The Madrid City Council expands its network of libraries with a new addition in the Butarque neighborhood (Villaverde): the Francisco Umbral Municipal Public Library, which will open its doors tomorrow. The project, promoted by the Madrid City Council and the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), is the work of architect Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho (MADC Arquitectura).
Conceived as a modern, accessible space adapted to the needs of its users, it has an area of 776 m2, 146 reading stations, and 18 Internet access stations (12 for adults and six for children). In addition, it includes a reading and study room, a children’s room and ‘bebeteca’, a multipurpose room, and services such as book, magazine, and multimedia material loans, bibliographic information, wifi zone, reading animation, and self-loan equipment. Tools to support accessibility have also been incorporated, such as wheelchairs, NVDA screen reader, and a magnetic loop at the information desk.
The bibliographic collection has been selected over the past years and consists of a total of 31,300 copies, with an investment of 625,000 euros. The collection is distributed as 70% for adults, 25% for children, and 5% for young adults. Additionally, the center has a newspaper library with nine daily newspapers and 55 specialized magazines.
The Francisco Umbral Library will be staffed by a team of ten professionals with experience in other municipal network centers and will have a program of activities aimed at audiences of all ages, including storytelling, workshops, book presentations, and reading promotion actions.
It will be open from 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 holidays, as well as on December 24 and 31 and January 1 and 6. The building is well connected by Cercanías (Villaverde Bajo) and bus lines 85 and 123 of EMT Madrid.
