Maribor Public Library

View of the Maribor Public Library, The Central Library, located in the Shopping Center City Maribor, 2023.

The Maribor Public Library, established in 1949, functions as the regional library for the Podravje Region. Its main founder was the Municipality of Maribor, while other municipalities either co-founded (Duplek, Hoče-Slivnica, Miklavž na Dravskem Polju, Rače-Fram, Starše) or partnered (Kungota, Lovrenc na Pohorju, Pesnica, Ruše, Selnica ob Dravi, Šentilj).

The Maribor Public Library manages a network of 22 branches and a mobile library service—bibliobus—with 47 stops and mobile library material collections located in various institutions, intended for those who cannot visit the libraries themselves. The library is committed to offering its users access to information, education, and culture in the broadest possible sense. The main unit and its branches comprise several departments and collections, such as a toy collection, a sheet music collection, music and video collections, as well as e-book, audiobook, and large print book collections. To reach all its members, the library provides home and hospital library services to individuals unable to visit the library in person.

Since 2021, the central library has been located temporarily in the Shopping Center City Maribor. The Center Rotovž is being built on Rotovški Trg in Maribor and will house the Central Library of the Maribor Public Library, the Maribor Art Gallery, and the Art Cinema in 2026.

Events programme

Library-goers of all ages can take part in a variety of events and activities organized by the library, such as literary evenings, book clubs, exhibitions, lectures, and storytelling hours. Elderly users can choose from educational courses and monthly meetings with lectures.

For several years now, the Maribor Public Library has organized an annual festival of fairy tales and storytelling, which offers a range of activities and performances, including an educational course in the art of storytelling. The library is open to the development of new activities and welcomes cooperation with similar institutions in Slovenia as well as abroad.

Maribor Public Library Day, view of the stage on Rotovž Square in the city center of Maribor, 2018.

The Child and Book journal

The library publishes Otrok in knjiga journal (Eng. Child and Book), the only professional journal in Slovenia in the field of youth literature, literary education, and book-related media. It was established in 1971 with the aim of promoting youth literature as an important creative field that needs to be professionally and systematically addressed and studied equally within the framework of literary studies.

Child and Book journal, with Eva Mlinar's award-winning illustration on the front page, volume 118, 2023.