City ​​Library

With the development of crafts and the creation of guild associations, but also with the beginning of other forms of social organization and association of citizens through national, religious, and political organizations, the first institutionalized reading rooms were created, which were the center of a gathering of citizens within the guild and national associations in Ruma.

 

In the second half of the 19th and especially at the beginning of the 20th century, numerous guild and reading rooms of national associations were created. The first Serbian reading room in Ruma started operating in 1861.

 

The first public library whose services were available to all citizens was founded only after the Second World War in 1949. The city library is the oldest cultural institution in Ruma. The library has over 95,000 books and has four departments: for adults, for children, a scientific department, and a native collection that contains publications about Ruma and prominent individuals who were born here.

 

In the scientific department, there is a valuable work “Physics” from 1803, authored by the famous Serbian scientist and educator Atanasije Stojković, after whom the library was named in 2011.

 

The city library “Atanasije Stojković” today, due to its professional and technical capabilities, is an institution that successfully builds traditional cultural values ​​and follows modern trends in library activity.

 

Since 2007, it has been a full member of COBISS.SR, and since July 2010, it has been included in the actual COBISS/OPAC environment and provides all services to users through this service.

In September 2022, the City Library “Atanasije Stojković” moved to a representative building, the former Military Home, for which Ruma is well known.

Atanasije Stojković is the author of the novel “Aristid and Natalija”, which was published in 1801. He was a physicist, a doctor of philosophy, and a professor at the University of Kharkiv.

The former building of the Army House

 

The construction of the home was started in 1909. The Croatian Falcon Association buys a plot of land to build a home where all the cultural and sports associations that existed in Ruma would gather.

 

It was built in the art nouveau style and fit into the architectural ensemble of Ruma at that time. It was built with contributions from the country and abroad and was completed in 1914. During all these years, the building changed its purpose. When it was completed, Ruma cultural and sports associations gathered.

 

During the war, it served as a hospital, and later after the Second World War, it became the property of the army, “Dom JNA” (Yugoslavia Veterans’ Club Building), where dances were held, which the people of Rum still remember today. It was a place that was talked about with admiration.

 

The building never changed its external appearance, nor was the facade of the building renovated, but even as such it always attracted the attention of every passerby. The renovation and restoration of the building based on the original appearance of the building began in 2021, and from September 2022, the City Library “Atanasije Stojković” moved into this building.

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