Oslo’s main public library, Deichmanske bibliotek, finally re-opened on Monday, more than two months after the neighboring government complex was struck by a terrorist’s bomb on July 22.
The bombing caused major damage to the library and especially a glass partition between columns at its main entrance. Windows all along the library’s facade were also shattered, and glass fragments showered the library’s books. Ceilings fell down inside the building, which opened in 1933, and interior partitions were damaged as well.
Many of the 160 persons who work at the library’s main downtown branch were temporarily placed at other branches around the city, the largest of which, at Majorstuen, functioned as Deichmanske’s main branch during the clean-up period.
The library system is named after its patron Carl Deichman, a Danish-Norwegian industrialist who donated his large collection of books to the city of Christiania (as Oslo was known during his lifetime) upon his death in 1780.
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