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More than 5,000 books are waiting to be read on the shelves of the Municipal Library of Moraleja, that during the pandemic It has become the best place to escape and let your imagination run wild. This is demonstrated by the fact that the visits it has received in recent months have registered a progressive increase until it has doubled the usual number of users, which currently exceeds thirty each month.
“During the confinement we have received a greater demand for material, it can be said that in some way it has benefited us because people who had never visited us have been encouraged to come,” he highlights the manager of the library, Rafa Miguel. To adapt to the new restrictions and so that the residents of the town could continue to enjoy reading, the library launched a temporary book delivery service. “We distributed books to the houses, complying with all security measures, so that the copies were delivered in isolated bags,” Miguel details.
This exceptional service lasted for about a month, between May and June 2020, until the center could reopen its doors. “People were very grateful and I became almost a false child, especially for the elderly,” says the person in charge of the facilities.
The delivery of books, upon request and after a period of quarantine
Currently, the library is closed to the public, although it offers a book delivery schedule (Monday to Friday, from 12.00 to 14.00, and one Saturday a month) that is made on request, both via WhatsApp and Facebook. “As in other libraries, people do not access inside, they wait outside and I prepare the books or batches they have requested so that they can collect them,” the manager details. In addition, there are also two days a week established for the return of copies. Once returned and within the prevention measures imposed by the current health crisis, the books are deposited in individual boxes to save a period of quarantine between 11 and 14 days before being loaned again.
The soap opera It is one of the most demanded genres among adults, whether historical or black, while comics and all kinds of children’s books are the most requested among children. Inside the library, the books are cataloged following a universal classification, so that they are grouped by content such as generalities, philosophy, religion, social sciences or mathematics. Within the novel, the broader genre, the division has been made by themes such as adventure, historical, romantic or drama, as detailed by Rafa Miguel, graduated in Humanities and graduated in teaching, but also has training in Librarianship and Bibliography.
Distribution of surplus copies in bars
One of the curious initiatives carried out from the library is the distribution of surplus books in the bars of Moraleja. “These are books that have already been repeated or that, due to their theme, do not fit into the library, so I leave them once a week in bars and people take them because they disappear,” says Miguel. The funds available to the library come from its own acquisitions, but also from donations from neighbors. “They are specimens that can take a long time in an attic and that, sometimes, are not in good condition, so we leave them for people to take them,” explains Miguel. On a personal level, he defines his work at the head of the library as “very satisfactory, seeing how people are getting into the habit of reading is very gratifying.”
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