Children Library Might Be Closed

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

About 200 000 books from the Children’s Library were taken to two different places by trucks for two months. Geno Makharadze, the director of the library could not answer why it was necessary to take the books to a damaged building or if there was any official document to take the books to other place. Natia Surguladze, the head of the corresponding department at the Batumi City Hall, made no comment on this issue either.

Little readers find their Library previously located next to Batumi Dramatic Theatre moved to another place since May 20. The new address is Javakhishvili Street # 69 in the suburb, the ground floor of five-storey residential building. The building is damaged. The rest of the books were moved to the building in the so called Tamari Settlement. The building belonged to the political party of Aslan Abashidze, former chairperson of the Supreme Council of Adjara Autonomous Republic. We were provided with this information by the driver of the truck who transported the books.

The female personnel of the library had to load the books on the truck during 3-4 days. “We feel ourselves insulted. I do not believe that Batumi City Hall could not allocate some money to hire workers who could load the books,” said one of the personnel who requested to keep her name anonymous to avoid problems. It is not decided yet whether the staff of 27 people at the Children’s Library will keep their jobs or not.

We asked Geno Makharadze why the personnel loaded the books on the trucks and he replied: “There are only 18 000 bundles of books and I do not think it is necessary to hire workers.”

We asked the director why the Children’s Library had moved to damaged building instead of a new building, as the books would be spoiled there and he answered: “These books are my property and I am authorized to select the building for the books. You can apply to the Batumi City Hall about this issue. Batumi Public Library is controlled by the Batumi City Hall and it is financed by the City Hall; so you can find all documents and plans of new building there.” The interview with Makharadze showed that he even did not hold any official document on taking the books to another place.

The Human Rights Center tried to make clear the issue with Natia Surguladze, the Head of the Department for Education, Culture, Tourism and Sport of the Batumi City Hall; however her secretary sent us to Davit Samnidze, the deputy Batumi Mayor. The decision of Natia Surguladze to send us to Samnidze was a surprise even for the City Hall press centre. However the press centre said that “Natia Surguladze does not avoid comments on the issue.” But she has not commented on the above-mentioned problem this week.

After checking the statement made by the Library director, according to which the building is being repaired for the library, the Human Rights Center found out that the building is being repaired for the Road Department. The worker informed us that they are building it for the Road Department. It is the building in Javakhishvili Street # 72 where the Public Registry Service worked for short time.

There is only one Children’s Library in Batumi, which is the branch of Batumi Public Library and it is controlled by the Batumi City Hall. Batumi Children’s Library has already changed its address for six times. This time the building was purchased by Alika Intskirveli, a businessman; because the library blocked the view of his Restaurant “Alik” in Rustaveli Street.