There’s a club room, board games, books, hidden nooks, and large common spaces, but also a podcast studio and community office in the building’s refurbished wing of the Eötvös Károly County Library, named for the style of just Zug dreamers. This development is also thanks to the European Capital of Culture programme. The most important result is that a place in the city is finally completed, which is entirely dedicated to young people, and in the future they can shape what happens behind the walls according to their own needs. On Wednesday afternoon, a festive party was held in a youthful style.
In fact, a technical problem in the library building started Zug’s idea, which had been in the institution for many years, and for a long time seemed like it would remain in the plans. In the ground part of the building, in the area just below Escola Street, the walls were so waterlogged that they rendered the entire wing of the library unsuitable for use, and could only be used as a warehouse by the workers there. However, the part of the building itself contained much more than that. The vaulted walls mostly reflect the style of a medieval knights’ hall, but until now only the library’s fellow warehousemates knew about it.
So far, thanks to a grant of nearly 300 million HUF from EKF, the possibility opened half a year ago for the library to renovate and transform it, and at the same time to find a new function for the “horse room”.
When it was found that the foundation had been given the green light to invest, several opportunities arose. Tamas Paranai, director of the library, spoke about this Wednesday afternoon at the opening of Zug. A venue for club parties also popped up among the ideas, he said, but they also came up with the concept of an age-appropriate game room or community space based around digital devices, and in the end, the end result was mostly a combination of those. The only thing that was certain was that, with what they were doing, they wanted to attract and attract young people to the library building, and with that, with the not-so-subtle aim of bringing them closer to reading.
Tamas Paranay
Exactly what will happen here in the long run and what programs will be connected to Zug, the director of the library left open, or more precisely left it to the teenagers present at the opening.
A multi-purpose anime workshop will certainly be held in the next six months, where prominent representatives of the genre will present its history and behind the scenes of anime production. But starting in the fall, they will also deal with comic books in a similar style, and they are also waiting for fans of the hip-hop style, when well-known figures of the genre will also acquaint those interested in the mysteries of songwriting.
In each case, there was an opportunity for anime, comics, or for young people with an artistic spirit to meet in clubs and pass on the knowledge gained in workshops, now in a self-organized way, emphasized Tamas Paranai.
However, Zug’s services don’t end there, as they have also built a podcast studio that anyone can rent from the library, and that will also be used as a community office if freelancers need a place where they want to work in peace during the day, with broadband internet access.
In addition to Zug, the project also affected the neighborhood children’s library department. Moreover, they made it possible to pass between these two library units, as well as solve the problem of waterlogging, which was also present here.
In his greeting, the director of the library also mentioned those who, in one way or another, helped create Zug. He singled out Tibor Navraczeks, who was the first to tell him about his plans, but the list also included the municipality, Petr Ovady, Member of Parliament, Veszprém 2030 Kft. as technical director of the project, VeszprémBer as contractor and, of course, VEB 2023 Zrt. , for which the funds were saved.
Gabor Halmay
On behalf of the city, the municipal representative Gabor Halmay welcomed those gathered at the inauguration. He congratulated the investment, which he highlighted: With the Zug, the youth’s access to culture in the city improved a lot, while they had their own community space, which was created according to their needs in every aspect. In addition, he touched on the developments of digitization in the library, including the library that was delivered a few weeks ago, which helps the spread of culture in the twenty-first century.
After the official part of the opening, two big names took to the stage in the square between the museum and the Íródeák café, which also appealed to the teenage age group. TikTok influencer Vencel Varga performed, as did young singer Fanny Vajda.
