The Prague City Library has opened its first fully self-service branch
“The opening of the branch is part of the goal, which aims, among other things, to expand the project, during which the library services are open to the public,” said the councilor of the capital Hana Třeštíková (Prague Sobě) and the director of the MLP Tomáš Řehák.
“The main purpose is to test whether we will be able to use it in the future and open it much more to people when there are no librarians there,” Řehák. According to him, the kiosk is the first similar branch of the city library in the Czech Republic.
“The self-service library is open seven days a week from 9:00 to 21:00 from today. Registered MLP readers can borrow and return books themselves, and self-service fines for late return of books are also self-service. The librarian will be present on site every Monday from 13:00 to 17:00, “said Řehák.
On an area of 29 square meters, those interested can choose from about 1,000 book titles. The offer includes fiction for adults, books for children and popular science literature. The kiosk also serves as a place to issue reservations, ie titles that readers can order on the library’s website.
The authors of the design of the new branch in Prague 14 are architects from the monom studio. The implementation was carried out by KWEKU for CZK 1.89 million, according to the contractual documentation.
Automatic machines with RFID radio frequency technologies, which enable self-service book lending, have been available in all branches of the library in Prague since last year. The first vending machines were installed in 2019 in the Central Library on Mariánské náměstí in Prague 1, and since the summer of 2020 there has been a separate return line. At that time, the director of the MLP described the introduction of technology as a fundamental and groundbreaking step. According to him, the library staff can be used to communicate with readers thanks to the automation of services.
The Municipal Library in Prague has over 40 branches. It also has three mobile branches, so-called bibliobuses. MKP is the largest Czech public library in terms of the number of readers and loans made. Its library collection is the third largest in the Czech Republic after the National Library and the Moravian Regional Library in Brno.