Villa Serrano Biblioteca ‘Municipal’ — Villa Serrano is approximately six hours by bus from Sucre. It is a beautiful town and the largest where BiblioWorks has a library. The library is in a large space that was formerly used as a fine arts school. The traditional dance and music of Villa Serrano are very colorful and lively and form an important part of the culture there.
Since the beginning in Villa Serrano, thanks to the initiative of the Peace Corps volunteer Sarah Ellgen, the town and municipal authorities have supported the library. The librarian is a teacher and is warm and friendly, helping the children with their homework or in finding a good book to read. Between 60 and 70 elementary and high school students go to the library every day, which is open Monday to Friday from 2pm until 10pm and on Saturdays from 8am until 12pm.
Currently the library has a few computers for kids to use for accessing encyclopedias or playing educational games. BiblioWorks hopes that soon we will be able to provide more computers, and the local government and educational directors hope to install internet in the library.
There is also a large teachers’ college in Villa Serrano. The teachers and those studying to be teachers can find a wide variety of useful material in the library for classroom planning, creative activities and general study material. Villa Serrano is a town filled with the music of the ‘charango’, a small, Andean, stringed instrument — like a cross between a ukulele and a mandolin. This artistic impulse has enabled the library to become a cultural center, which the town uses and treats with utmost care. Last year, BiblioWorks organized a two-day workshop about the importance of valuing and preserving culture, culminating in a festival with dancing, food, music, theater performances, poetry readings and many other activities presented by librarians, teachers and library committee members from all of BiblioWorks seven libraries.
BiblioWorks is happy to have worked in Villa Serrano training the librarian and teachers, and forming a strong library committee to oversee activities. We have seen children benefiting greatly from the library and the educational materials available there. As we work on making Villa Serrano our first sustainable public library, we will carry on coordinating with the mayor, the Superintendent of Education and the librarian to ensure that it continues to open its doors for the benefit of the community of Villa Serrano.
Girls reading at the Villa Serrano library opening
Boy playing the charango during a book donation to the library