The subdelegate of the Government came today to the municipal public library Concepción Arenal de Miño to get to know first-hand the project “Cerca de Ti” that has received one of the 15 María Moliner awards granted by the Ministry of Culture to libraries with the best proposals of animation to reading between municipalities of less than 50,000 inhabitants.
During her visit to the subdelegate she was accompanied by Mayor Manuel Vázquez Faraldo, by the Councilor for Culture, Catalina Morado and by the librarian Marisa Álvarez.
The public library of Miño, is named after Concepción Arenal, in honor of the writer who, during part of her childhood, lived in the parish of Leiro. Precisely the logo of this library is a girl, Conchiña, a drawing made by a student of the CEIP Castro Baxoi, which reflects how she imagined the writer as a child. This is the reason why the library is known as Conchiña and it is she who stars in all the campaigns that have to do with reading.
The deputy delegate congratulated both the Mayor and the head of the library, for “this well-deserved award and for the effort and enthusiasm you put into promoting the habit of reading, one of the most beautiful tools that the human being has to grow, learn, dream, know and enjoy” stressed the deputy delegate.
The award-winning project, Cerca de ti, aims to make the library visible and bring it closer to new families with young children, who in recent years came to live in the municipality.
It is through the story that the library seeks to attract new and new readers. Thus, every first Thursday of the month, except the summer months, they have programmed a Contaxoves, a storyteller that according to the season changes the stage: park, public school or auditorium, among other locations.
At the beginning of the year, from the library, “Conchiña”, marks a “reading challenge” to which the girls and boys of the city council can sign up. During the next twelve months, they must meet each of the proposed challenges, which consist of readings of different themes. Once completed they receive a diploma and a prize.
In addition, Cerca de Ti also has a reading club for adults, in which literary meetings with different authors are organized as well as exhibitions with the favorite books of readers with their own reviews.
These awards are granted by the Ministry in collaboration with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP). The total amount with which the libraries of Galicia were awarded amounts to 41,580 euros at the rate of 2,772 euros per library and project.
As explained by the subdelegate “the María Moliner Award aims to reward those libraries of municipalities that carry out a project that includes actions of animation to reading, efficiency and library work, social integration in their community, as well as the use of new technologies”.
The program 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. In the province of A Coruña, the libraries of Ares, Carballo, Oleiros and Ortigueira were also awarded,