Presto Biblioteca ‘14 de enero’ — Presto is 15 kilometers from Morado K’asa, in a beautiful, green, sub-tropical valley. When the people in Morado began building their library, the mayor of the tiny town of Presto became interested. He approached Megan to discuss the possibility of implementing a library in his town. This spirit of local community and government involvement is exactly what BiblioWorks looks for when we implement new libraries. Working with hard-working, dedicated government and public employees is a cornerstone of our organization’s mission, and without the support of the local government in Presto, the library would have never become a reality for this small town.
Presto has the advantage of being a municipal capital and while Megan was interested in working there, she didn’t know how to fund it. Once again her brother Brendan stepped in and he, with the Board of Directors of Biblio.com, decided to officially establish Biblio Charitable Works, Inc. in order to implement the library in Presto. The Presto library was opened almost a year after the one in Morado K’asa and became the second public library established by BiblioWorks.
The municipal library in Presto is functioning well and is in an enormous, perfect space on the main plaza in Presto. Every afternoon, from 2pm until 8pm, it is full of children reading and doing their homework. The library also has 10 computers with internet facility for people who visit to use.
The mayor’s office and the Superintendent of Education still avidly support the library both economically and logistically, and work closely with BiblioWorks to develop new and interesting activities in the library. Examples of this already include the librarian adapting the Dewey Decimal System to create a new, more appropriate organizing system for his library, and a group of teenagers who were trained in videography and subsequently made a short documentary about Presto’s traditions.
Boys playing educational games in the Presto library