The 2021 annual report of the Viera y Clavijo Municipal Library, Los Realejos, highlights that the number of users of this service of the northern City Council grew by 62% compared to the previous year, but with its 19,256 registered users, it is still far from the figures prior to the pandemic. The Councilor for Culture of Los Realejos, Isabel Socorro (PP), values the growth from 11,839 users in 2020 to 19,256 in 2021, although she acknowledges that “the increase has been notable due to the condition of restrictions due to a health emergency in one and another year, but we are still far from the 27,320 users registered in 2019, the immediately previous year.
For Socorro, “these data refer to those who use this municipal facility as a study room, to consult bibliographic works or other types of documentary resources, to read the daily press, for loan or simply to request any type of information.” Regarding the number of associated people, 2,320 were reached at the end of 2021, after having registered a total of 188 new registrations during the year. A total of 8,526 document loan procedures were recorded at home, including books, musical and audiovisual media, and documentaries.
According to the aforementioned report, the Viera y Clavijo Library incorporated 714 new documents throughout the year, of which 697 were printed books and the rest audiovisual and sound formats.
During the year, different complementary cultural and revitalization actions were organized in this library, such as exhibition tables on the occasion of Women’s Day or bibliographic material alluding to the fight against gender violence in the month of November.
Coinciding with significant anniversaries related to authors or literary currents, specific works by Javier Reverte, Benito Pérez Galdós, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, Jules Verne, Rosalía de Castro or Hans Christian Andersen, among others, were exhibited at different times of the year for dissemination and promotion. Other authors.
From January 14 to February 9, both the Viera y Clavijo Library and the Rafael Yanes Study Hall in San Agustín maintain continuous extended hours on weekends, including Sunday mornings, in order to extend the offer space for exam preparation.
The first deputy mayor, Adolfo González (PP), recalls the “training project that a total of 24 students have accessed again in 2022 of the University of La Laguna with residence in Los Realejos, who contribute to the tasks of library management and reading and cultural dynamism in these spaces and who receive compensation in the form of a scholarship, with which they manage to complement their studies and obtain financial aid for them while strengthen services to citizens.
