School and rural public libraries will be merged in 11 settlements of the Vitebsk region

School and rural public libraries will be merged in 11 settlements of the Vitebsk region in 2013, reported today the head of the culture department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Larisa Olenskaya at an industry collegium, according to a BELTA correspondent.

The merger experiment was conducted in 2012 in the Braslav district and proved its effectiveness. Currently, two integrated libraries are successfully operating in the district. It was decided to replicate the experience of Braslav residents this year in 8 districts, where integrated libraries will appear in 11 settlements.

The Vitebsk region has over 630 libraries, united into 25 centralized library systems. Library users number over 581 thousand people, or 48% of the region's population. In 2012, the number of readers increased by 32 thousand people, and library collections were replenished with more than 500 thousand storage units. The total library fund of the region contains 8.5 million printed and electronic publications. Every third library in the Vitebsk region provides its readers with Internet access.