The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, accompanied by the Delegate of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Marta Rivera de la Cruz; the Delegate of Works and Equipment, Paloma García Romero, and the Councilor of Villaverde, Orlando Chacón, inaugurated today the Municipal Public Library Francisco Umbral, a new cultural facility located in the Butarque neighborhood of the Villaverde district. With this opening, the City Council has strengthened the network of municipal public libraries, which now totals 34 centers distributed throughout the city «and will continue to grow,» as there are three municipal libraries under construction, «with the aim of reaching the figure of 40 centers,» as pointed out by the mayor.
Almeida has highlighted the significance of this new cultural facility for the residents of the district and emphasized the importance of «the container matching the content, something that has been achieved extraordinarily here.» As evidence of this, he highlighted the «impressive number of loans» which, since its opening, already exceeds 3,000 copies.
The mayor also emphasized the «unique figure» of Francisco Umbral, because «there have been few people who have portrayed Madrid like him» and stressed that «the best way to preserve his memory is through this library» where a stand with all his works on the city has been installed. Likewise, he pointed out the City Council’s willingness to «generate the best means for promoting reading,» as «if we want to grow as a society, one of the shortest, most fruitful, and positive paths is access to culture.»
The library, a result of the collaboration between the Madrid City Council and the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), was designed by the architect Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho (MADC Arquitectura) as a modern, accessible space adapted to current cultural uses. Co-financed through the FEDER Program of the Community of Madrid, it has an area of 776 m2, 146 reading stations, and 18 internet access points, as well as a reading and study room, a children’s room, a ‘baby library,’ and a multipurpose space.
The services offered include book and multimedia material lending, wifi zone, self-loan equipment, bibliographic information, reading animation, and user training. The library opened with an initial collection of 31,300 volumes, the result of an investment of 625,000 euros, with a collection distributed 70% for adults, 25% for children, and 5% for young adults. It also includes a newspaper library with nine daily newspapers and 55 specialized magazines.
The new center has a team of ten professionals and a program of cultural and educational activities for all ages, including storytelling, workshops, book presentations, and reading promotion activities.
The opening hours are Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with special summer hours – between June 15 and September 15 – from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It will be closed on public holidays, as well as on December 24 and 31 and January 1 and 6. The building is accessible via Cercanías (Villaverde Bajo) and the EMT Madrid bus lines 85 and 123.
Regarding accessibility, specific tools have been incorporated such as a wheelchair, NVDA screen reader at internet stations, and a magnetic loop at the information desk. /
