A total of 11 reading animation projects presented by municipal libraries of Cantabria have been awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), in the XXIII edition of the María Moliner Awards.
In particular, 11 proposals have been recognized, which are awarded a prize of 2,772.22 euros each. The total amount with which the 11 libraries of Cantabria have been awarded amounts to 30,494.42 euros.
The objective is to reward the best reading animation projects aimed at all the neighbors, especially groups with difficulties in accessing it, in any of the official languages of the respective autonomous community and with special attention to the municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants.
Of the 562 municipalities throughout Spain that participated in this year’s edition, 370 libraries have been awarded 2,772.22 euros and, among them, the ten best projects will increase the amount to 10,000 euros. The prize will be intended primarily for the purchase of books and/or periodicals by public libraries.
The program, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport through the General Directorate of Books, Comics and Reading, has a total investment of 1.1 million euros.
This initiative is of great strategic importance in access to books and reading, since approximately half of the Spanish population resides in municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants. The goal of the campaign is, following the ideal of María Moliner herself, that any reader anywhere can get the book that interests her.
Ten Best Projects
The María Moliner Awards for the ten best reading animation projects are as follows:
· 559/2023 Abarán (Murcia) for the project ‘Windows open to culture. Our Library II’.
· 354/2023 Agullent (Valencia) for the project ‘The paths of reading. The paths of writing.’
· 27/2023 Potries (Valencia) for the project ‘A creative library’.
· 267/2023 Segurilla (Toledo) for the project ‘You are the link of the great chain that forms the library’.
· 412/2023 Yunquera de Henares (Guadalajara) for the project ‘In the Library of Yunquera… We have a lot of stories’.
· 295/2023 Valdelacalzada (Badajoz) for the project ‘Sustainable library – Readings that heal the soul’.
· 264/2023 Frómista (Palencia) for the project ‘Rural libraries, libraries of the future’.
· 433/2023 Court (Salamanca) for the project ‘Open book court: 15 years.’
· 314/2023 Cenicero (La Rioja) for the project ‘Dreaming of reading: biblioTElook after’.
· 41/2023 Zizurkil (Guipúzcoa) for the project ‘Plazida: The library of inclusion’.
The complete list of awarded municipalities can be consulted in the website of the Ministry of Culture and Sport