Adeje council’s Department of Culture and Education and the municipal library have been working with an initiative, ‘Big Hug for Books/Adeje un abrazo de lectura’ to encourage reading to celebrate World Book Day, which falls on April 23rd, with the participation of many of the borough’s residents.
Residents were asked to send a 30 second video reading from a book which perhaps changed their lives, or in some way reflected, to them, the significance of World Book day. The final works (in English and Spanish) will be shared on the council’s social media.
“This initiative has been a way of celebrating World Book Day, which this year, due to the state of emergency, we haven’t been able to mark in the usual way”, reflected the councillor for the area, María Clavijo – usually the council host a three-day book fair. “The council didn’t, however, want the day to pass without marking it so we thought this was an opportunity for residents to take part and it has been a great success, reminding us of the importance of reading, especially during this time of quarantine, while also giving our residents a task to undertake from their homes”.
In parallel the Adeje libraries network, with centres in Adeje town, Armeñime, Fañabe and the Canarian library has published the data from 2019. There were 45,361 consultations, over 8,000 book loans, with 20,924 library users. The most visited library was that in the Adeje cultural centre, with 83% of the total visits, followed by Armeñime, Fañabe, and the Canarian library.
The average monthly user rate was 1,743, with 69% of visitors being adults, and, similar to the previous year, almost equal use by men and women. The library is also used by many for printing documents and access to the internet by students and adults.
During 2019 the libraries also hosted 22 events including storytelling, exhibitions, workshops, book clubs, talks etc, with almost 900 over the 12 month period. During the first three months of 2020 (before the state of emergency) 1.211 books were loaned.
