The library of Barcelona has been named the best in the world

2023-08-23 07:05:50

Time.news – Libraries pull and attract like never before. A new one is born every day d Monday, August 21, on the occasion of the 88th World Library and Information Congress, which takes place until Friday in Rotterdam, “the best library in the world” was chosen, located at Barcelona and is named in memory of the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquezas reported by various Spanish media, including Paìs, La Nation, El Diario.

“An intergenerational meeting space”

Four thousand square meters in size, five floors divided by type of user (adults, teenagers, children), an auditorium, open every day, all day (half day on Saturday), specialized in Latin American literaturewith more than 40 thousand volumes, magazines, comics, photographic books and other kinds of documentation, and with the possibility of welcoming another ten thousand, the new library of Barcelona, ​​inaugurated in May 2022 by the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colao in the popular district of Sant Martí de Provençals, the Barcelona library also has a radio studio that depends on the Libraries and the Community Radio Network (where podcasts are produced), a cooking workshop and a “sensory space” for children.

Lots of light, lots of plants, the García Márquez space offers 140 reading points and aims to become “an intergenerational and intercultural meeting space”.

The other libraries on the podium

In the context of the Rotterdam competition, the Barcelona library had, in contrast, a fierce competition and had to contend with very strong candidates, winning over the Janez Vajkard Valvasor d Krskov Public Library (Slovenia), the Parramatta Library (Australia) and the colossal Shanghai East Library in China.

“The four libraries drawn differ from each other but each represents a true gift to its community,” said the president of the jury Jakob Guillois Lärkes, who also called the winner of the competition “a great example of how a library can serve as a fundamental link between people and the local community” representing “a true model for future library buildings in the years to come”.

Since its inauguration, the Márquez has been visited by an average of 1,100 users per day, is defined as “the best library in the world” per day and has also been renamed as “the Guggenheim de La Verneda”, with reference to the adjacent neighborhood.