April 28, 2021
Things seem to be going well at the library. They received the money we sent and immediately used some of it to buy the textbooks being used this school year, which began in January. Many students cannot afford textbooks and rely on the ones in the library to do their homework. Last year, the Ministry of Education donated textbooks to the library, but this year they did not.
Patricia Chacón, the librarian, now has some volunteer help in the library. Fourteen university students attending university in León are required, as a condition of their FNE scholarship, to do 20 hours each of social service per month, and they have chosen to do it in the library, reorganizing library shelves, inventorying, cleaning, and repairing books and helping with the mobile library. In March, seven of them put in a combined total of 27 hours.
Patti has been in touch with Janet of Viva León Leyendo and will pay her to accompany her to the Mobile Library one day next month to model reading out loud. Janet will bring her own materials. According to Patti, a total of 523 students were served by the mobile library in March.
Next week educational specialists from the Ministry of Culture will visit the library and provide training to Patricia. Last week they reached out to her for information about the history of the library and they plan to use in as part of a national campaign to stimulate library usage, including newspaper and TV spots featuring the nation’s libraries.