Roland Berger opens reading room at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow

• "Roland Berger Reading Room" provides access to roughly 20,000 books and periodicals
• Roland Berger sponsors state of the art multimedia equipment and computer workstations

´Roland Berger Strategy Consultants are opening a new reading room in the International Cultural Centre (ICC) in Krakow: The "Roland Berger Reading Room" augments the ICC's library and offers state of the art multimedia equipment, providing access to roughly 20,000 books and periodicals plus numerous international databases. Roland Berger also financed the computer workstations in the reading room and the multimedia equipment in the ICC library. The project is part of the "Counterparts" initiative, a joint effort by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and the Goethe-Institut to support culture and education in Central and Eastern Europe.

Over the past two years, the International Cultural Centre in the heart of Krakow has been modernized and expanded. This project involved adding more rooms to the ICC library, a vital part of this research institute for European cultural heritage. The library is home to an impressive collection of about 20,000 Polish and international books and periodicals on a wide variety of topics. These include ethnography, European traditions, the history of Central Europe as well as art and architecture.

The new "Roland Berger Reading Room" is intended to make accessing the library's materials as easy and comfortable as possible. To that end, top-notch multimedia equipment plus computer workstations provided by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants allow library visitors to access online catalogues and bibliographies as well as the library's own books and periodicals. Patrons can also search numerous international databases such as ebrary or the Central and Eastern European Online Library.

The new reading room will be inaugurated on May 13, 2009 at 12:30 pm by the Director of the International Cultural Centre, Prof. Jacek Purchla, and Krzysztof Badowski, Managing Partner of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. A reception for the guests will follow.

The "Roland Berger Reading Room" is part of the "Counterparts" program, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants' initiative to support culture and education in Central and Eastern Europe, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut. As part of the Counterparts Initiative, the international consultancy and the Goethe-Institut have already supported the Dubrovnik libraries by helping them expand their collection of books on the history and culture of Dalmatia, as well as build up a music library. In addition, last year Roland Berger sponsored a new library at the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance. In 2006, Roland Berger funded the production of W. A. Mozart's "Magic Flute" by Achim Freyer at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. And in 2005, the program sponsored a contemporary art exhibition of works by Croatian and German artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb.