culture culture

Municipal library

On December 31, 1934, the first book of the municipal public library of Pego, El libro y la imprenta, by Francisco Beltrán, published in Madrid in 1931, was registered and sent by the Board of Exchange and Acquisition of Books. The policy of acquisition of books was simple, for each purchase that the City Council made the Exchange and Acquisition of Books sent a lot with the double value that the city council had destined.

The official inauguration of the library site took place on the first day of 1935, thanks to the efforts of the then-city secretary Enrique Mor d’Ivernois. During the first year of operation of the library, 2,798 loans were made that were distributed among 81 members under the age of 14 and 359 over the age of 14.

The first librarian chosen from the members of the Board was José García Bañuls. This was replaced by Fernando Sastre Mas. In 1937, his post was temporarily occupied by Josefa Sala Estela.

After the war the local Social Assistance delegate, Constanza Falgás, appointed a librarian to Maria Pinto Alcina. The work carried out by this librarian for almost 40 years is a good part, more than half, of the history of our library.

The activity of the library during the fifties went beyond the simple book loan seeking the reader’s training and complementary activities; all this was possible thanks to people interested in the culture like Antonio Pérez Ramos and José Vidal Bernabeu, among others. One of the most suggestive activities, sponsored by the Board of Trustees of the Library, was the readings of theatrical works that were held in the plenary hall of the city council.

Between 1960 and 1961 the agreement with the National Reading Service was signed and the regulations of the library were approved with the state parameters. These last measures were directed by Carmel Giner, director of the Municipal House of Culture, who put all his efforts in the operation of the library and in the celebrations of the book that were celebrated annually and in which lots of books were given the children of the schools of the town.

With the works that began in 1971 in the Plaza del General Primo de Rivera for the creation of the Municipal Market and the sheltered housing, it was believed that the need to allocate a new place for the library there. Thus, in 1972, the library was moved from the Town Hall to the new premises enabled. This historical milestone was accompanied by a job improvement for the librarian, which was given a new labor contract in which the hours of 5 hours a day were scheduled, one in the morning and four in the afternoon.

In 1978 retired the insigne librarian Maria Pinto, replacing the religious Sister Estefania Juan Franco, a native of Grisuela del Páramo (León), who resided in the Sant Joan de Déu Asylum.

It was definitely believed to be necessary to create the library’s place and the chosen one was Joana Canet Sastre, who was more than twenty years old in office.

With the passage of time, the premises of the Plaça del Mercat remained small and when the Pego House of Culture was created, in the old mansion of the Torres-Sala, it was used to move the library there, Old Market as a Reading Agency. It was then that the book and art lover Rafel Ruiz entered the new library, which promoted all the dependencies of the new House of Culture.

In the late nineties of the last century, the Reading Agency stopped working, leaving the entire unified library in the House of Culture of Calle Santo Doménec.


Joan Miquel Almela

Municipal archivist

AddressCalle Sant Domènec, 5. 03780 Pego
Telephone96 557 28 01
Mailculturapego@telefonica.net
Winter HoursMonday to Saturday, 09:00 a.m. to 01:30 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Summer opening hours(July and August) Monday to Saturday from 08:00 to 14:00

Services

  • Consultation room.
  • Loan service. You need to make the card of the Valencian Public Reading Network. It is free to fill out a file and bring a photocopy of the DNI along with a photo of the ID card.
  • Interlibrary loan.
  • Study room. Located on the second floor.
  • Consult bibliographical catalog: http://xlpv.cult.gva.es