Cuban central province nominated for international green libraries award

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, May 25 (ACN) The Biblioverde (BV) project, of the Cuban Association of Librarians (Ascubi) in Villa Clara, is among the four finalists worldwide in the IFLA Green Library 2021 call, a contest that seeks to strengthen the commitment of libraries to environmental education.

The initiative, which has placed Cuba at the level of developed countries such as Finland, the United States and Spain (also finalists), has been developed since January 2018 and has the support of the Marti Provincial Library in the city of Santa Clara.

Ramon Alberto Manso Rodriguez, coordinator of BV in the central geography, told the Cuban News Agency that the project presented aims to demonstrate the existing potentialities, from professional associations, to promote environmental education actions and the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals for Agenda 2030 and Task Life.

He also explained that BV is interested in promoting the consultation of materials and bibliography on environmental and botanical topics, present in libraries; as well as improving consumption habits, lifestyles, promoting water and electricity saving, recycling, and teaching sustainable horticulture and gardening, as practices of personal and social benefit.

Among the traditional spaces already recognized by its main public (from 16 to 30 years old) are the development of lectures on urban agriculture, floral therapy, urban landscape, medicinal plants and the art of bonsai; the presentation of ideas and tricks with recyclable products; and the exhaustive study each month of a previously selected plant species.

In recent times, marked by the onslaught of COVID-19, BV has kept working from the virtual space, through its Telegram and Facebook accounts, while not abandoning the distribution of its digital information package and printed brochures, Manso Rodriguez commented.

The winner of the IFLA Green Library 2021 contest will be announced next August, until then, the members of Biblioverde will continue in their efforts to grow as a community project and the establishment of alliances with other Cuban libraries, an aspiration that drives those who, without the need for a prize, already know they are winners.