The library's role in a moment of crisis, to be debated at Casa África

Casa África tomorrow holds the 4th Librarianship Meeting Reading and Cultures. Promoting transcultural reading. This is an initiative that will be undertaken as part of the International African Book Fair (SILA), so as to support the Pact for Reading and Writing led by the Island Cabildo of Gran Canaria.
 This professional session on the area of librarianship and documentation, hopes to give continuity to the exchange of experiences between Spanish and African professionals started by Casa África in 2008 and that brings closer different realities, encourages cooperation and opens up new horizons for collaboration and dissemination of cultural heritage.

The librarianship meetings of Casa África are necessary and are based on the experience of previous editions, with training sessions and meetings with African experts in matters of librarianship and documentation. It is another tool to strengthen the link between Spanish and African experts, encouraging continuous communication between the components of the working groups of the national libraries, archives and documentation centres of Africa and Spain.

On this occasion, the meeting will celebrate a double purpose: on the one hand, to strengthen the social role of libraries as areas of integration and as entities that favour bringing different cultures closer, and on the other hand, set up targets and opportunities that can be developed from the libraries on issues such as the current crisis, optimisation of resources and application of new technologies that will promote the impact of services in libraries, facilitate access to knowledge and connect us to new users.

The speakers at this meeting, on the Spanish side, will be representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, the Media Library of Casa Árabe, the Island Library of Gran Canaria, the Public Library of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, the Civic Library, the South Foundation and the Library from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Nozha Ibnlkhayat, a Moroccan philosopher and expert in  marketing and communication, will talk on promoting reading in the modern Morocco. The director of the Department of Librarianship and Information Studies from the University of North Carolina, Clara M. Chu, and the executive director of the Library from the University of South Africa, Buhle Mbambo-Thata, will also take part via video-conference.