The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, encouraged the concellos of less than 50,000 inhabitants to participate in the XXV edition of the María Moliner Reading Animation Projects Competition. The Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) promote this program that seeks to reward libraries of all those concellos that carry out a unique project that includes actions of animation to reading, efficiency and library work as well as social integration in their community and the use of new technologies.
Concellos can submit their projects through the Ministry’s website until Friday, May 30. The ten libraries that get the best score will receive a prize of 10,000 euros each. The remaining 360 libraries will receive an individual prize of 2,777.77 euros.
The total amount of the call for applications amounts to 1,100,000 euros. “It is an opportunity for small municipalities to develop actions to promote reading, attract new readers and promote the social integration of libraries in the social community,” explained the delegate.
In this line, he stressed the strategic importance and the great impact that these awards have in Galicia where a large part of the population resides in municipalities of less than 50,000 inhabitants.
In the last editions, the response of the concellos was very positive. In the call of 2024, in Galicia, 20 libraries were awarded: seven in the province of A Coruña, in the municipalities of Mañón, San Sadurniño, Pontedeume, Miño, Ortigueira, Oleiros and Ares; three in Lugo, in the municipalities of Ribadeo, Vilalba and Sober; five in Ourense, in the municipalities of Barbadás, Verín, Cenlle, Ribadavia and Entrimo and five in Pontevedra, in the municipalities of Moraña, O Bortui, Grove and Tomai.