Two Latin American Libraries
Honored by Gates Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation named two Latin American libraries as recipients of the 2001 Access to Learning Award for “exceptional efforts to expand access to information, computers, and the Internet for all people.”
Proyecto Bibliotecas Guatemala (Probigua) and the Biblioteca del Congreso de la Nación Argentina will each receive a $250,000 grant to develop new initiatives and expand outreach to patrons. Probigua establishes and maintains public libraries in rural areas of Guatemala using funding from its not-for-profit language school. Argentina’s Biblioteca del Congreso, opened to the public in 1917, provides free service 24 hours a day, six days a week, and eight hours on Sunday, serving about 1,300 visitors daily.
“Access to technology and information will raise the educational level and productivity of many Guatemalan people who dream of a better life for themselves and their communities,” Probigua Executive Director Rigoberto Zamora Charuc said at an August 21 presentation at the Boston Public Library during the conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
“With this award, we hope to build on the services that we offer readers by increasing the quantity and quality of computer equipment in the multimedia room,” said Carlos Alberto Martinez, director coordinator general of the Biblioteca del Congreso.
The Gates Foundation’s first Access to Learning Award was awarded to the Helsinki Public Library in 2000.
Posted August 27, 2001.
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