A free membership card has been created to provide book lovers in Brussels with free access to all Dutch-speaking libraries in the capital.
Brussels residents will soon be able to loan books free of charge from all of the city's Dutch-speaking libraries with one single library card, Ans Persoons, member of the College of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), announced on Friday.
"Public libraries are basic services for residents. Reading, looking up information, borrowing a language course, watching films and listening to music should be nearby and easily available to everyone in this city," she said.
"Illiteracy, reading decline, fake news, media literacy and longevity are major challenges in our society that public libraries are addressing. It is therefore logical to make libraries as accessible as possible to everyone."
Rates and loan periods will also become the same across all libraries from 5 September. From this date, the libraries will present a new logo and house style, bringing their services together.
What changes for users?
As a result of this cooperation agreement, all libraries of the Dutch-speaking network will no longer charge an annual membership fee and loans will be free.
Avid readers will be able to borrow 15 items from each library for three weeks, with a penalty of €0.05 per day of delay in returning the book. Charges can be settled in any library in the network.
Nothing changes for French-speaking libraries. Here, the Bibliopass library card is different per library for all municipalities, and every library applies its own rules and loan conditions.
"This means that a subscription taken out in Jette, for example, will not cover loans made in Schaerbeek: the number of loans, overdue items, reservations, etc. are different in each municipality," the Biblio website explains.
