The General Director of the Book, Comic and Reading of the Ministry of Culture, María José Gálvez, and the President of the Committee on Culture and Historical Heritage of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and Mayor of Clavijo, Pedro Muro Martínez, have today presented the prizes of the Reading Animation Campaign María Moliner in its XXIV edition. The event was attended by the mayors and librarians of the municipalities awarded with the ten best projects of the 640 presented, including those of Los Corrales de Buelna and El Astillero.
This edition, the award ceremony has been transferred from the headquarters of the FEMP to the City Council of Paniza (Zaragoza). This municipality is the birthplace of the librarian and lexicographer María Moliner, who gives her name to these awards, thus framing this event within the program of activities promoted by the Ministry of Culture to celebrate the 125th anniversary of her birth.
In the case of Cantabria, a total of 12 reading animation projects presented by municipal libraries have been awarded. In particular, 10 proposals from the region have been recognized, which are awarded a prize of 2,777.77 euros each. In addition, the projects ‘La biblioteca encuentada’ of Los Corrales de Buelna and ‘La alegría nos moviles a segur el camino’ of El Astillero receive 10,000 euros each having been awarded among the top ten.
The María Moliner Reading Animation Campaign, convened by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), has awarded reading animation projects, with special attention to those who promote equal opportunities in access to books and reading to the most socially disadvantaged sectors, as well as to the population with disabilities, elderly people, sick people, and also actions for digital literacy and those that encourage social and intergenerational coexistence. The implementation of activities that promote environmental awareness has also been valued.
The program, funded by the Ministry of Culture through the General Directorate of Books, Comics and Reading, has had a total investment of 1.1 million euros.
This initiative is key in promoting access to books and reading, while approximately half of the Spanish population resides in municipalities with fewer 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.
The amount of the prizes, 10,000 euros in the case of special prizes, will be used mainly for the purchase of books and/or periodicals for public libraries.
The ten projects awarded were:
Coaña (Asturias) for the project ‘Library, LEYendo community development’.
Pradilla de Ebro (Zaragoza) for the project ‘The Magic of Books’.
Los Corrales de Buelna (Cantabria) for the project ‘La biblioteca encuentada’.
La Pobla de Farnals (Valencia) for the project ‘Weaving stories: the library as a space for citizen construction’.
El Astillero (Cantabria) for the project ‘Joy moves us to continue the path’.
Durango (Vizcaya) for the project ‘Viajes Bizenta Mogel Biblioteka: the entrance to a whole world of knowledge and experiences’.
Cenizate (Albacete) for the project ‘Bibliolúdica 23-24’.
Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara) for the project ‘35 years of shared reading’.
Galapagar (Madrid) for the project ‘Library in Action: Transformative Readings’.
► Huetor de Santillán (Granada) for the project ‘A library of its own’.
In addition to these 10 special awards, another 360 libraries have been distinguished for their reading animation plans, with about 2,800 euros of prize each. The selection process has been carried out according to criteria such as the clarity and interest of the project for reading animation, good planning and feasibility, as well as originality and innovation and the social integration activities contained in the proposal and with special attention to the municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. This campaign aims to make reading break all the structural gaps and become a real social habit.