The Community Information Center, Or The Library – Beyond Education and Entertainment

The Community Information Center – the first of its kind in Romania – was created in the framework of the “Octavian Goga” County Library Cluj, in 1996. G. Dodu’s article follows the process of creation and functioning of this service from the reasons that asked for its coming into being to possibilities of its improvement. The “voice of the time” – the emergence of information society – places libraries in front of new challenges. In this context the main role of public libraries becomes information, beyond education or entertainment: “the public library represents the local center of community information”. The article argues that this necessity accounted for the creation of a community information service also in Cluj. The service in Cluj was created within the framework of a PHARE project, parallel with a similar one in Pest Megyei Könyvtár (Pest County Library), Szentendre, Hungary. The article follows up the initial stage of the project, and goes on with the presentation of the Center as it is today: its placement, the personnel, the infra-structure, and the types of information it offers. In addition, some problems connected with the work of the Center are also identified. The presentation is followed by the evaluation: the success of the Center is shown by the performance indicators of a sociological survey in 1999. Still, the author argues, the service is not yet adequate, there are perspectives for improvement: the organization of a full reference service, in which community information would only comprise a small part, is a better solution for the future.

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