The acclaimed Central Public Library of Veroia does not rest on its laurels; instead, it moves forth with new improvements and additions.

“Tablets uploaded with Arabic language newspapers for refugees!  The ingenuity and speed with which the Veroia Central Public Library organizes its services never ceases to amaze us.  It infiltrates the community, listens to its needs, innovates, experiments and envisions the library of the future.  It is no coincidence that for the past fifteen years, the building, designed specifically to house a library, is the third most frequented place in the city, after home and work.

Recently, the Library “turned on the lights,” both literally and figuratively.  This time, the lights were turned on in a highly aesthetic, state-of-the-art, multi-function space located on its second floor.  Some of the Library’s colorful chairs bear the name of donors.  And this because the project’s completion was the result of a financing campaign known as crowdfunding.  The recipient in 2010 of the “Access to Learning Award” by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Library used every last cent of the one million dollar award. Short 100,000 euros to equip its events hall, eight hundred donors immediately responded, offering sums ranging from one to ten thousand euros.  “The public trusts us because it is satisfied that the money is well invested.  We hope that they will remain by our side.  We need them in order to continue,” explained Aspasia Tasiopoulou, Communications Manager.

Words cannot begin to describe the images, the motley crowd and the services that coexist on its multiple levels.  Among everything, an efficiently designed kitchen.  “Kitchen in a public library?” ask some. “Why not?” responds the indefatigable team that continues the work of the Library’s visionary, Giannis Trochopoulos, former Library Director and present Board member.  In a Library where the expansion of activities and visitors without discrimination (1,100 new members are added each year) is constant, there is a place for everyone and everything: the unemployed person looking for a job, readers selecting books, the immigrant filling out a form, students looking for study aids, musicians recording in the studio, housewives attending a cooking class.  And next to them, refugees [whom the Library has supported from the very beginning].    …

Impressive numbers

Even though the Library, as a strategic partner of the Future Library program (funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation), has for the past five years guided and mentored libraries around Greece, Veroia still maintains the primacy.  The numbers are staggering by Greek standards: 500 to 800 visitors daily, loaning more than 170,000 items annually (books, periodicals, DVDs, CD-ROMs, Kindles, board games, photographic equipment and more).  The majority of the visitors are children and women who love Modern Greek literature.  By contrast, men are fanatical readers of historical novels and Ancient Greek philosophy.

Beyond the numbers, Veroia’s phenomenon raises a question.  How has the Library influenced the community of this provincial city?   …

To learn the answer to this question and to read the testimonials of two students – one in Junior High and the other in High School – go to the full article (in Greek) by clicking on the link below.

http://www.kathimerini.gr/858674/gallery/politismos/vivlio/h-veroia-ekane-pali-to-8ayma-ths

Source: “Arts and Letters” insert, Kathimerini newspaper, Sunday, May 8, 2016

Columnist  Giota Myrsioti