Medvedja – The municipal library "Petar Petrovic Njegos" is the only public library in the territory of the municipality of Medvedja. It was founded back in 1963, when it had a completely different purpose, while in 1996 it was given a name that it still has today. The library currently has about 48,000 books. 

Although there is a lack of room in the library, one can find there all the books that libraries in big cities have. All trends, publishers and writers are followed up, while meeting the taste of the readers comes first. 

“We have all age groups among the readers and I can say that secondary school students read a lot, and what I noticed here, unlike Belgrade, where I come from, is that secondary school students read here in a foreign language, and they are not students of foreign languages, but still want to improve their foreign language, which is commendable. They also read a lot of science fiction, I am positively surprised that there are so many young people, I was expecting mostly the elderly ", says Tijana Pejic, the Director of the library in Medvedja.

The membership fee is 370 dinars per year, there are discounts for students and pensioners, there is also a free membership fee for primary school children during the Children's Week, as well as literary evenings, exhibitions and competitions. The library also cooperates with the school and kindergarten by holding children's workshops during the holidays.

In addition to the fact that this is the only library in the municipality of Medvedja, another specific characteristic of this cultural institution is that it is bilingual and has about 3,000 books in Albanian, as well as an employee who is of the Albanian nationality.

“The situation here is good and I, as someone who came from Belgrade, am positively surprised that all this can work and that these two peoples respect each other here. We also have textbooks in Albanian and a lot of users of the Albanian nationality who read regularly, "said Tijana Pejic.

They currently have 346 regular users and mostly all of them regularly renew their membership cards.

Speaking about the cooperation with other libraries, the Director of the library singled out the main library "Radoje Domanovic" in Leskovac, with which they cooperate the most, while when it comes to digitalization, they also cooperated with the libraries from Cacak, Sabac and Nis.

In this library, apart from borrowing books, there is also the possibility of buying books from the "Laguna" publishing house, since there are no bookstores in Medvedja.

A larger reading room is missing, so that space is the largest problem of this cultural institution.

“We have a small reading room, so the biggest problem is space. We also lack a depot, as we have nowhere to deposit the books that are less used or no longer used. We are struggling with space, but we think it will be better ", the Director of the library optimistically says. 

Graduate librarian Ljiljana Dimic said that they had been interested in and looking for books in the Albanian language for years. They had been constantly in touch with the libraries in Bujanovac and Presevo for that reason, but found out that not everything was published, especially fiction.

The youngest member of the library is 3 years old, while the oldest one was born in 1934, who, as Ljiljana said, was an avid reader.

“He was recently looking for Thomas Mann's "The Budenbrocks", since he mostly reads classics. Also, a woman from Leskovac, who was born in 1938 and who is from this area, said that she wanted to become a member of the library, which, in my opinion, is fantastic", Ljiljana says.

Source: Jugmedia and Coordination Body