THE FIRST CATALONIAN PUBLIC LIBRARY TAKES UP TO THE TRAIN RECEIVES IN ITS TWO FIRST MONTHS MORE THAN 150 VISITORS
SARA SANTAMARIA ARRIBAS
The Railway Museum in Vilanova opened the doors, last 21st of January, of the first Catalonian public library taken up, only, the railway world in this Autonomous Region. In its two first months has receive more than 150 personal visits. This figure show the interest and the importance of having this new cultural offer. The new library is about a new service for, above all, keens, investigators, technicians and students of a world which seems to be reborned another time. Moreover, that opening has involved not only the consolidation of the Museum's collections, but the put an interested and large documents at the railway enthusiastics and students' disposal.
The studious and amateurs have a large catalogued and computerized information
The Foundation of Spanish Trains has this service since 1985 in Madrid, giving holdings completely catalogued and computerized to the users, such at the reading room as on Internet. That collection is one of the most complete in our country related to this themes, that is to say, a technical and historical library specialized in transport and, above all, in the railway world.
The different contributions from the own Foundation and from private people have completed with the time the holdings which now can be used by the visitors. It is an alive collection which will be increased thanks to the future documentary transfers, which have already been in negotiation, and interchanges with the different Associations. The Museum has began, moreover, the cataloguing of the holdings to make easy the sugery.
The library has around 1.500 books, 150 video cassetes and 30 differents collections of specialized magazines
Vilanova i la Geltrú's library is made up by more than 1,500 books on this interesting world, some of them very valuable because their antique and their contents; more than 150 video cassettes; around 700 copies, more or less, belonging to 20 different collections of specialized magazines in this theme, ten out of which are publishing yet; different CD-Rooms and cassettes.
To those ones who want to visit it, they must know that the access to the library is free and the sugery hours are since ten o'clock in the morning to half past two in the afternoon, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the begining, it won't possible to carry anybook to home, but it is possible to read them at the reading room. Therefore, the videos and the cassettes can be carried home to watch or listen them calmly, but, in this case, you would be subject to some conditions and rates.
By the way, the Museum has put the necessary information at all the interested people's disposal on the following web site: http://www.ffe.es/vilanova/index.html or, if you haven't got this service, you can use the following telephone number: 93 815 84 91.
