Municipal Public Library

The Municipal Public Library in Sosnowiec is the largest and the oldest cultural institution in the city. Its roots trace back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the year 1899 seeing the establishment of the first Sosnowiec library of public character („Wiedza” Library).

At present, the Municipal Public Library in Sosnowiec has 24 branches. Its collection contains 861.423 volumes of books, 179 titles of daily press and magazines and 11.690 special collection units. Thanks to this flawlessly functioning chain of libraries (located at a long distance from one another), well equipped with valuable collections, which are systematically updated with the novelties of the publishing market, the reading culture has been spreading over to increasingly larger groups of readers, living in the most remote parts of the city. The scale of the educational impact of the library might be supported with data, which clearly illustrate a high level of reading awareness among the Sosnowiec residents. In 2008 the number of readers who used the library services amounted to 49.655, which constitutes roughly 22% of the city population. In the same time 970.559 volumes of books and magazines were borrowed from the library and 250.983 library items (books, magazines, special collections) were made available to the readers.

The Sosnowiec readers have at their disposal a wide range of Polish or foreign literature, literature in foreign languages, books for required reading and studies, science and popular science books, starting from the introductions to science and culture, through philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, religious studies, law, history, geography, economics, management, marketing, natural and technical sciences, medicine, architecture, paintings, and ending with various how-to books and guides.

Apart from the daily press of regional and nationwide scale, the library collects and presents specialist economic, legal, humanistic, natural sciences and technical magazines, as well as collections of legal acts and regulations, which are available in the Main Library. It needs to be emphasized that collection of the Main Library includes valuable examples of the Polish writing, such as a unique copy of “The Polish Courtier” by Łukasz Górnicki dating from 1639, or " On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish May 3rd Constitution" from 1793. Other rare publications include single issues of “The Polish Courier” from 1831, "Ateneum" from 1882 or “Chimera” from 1901.

The library also performs an important culture-forming function, as it organizes various events of strictly cultural and educational character, including thematic exhibitions, art vernissages, concerts, meetings with authors, series of meetings with Zagłębie Writers or Sosnowiec Literature Days, symposiums, picnics for children, theatre and cabaret adaptations, and numerous competitions. As part of the European education, the Library conducts a very popular series of presentations of EU member-states, which has been nominated to the award of the Minister of Culture within a competition organized by the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe. Moreover in 2002 the Municipal Public Library in Sosnowiec came first (for the seventh consecutive time) in a ranking of big city libraries of the Silesian province, which promote reading culture in the most effective way.

Since 2005 the Library has been playing host to the Sosnowiec Literature Days. The main purpose of this project is to arouse public interest in reading as a form of cultural education and integration of groups to which the library directs its offer. Lectures and meetings with the writers, which take place in the Main Library building or its branches, are accompanied by book fairs organized with the collaboration of publishing houses. So far we have played host to: Elżbieta Dzikowska, Joanna Siedlecka, Grzegorz Kasdepke, Marcin Wolski, Wojciech Kuczok, Ewa Lipska, Maciej Orłoś, priest Isakowicz-Zaleski, Jacek Cygan, Anna Seniuk and Tomasz Raczek.

In 2008 the Library received the Zagłębie „Humanitas” Award in a competition organized by the Humanitas University in Sosnowiec. The aim of the competition is to reward individuals and institutions distinguished in service to Zagłębie, which also promote the region abroad.

The honourable chapter has distinguished the Sosnowiec Library with a promotional award for its active participation in the process of strengthening the local identity.