These were the highlights of the "Night of the Libraries 2023

Last week, the Night of the Libraries took place throughout Germany. The team at Bocholt City Library looks back on the two readings by Christine Westermann and Dr Doris Mendlewitsch as well as a colourful supporting programme with robotics, music and more.

The Night of the Libraries is a big event where numerous libraries nationwide open their doors well into the evening hours. On 17 March, the Bocholt municipal library also invited everyone interested to visit the various cultural events, try out new things and get into conversation with each other under this year's motto "Borderless!".

The team was supported by the VHS Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg, the Junge Uni in Bocholt as well as the association Freunde und Förderer der Volkshochschule Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg und Stadtbücherei e.V. "For me, after we had only online events in 2021, it was the first library night in presence. So of course I was totally excited and curious to see how it all worked," says Klaudia Kroesen, librarian.

Discovery programme into the night

The Night of Libraries 2023 kicked off with Dr. Mendlewitsch, known as the author of various books on Wissen macht Ah! In her participatory reading, which was organised in cooperation with the Junge Uni in Bocholt, 30 children were able to learn interesting facts about cuneiform writing, paper production and other written documents. After the reading, the excitement continued immediately, because the team of the city library had prepared various stations with the popular robots Dash, Ozobots and Bee Bots. There, all those interested could playfully discover the world of programming.

"It was especially nice that whole families discovered our robots together, and quite often the children became the experts," says librarian Claudia Alders. For all those who love art and music, there was also a lot to discover at the Bocholt public library: Bocholt artist Magdalena Freund presented a small art exhibition in the novel section and the music school created an atmospheric mood with short concerts.

As a highlight at the end, Christine Westermann read from her new book

Together with the VHS Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg and the library in the Bonhoeffer-Haus, the Bocholt Municipal Library hosted a very special reading at the end of the Night of Libraries 2023: author Christine Westermann presented her latest book "The Families of Others" to the enthusiastic Bocholt audience and gave a highly exciting account of her literary encounters.

"The Night of Libraries 2023 was totally fun for us as a team," said Melanie Tenhumberg, head of the municipal library. "There were the two highlight readings, art and culture, and of course the many hands-on activities. I was particularly pleased to see so many literature-loving people browsing through our media stock into the evening hours - and so we are already very excited about the next Night of Libraries 2025."