The tradition of Tetovo’s Library has deep tracks in the history of these places, but unfortunately we don’t have the accurate information from when its activity began, as a national library of the town “Koco Racin”. The exact date of when the library was established it is not known, but it is supposed that 1945 is the year when the library started to work within the commissariat of national education, and for the first time was placed in a confiscated newly built house.

The first fund of books counted about 2000 titles inherited from “Young tetovars’ reading room”, which was formed in 1922 enriched with Marxist-Leninist literature, but it also possessed a huge number of books from classic authors. All books were in Serbo-Croatian language, except of a fixed amount of political booklets that were published in the Macedonian language.

In its early years, the library counted 500 members; most of them were students of high schools. Regarding the needs of the readers, the library was daily supplied with the press, like “Nova Makedonija”, “Borba”, “Politika”, “Naroden front”, etc.  Immediately after the liberation, and simultaneously with the opening of the library of Tetovo , it was opened a library in the Albanian language, which has worked separately from the Macedonian one. It was placed in an old house in the centre of Tetovo. The Albanian library has counted 2000 members, whereas a library’s chair was the teacher Isa Sabajdini from Poroj.

In 1948 or 1949 with an order of the citizens’ political structures and the commissariat of education, the Albanian Library was integrated into the town’s library. In 1952, there was brought a decision from commissariat of education to separate the library and continued its work as an independent cultural – educational institution.

During its activity, the library has faced some relocations whereas immediately after its establishment, it was located in the ground floor at the ex-restaurant Lovec , where the Cultural Centre of Tetovo functioned as well. In 1954 were founded special sectors: for children and adults.

After two decades, more precisely, in 1967, the library “Koco Racin” – Tetovo returns to its previous place, but this time it had the whole building, which belonged to Mato Cenka. On the base floor there was the warehouse of books and the section for adults while in the first floor there was the section for professional processing of the library material. In this building, the “Koco Racin “library continued its activity for three and a half decades.

Under the law for denationalization approved by the government of Republic of Macedonia in 2000, the building where library was located was given back to its owners, and in this case the library suffered relocation. In the same year, the competent organs brought a decision to offer the library 200 m2, in the ground floor of the Cultural Centre. In this location the library continues to function, with the: Section for children, Section for adults and section for professional processing of library materials. Because of lack of space, a number of books is located to non-functional space, so the readers cannot reach the needed books.

On July  22, 2004 the library was named: The National Institution “Koco Racin”. A year after, in 2005, began the processing of the library fund, when IN Library “ Koco Racin” – Tetovo through the server INB “ St Klimenti Ohridski” from Manastir is connected to COBISS.MK. With the new working system IN, the library “Koco Racin” – Tetovo became functional part of library information system and became a family member of forty libraries that are power members of COBISS.MK.

Number of registered members: 3200 (1300 children)

The fund of books: 120.000 – 150.000 titles

The library’s area: 200 m2

Sections: - The section for the systematization of the library materials

- The section for adults

- The section for children

- The section for the home country  

- The section for the development of the library

The National Institution - Library “ Koco Racin”

Address: Iliria n.n. 1200 - Tetovo
Phone:  044 352 780
Phone: (director): 044 338 797
Phone: (the lending section) 044 350 039
E-mail: biblioteka@nubkrte.org.mk
Web: www.nubkrte.org.mk