Biblioteki jako przedmiot zainteresowań turystyki

Abstract

The paper attempts to highlight the issue of using buildings which originally were not included in the range of tourist interest for culture tourism. The buildings, on fulfilling certain conditions, perform a tourist function thus adding a new area, originally a non-tourist one, to the sphere of tourism. The authors include libraries in such a type of objects. The authors try to demonstrate that a library fulfilling certain conditions and having defined potential can be of interest for a tourist, can be a tourist attraction and a tourism product. The list of selected major world libraries is presented and supposed to make the reader aware that a library is not only a place where one borrows books or a reading room but it is tangible cultural heritage and very frequently a splendid architecture monument and a museum as well. A library is a subject of interest for tourists motivated by culture tourism and sightseeing or specialist tourism. It is also worth remembering that in the age of information technology and mass media development and general access to pop and mass culture, a contact with a book is more and more limited for civilisation reasons. In the face of this, using libraries in cognitive tourism is of great importance from the perspective of trying to reverse the worrying tendency of the society, and youth in particular, being reluctant towards the written word. Culture tourism which is well-organised may play a significant role in forming cultural awareness of its participants. Tourism is one of culture contact types in which cultures are brought together via interaction. Consequently, tourist use of libraries may exert a positive influence on forming the tourist’s attitudes. One of the most important of these attitudes is understanding the significance of a book and the multitude of functions that a library performs. Therefore, trips to libraries can help to establish the need for contact with a book and, thus, to develop cultural, historical and geographical awareness. Preparing a library for culture tourism requirements, visual access to a book collection for tourists, especially in major libraries are important elements of developing this awareness. However, a crucial problem is that library management is unaware of the possibility of making libraries accessible to tourists. The change should consist in perceiving a library not only from the perspective of a borrower but of a visitor and tourist as well. The authors think that a library and the analysis of tourism in libraries should be elements of research into culture tourism as well as the subject of library science research, which is mentioned in this paper.