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Randers Library is the main public library in Randers Municipality, Denmark. It is situated in the Kulturhuset (The House of Culture) and consists of the main library in Randers, a mobile library and three other libraries around the municipality.
From 1 January 2007 the name was changed from Randersegnens Libraries to the Randers Library. Randersegnens Libraries were a library association between Nørhald, Purhus, Randers, Rougsø and Sønderhald Municipalities in the period from 1970 to the end of 2006.
History
In 1862 the first public library in Randers was established with access for all. The library, which was driven by volunteers, had as mission statement: "to provide city impecunious inhabitants free access to the reading of edifying, instructive or entertaining books." There were just 488 volumes in the library in 1862. In 1915, there were nearly 5000 volumes and 455 patrons. In 1925, the number of patrons and the number of books doubled, while lending figure was tripled compared to 1915. From 1862 to 1897 the library was located in a room downtown. In 1897 the library moved to a room in the restored Helligåndshuset.
In November 1927, at the association's 65th birthday, the library was taken over by Randers town municipality. A contemporary mobile library was put into use in 1938. The collection was constituted of 36,000 volumes in 1944 and there were 6,000 patrons. For comparison, in 2005 the main library, branch libraries and mobile libraries contained 423,600 materials (books, CD, DVD, etc.), with a total lending of 1,245.243, an attendance of 706,442, 88.7 staff units and 73,000 registered patrons.
Randers Library stood in the 2001–2007 period behind the Danish Resource Centre for e-books (DRC).From November 2015, the library is running a new electronic printing system for users.