In a fascinating, and inspiring, article in the Guardian on Thursday, Clarie Armitstead described how libraries (and publishing projects) are helping to raise living standards in Colombia.
The article, which should be required reading for politicians in the UK (especially right now) explains how libraries are being developed across Colombia - 691 new libraries built since 2000, and quotes Minister of Culture Paula Marcela Moreno as saying "I believe there are minimum standards for quality of life, and access to a library is one of them."
Even though Colombia's total of 709 public libraries leaves it a long way short of the UK's c3,500, it feels a lot more encouraging to see a country (and its government) actively supporting their development, rather than the situation here where they are under threat.
*Quote from an article 'Colombia's Libraries: modernizing amidst a drug war' (American Libraries, v22 n7 p620-23 Jul-Aug 1991) by Ron Chepesiuk where he suggested that librarians were respected (and therefore not targeted) by the paramilitaries active in Colombia between 1986 and 1988.
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