Ten years in the new library

These days we commemorate ten years since the ceremonial opening of the Center of Scientific Information's renovated premises and the foyer in the Faculty of Economics and Administration building.

The ribbon cutting took place on February 18, 2013, the first day of the spring semester. It was the dean's holiday, several guests arrived, and the whole event was well received in the media. You can watch the period report on YouTube.

In hindsight, however, the months leading up to the grand opening are perhaps more interesting. A full five years passed from the first idea of rebuilding the library to the actual opening, while the bureaucratic complexity of the project's conditions was responsible for the delays. The project was co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development in the amount of CZK 51 million, the construction contract was finally won by SUBTERRA, and the final bill for the reconstruction reached almost CZK 60 million.

The original idea of rebuilding "during the summer holidays" soon turned out to be unrealistic - even before the start of the reconstruction, a new problem unexpectedly arose, consisting of additional static "reinforcement" of the entire building. The started construction was forced to continue throughout the fall semester of 2012, which caused many restrictions on teaching and movement around the building. The sound of jackhammers or drills during the lesson did not please anyone, but we had to endure it.

The library collection was temporarily located in classroom P103 (at that time there was still a flat floor) into shelves so close together that one had to walk "sideways" through the corridors. However, only librarians practiced the crab walking style – readers were denied a free choice of titles, and all loans had to be ordered in advance. At the time, of course, we didn't even think that something like this would happen again during the pandemic.

Selected photos from the reconstruction and grand opening...

Foto 1: Librarians saying goodbye to the old library. The photo was taken just before the moving of the bookshelves to the temporary premises began.

Foto 2: A period photograph documents the intensity of the entire reconstruction.

Foto 3: Everything from the old library was gone, only the bare walls remained.

Foto 4: Provisional facilities for librarians in the existing auditorium P104.

Foto 5: It was already snowing lightly outside when it was finally time to install the new, glass-enclosed stairs.

Foto 6: With the rebuilding of the library, the possibility of returning borrowed books by dropping them into the bibliobox was added. During the covid era, it was moved outside to the main entrance to the ESF building, where it has since remained.

Foto 7: The ribbon was cut by (from left to right): Ing. Petr Kajer, director of division 2, SUBTERRA a.s., prof. Ing. Antonín Slaný, CSc., Dean of ESF MU, Ing. Eva Bartoňová, Deputy Minister, State Secretary, Ministry of Education and Culture, doc. PhDr. Mikuláš Bek, Ph.D., rector of MU.

Foto 8: At the grand opening, the lobby was full.

The idea of rebuilding the library was born back in 2008 when we began to strive for study boxes - spaces for teamwork in the library. Now, a decade after the reconstruction, we're happy to say it was a good idea. The study boxes are continuously used a lot, and other significant innovations of the reconstruction, such as an expanded gallery area, special shelves for magazine archives, sliding compact shelves in the warehouse, sound systems for centralized announcements, or comfortable armchairs, have found their use. Thanks to the horizontal division of the foyer by galleries, a much larger usable area for students was created. After ten years since the reconstruction, this year we are expecting further minor modifications, thanks to which the library will again be a slightly better place for our users.