Madrid City Council Public Library Network, LIBER 2023 award for the promotion of reading
LIBER will be held from 4 to 6 October at the Recinto Ferial de Madrid.
The Board of Directors of the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds has agreed to award the LIBER 2023 Prize in the category of promotion of reading in libraries open to the public to the Madrid City Council Public Library Network. With this decision, it wishes to highlight the importance of the attention they pay to new publications, as well as the activities they carry out to promote reading.
The history of Madrid's public libraries goes back 150 years. In 1876, the Madrid City Council agreed to create the first municipal library separate from the then existing archive. It was not until a century later that the creation of a network of libraries was planned for the various districts of the city that depended on this Historical Library.
The first district libraries shared space with other facilities, such as cultural centres. Since the 1992 Municipal Public Library Plan, independent buildings with high international standards have been created. Today, the network has 33 libraries spread throughout all the city's districts, in addition to the six book lending modules in Metro stations and the five lending points in municipal spaces such as cultural or sports centres. In 2022, 1,610,118 users (1,416,359 adults and 193,759 children) used these facilities. The number of active cards exceeds 500,000 (449,227 adults and 67,611 children).
Throughout 2022, the Madrid City Council Library Network carried out 11,606 activities to promote reading in which more than 115,000 people took part. It also has a collection of 1,711,776 volumes, including adult books, children's books and multimedia copies. All these figures have earned it the recognition of the publishing sector.
The Municipal Library Network has a firm commitment to quality, which is reflected in its charter of services. Furthermore, its management is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and its social work has been recognised with awards such as the Social Library Award in 2017 to the Eugenio Trías Library for La lectura que da vida (Reading brings life) or the Rebiun 2023 Award to the Ángel González Library for its Mayores conectados (Senior Citizens Connected) initiative.
These awards will be presented on 5 October as one of the activities of the International Book Fair, Liber 2023, which this year is being held in Madrid. The same event will also include the Award for the Promotion of Reading in the Media, which this year has gone to the supplement 'La Lectura' (Reading) of the newspaper El Mundo; for the best adaptation of a literary work, to "Los pacientes del doctor García" (Doctor García's patients); as well as the Boixareu Ginesta award for bookseller of the year. There will also be an award for the most outstanding Latin American author and a tribute will be paid to a publisher for their career in the world of books. These awards will be announced in the near future.
About LIBER 2023
The 41st LIBER fair is specially designed to bring together a broad representation of publishing companies and organisations, distributors, literary agents, multimedia, suppliers, professional associations, service companies, etc., making it a comprehensive showcase of current publishing production and a focus of attraction for authors, booksellers, illustrators, and other players in the sector.
Organised by IFEMA MADRID and promoted by the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds, LIBER 2023 is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, ICEX Spain Export and Investment, the Regional Government of Madrid, Madrid City Council and the Spanish Centre for Reprographic Rights (CEDRO). It also enjoys the collaboration of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Madrid Publishers' Association.
ores de Madrid.