The Open Area
The Open Area in the main hall of the Silesian Library is a space with free access to books that can be used on-site without a library card. Readers enrolled in the Library can additionally borrow books.
The most important information
- The Open Area is available to readers during the opening hours of the Silesian Library.
- Borrowing books and audiobooks and the use of computers is only possible upon presentation of a library card.
- Before passing through the gate, books from the library must be presented to the employee at the Information Desk (passing through the gate with books triggers the alarm).
Information Desk
- Information Desk is the place to borrow and return books and audiobooks from the Open Area.
- The employee at the Information Desk provides all the tips on using the Open Area, including, for example, finding a specific audiobook.
Open Area book collection
- The loan from Open Area cannot be renewed.
- The number of volumes to be borrowed including the Open Area and Circulation Department is 10, (scholars – 20).
- Books from the Open Area can be requested only beyond the opening hours of the Silesian Library, e.g.: Monday to Friday, 9.00 pm-6.00 am and on Saturday after 4.00 pm.
- In the Open Area, there are several thousand successively exchanged books.
- The collection includes the following categories: regional literature, non-fiction, biographies, fiction, self-help books, film, music, travel guides, history, poetry and art, comics, literature for children and youth, and foreign language literature.
- Fiction was arranged on the shelves alphabetically by authors’ surnames.
- One of the shelves is dedicated to regional literature. Here, you can find books about Silesia, books written in Silesian, dictionaries and travel guides to the region.
- In the Open Area, there is an extensive collection of comics and manga.
- You can find here also books in foreign languages: English, Russian and Ukrainian.
- On the spines of the books, there are stickers with letter markings to distinguish the collection of the Open Area from the other borrowed books.
- Audiobooks are borrowed and returned at the Information Desk.
Location symbol in the Integro electronic catalogue: HOL
Children’s Corner, the „Greenhouse”
- Books in the children’s corner can be borrowed home.
- For the youngest readers, there are also wedges, colouring books, crayons and educational games that can be used on-site.
- Parents/Guardians are responsible for the safety of their children using the Greenhouse.
Additional information
- Computer terminals are only used to browse the Integro electronic catalog.
- In the entire Open Area, it is possible to use available Wi-Fi.
- In the Open Area, there are both individual workplaces and a group work stand.
- You can enter the Open Area in the outer garments (you leave things at your own risk), or use the lockable cupboards for clothes in the library hall.
- Book-crossing – in front of the Open Area, there is a bookcase with books for free exchange (you can take books home, as well as leave your own books and thus share them with others).
The Open Area of the Silesian Library
plac Rady Europy 1, 40-021 Katowice
tel.: (+48) 32 208 37 40, (+48) 32 208 38 63
