Central Regional Library

Slovenia is divided into ten library areas, each of which has a central regional library (CRL).

Central Regional Libraries (CRLs) are general public libraries that carry out specific tasks for the territory of a Slovene province or part of a province on the basis of a contract with the Ministry responsible for culture and in agreement with their founder.

The mission of the CRLs is to deepen cooperation between public libraries, to ensure the progress and steady development of the library profession and to create a library system that provides all citizens of Slovenia with uniform and equal access to information. The mission is carried out by a team of CRLs, consisting of CRLs directors and regional coordinators.

Maribor Public Library is one of the ten Slovenian central regional libraries. In accordance with Article 27 of the Law on Librarianship (Librarianship Law) and the Regulation on the Conditions for the Provision of the Library Public Service, it performs special tasks for the public libraries in the Štajerska region. As the central regional library, the Maribor Public Library as a whole, with its network of units, and together with the Lenart Public Library and the Josip Vošnjak Public Library Slovenska Bistrica, covers an area of 22 municipalities, which together account for approximately 6.5% of the territory of Slovenia and where approximately 11.5% of the population of Slovenia lives.

The specific tasks performed by the Maribor Library as an CRL are:

• Providing an increased and more demanding selection of library materials and information.
• Professional assistance to libraries in the area.
• Coordination of the collection, processing and preservation of local knowledge materials.
• To channel library material withdrawn from their area.

The tasks within the framework of the area are financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

Within the framework of the implementation of specific tasks, the Maribor Publuic Library provides its members and members of libraries in the area with remote access to certain electronic resources and the acquisition of more complex domestic and foreign literature. It also provides free interlibrary loans between libraries in the area to members of general libraries in the area under certain conditions.

In the context of technical assistance, libraries in the area cooperate with each other by transferring good practices in the provision of various services to specific target groups of users, by cooperating in various projects, by finding appropriate solutions in various areas (e.g. information technology, library network planning, introduction of library bus stops, etc.).

In the coordination of the collection, processing and preservation of home reference material, the Maribor Public Library also cooperates with The University Library of Maribor, with which it has concluded an "Agreement on cooperation and coordination of home reference activities in the area of the Maribor Public Library as the central regional library". All libraries in the area and the University Library of Maribor participate in digitisation projects of home science material, which is the basis for subsequent publications on the Kamra portal  and in the Digital Library of Slovenia dLib.si.

The Maribor Public Library, as an Central Regional Library, also implements projects or activities that enable the development and optimisation of the functioning of a specific area or service in the network of general libraries at national level, i.e. competence content:

• Knjižnice.si, the portal of Slovenian general libraries (management and main editorial office of the portal)
• Promoting reading literacy
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competences

In cooperation with other general public libraries, the Maribor Public Library is building library portals, i.e. introducing new content and providing regional editors:

• At Dobreknjige.si, we recommend reading good literature that is accessible in the Slovenian language.
• The Faces of Slovenian Landscapes portal presents biographies of personalities from Slovenian landscapes and Slovenians around the world.
• The Kamra portal presents local history in the form of stories.
• The Digital Library of Slovenia dLib.si provides access to digitised written resources held by Slovenian libraries.
• General libraries present their activities on the Knjižnice.si portal.