The Community of Madrid has extended the opening hours of eleven of its public libraries, with extraordinary hours that will continue until July 4, to make it easier for students to prepare for their exams, taking into account that many of them are face the tests of the Evaluation for Access to the University (EvAU) starting next Monday.
Two of these centers in the capital –Rafael Alberti (in the Fuencarral-El Pardo district) and María Moliner (Villaverde)– will open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while another nine will provide service from Monday to Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. This is the case of the José Luis Sampedro library (Chamberí); José Acuña (Moncloa-Aravaca); Pedro Salinas (Center); Elena Fortún (Retirement); Antonio Mingote (Latina); Moratalaz; Jose Hierro (Usera); Miguel Hernández (Puente de Vallecas) and Luis Rosales (Carabanchel).
For security reasons, users over 14 years of age who want to access the reading room must identify themselves at the entrance with their ID or any other official document and may use the reference works located in the study areas. Only the adult rooms will be used.
The regional government has enabled a total of 1,237 jobs in these spaces. Last year, during the two extraordinary opening campaigns, this service was used by more than 30,000 people, of which 24,600 did so in this exam period.
The 16 public libraries that the Community of Madrid manages have more than 1,800,000 copies in their funds for loan and activities such as bebetecas, children’s libraries, comitecas and social inclusion activities through reading. In addition, users with disabilities have at their disposal resources adapted for them.
Every year, more than 3,000 activities are held as part of the Reading Promotion Plan of the Community of Madrid, which makes young people one of its priority objectives, including a specific line of activities to promote reading habits between 12 and 18 years.
People over 60 years of age also make up an increasingly large and active population. For this reason, they have a line of reading and cultural leisure activities in accordance with their current demands. During 2021, the project focused on the districts of the capital of Centro and Latina, incorporating Chamberí in 2022 and being able to subsequently expand to other districts and municipalities in the region.
Likewise, the regional government brings books to citizens free of charge through three other formulas: telelibrary, bibliobuses and bibliometro, which add up to more than 74,000 active users.
