[wzslider autoplay=”true”]Only old photos and memories of employees and visitors witnessed that the beauty of Sarajevo, the City Hall, used to be a library.
“Users were coming before the opening of the library in order to get into the line,” said Bedita Islamovic, an employee of the National and University Library, which operated in the City Hall.
“The daily fluctuation was about 2,000 people. The large reading room alone had 400 places of reading. I remember, working hours were from 7:00 am, and people were waiting in line to get a number already in 6:30 am.”
Bedita stated at the time the City Hall was not just a library, but also a place to socialize, and fall in love.
Everyone passed their exams, she said, because the working atmosphere in the City Hall was good.
The National and University Library, which was located in the City Hall back then, had about 20,000 users on an annual basis. Today this library, which is in a very bad financial situation, has about 4,000 users.
About the work of the Library during the war, Bedita said:
“Since the May of 1992, the number of employees was reduced. Several colleagues stopped coming to work, no one knew where they were or what they were doing. However, later it was obvious that they joined the barricades, they were seen there. I accepted that information with the disbelief, because when someone that you work, drink coffee every morning, share a snack with, you cannot imagine this person as your enemy, someone who is ready to raise his hand on you and endanger your life and the lives of your family”.
The City Hall had about 3 million library items. UNESCO stated that about 10 % to 20 % of the fund was saved, and Bedita stated that a certain number of periodic units had already been relocated because of accommodation in hangars in Nahorevo, as well as the students dorms in Vrace, but that everything was destroyed.
“First we were saving the old and rare collections, manuscripts – an embryo that was actually making the National and University Library,” said Bedita.
After the shelling and burning, the library continued to work in the premises of Odjek at BCC and Bedita said that even then the people were coming to the reading room (which was improvised in the hallway), to read and borrow books.
The City Hall has great tourist importance today, but since it is not used as a library, it is almost forgotten what it used to be.
(Source: Radiosarajevo / Photo: Fena, Radiosarajevo)
