The libraries and reading-rooms of the working men's associations of Maribor have worked from the year 1868, since the end of the 18th century according to the spirit of the Austrian social democracy and only with German literature. When Maribor belonged to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, modest libraries of the Slovene working men's associations appeared. But the library of the Chamber of Labour, established in the year 1928, where the delegates of three working men's organisations, oriented towards socialism, decided, became with its excellent choice of literature, with its good organisation in spite of the political pressure the best public library in the town, and its influence on the development of the revolutionary mentality of the working men has been very strong.