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 Entertainment | Books | September 2005 
Report: No One Using Nation's Public Libraries
 Wire services
| | Experts say Mexico's existing libraries lack decent infrasturcture. |
According to experts and official government statistics, the state of the nation's libraries is grim.
A low number of users - only 25 a day on average - is the result of a poor selection of books, deteriorating buildings and underqualified librarians, education officials say. They worry the libraries are simply becoming storage houses for books that no one wants to read.
"The problem in Mexico is that people don't go to the library because they usually don't find what they are looking for," said Public Education Secretary Reyes Tamez Guerra.
The Public Education Secretariat (SEP) runs more than 7,000 public libraries across the nation. According to statistics included in President Vicente Fox's annual report, Guanajuato's libraries get the most visits with 102 a day, while Tabasco receives an anemic average of 10 a day.
But the problem goes beyond a lack of demand.
According to an investigation by top librarians from the National Center for the Arts and the National Autonomous University (UNAM), the nation's libraries "need to improve their infrastructure. They lack sufficient light to read, clean restrooms, and chairs and desks that create a good environment for reading."
The same report says that most librarians "have insufficient training and few opportunities for improvement."
A central problem is the low pay, with most librarians earning between 2,000 to 4,000 pesos (US184 to US369) a month.
Worsening the already strained resources, education officials say, is Fox's plan to build a "mega-library" in Mexico City, a project that has diverted funding from other libraries to create a 200,000 volume complex at an estimated final cost of US93.2 million.
While Fox's stated goal is to create a world-class research facility, both education officials and opposition politicians say the resources would be better spent in improving existing libraries.
"Before building a new library, such as the Vasconcelos Library (Fox's project), the nation must address the needs of the libraries it already has," read the specialists' report.
Despite the criticism, new libraries have been constructed as well. Data from the SEP shows that since Fox assumed the presidency in 2000, an average of 200 public libraries have been built per year. |
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