7% to zł. 951,000. In 2001 the gmina spent zł. 28.9 million ($7 million) on public libraries, representing 52% of the gmina's spending for culture. "This cut means we will have to limit purchases of multimedia publications (like CD-ROMS) that are expensive," Wyszyńska explained. "This hard economic situation will also contribute to limiting investment, repairs and sanitary equipment spending, but the base tasks of the library will not be affected." A lot of funding is being spent on improving the computerization facilities of Warsaw's public libraries, with the gmina earmarking zł. 1.48 million ($360,000) for the project during 1999-2002. The gmina has already spent zł. 3.2 million ($780,000) on the program since its launch in 1995.
But when it comes to increasing book numbers, Czerwińska-Witczak said they rely a lot on obligatory book donations from publishers, which are required to give one copy of every book published in Poland to the Capital City of Warsaw Public Library, and two to the National Library. "But there is a rumor that around 30% of books published in Poland are not sent to our library," Czerwińska-Witczak said. She said that attempts to get sponsorship from the private sector have always failed because "libraries aren't an interesting subject for the media." And as for what the future holds for Warsaw's public libraries, Czerwińska-Witczak can't see a happy ending. "If we don't get a special injection of cash, we will not be able to buy new books and we will never recoup that lost ground," she said. "We have also had to reduce our employee numbers. For me, the future doesn't look optimistic."
