Biblioteca Logo The Annual Meeting of Members takes place Friday, February 12 at 11 AM at the Sala Quetzal. The agenda is:

1. Establish Quorum

2. President's Report

3. Annual Financial Report

4. Presentation of Proposed By-Laws Changes

Biblioteca Board Election 2010

The Board Election will be Tuesday, March 2 from 12-3pm.

Biblioteca Pública de San Miguel de Allende, A.C., Insurgentes 25

A new name for the Biblioteca in 2010

By Jesús Ibarra, Atencion Staff

Biblioteca Website logo For more than half a century the Biblioteca Pública, considered one of the best bilingual libraries in Latin America, has served the community of San Miguel de Allende. Aside from its holdings of more than 60,000 volumes in Spanish, English, German and French and its many lecture, film and theater events, the library grants scholarships to young students and offers cultural activities.

The Biblioteca is a non-profit organization that relies on the public’s generous donations and revenue from the businesses it has established over the years: the weekly newspaper Atención San Miguel, the House and Garden Tour, the Café Santa Ana, the Teatro Santa Ana, La Tiendita, and the Bodega de Sorpresas.

Currently the Biblioteca is a job source for 45 people who work in its different areas and offers free workshops for children in literature, English, painting, music, theater and science. Since 1982, the Biblioteca has run a rural libraries program that has supplied more than 350 rural schools with bookshelves and books.

As of January 1, 2010, the library will operate under a new name and will no longer be known as La Biblioteca Pública de San Miguel de Allende A.C. The new operating name is very much in the spirit of the old one: La Biblioteca de San Miguel de Allende,” which does not incorporate the word “Pública.”

By Alejandro Devesa

Art Classes at the Biblioteca The Biblioteca is a well known institution in San Miguel, but some may not know that it offers several workshops to benefit residents of San Miguel at no cost. Among these are children's painting workshops, which aim to instill a love of art within young people and develop their creativity.­

One of the workshop teachers is Maria Guadalupe Ramos Hernandez. better known in the Biblioteca as Lupita, who has worked with the children for 15 years. Beginning as an assistant teacher when she got out of high school, today she heads the art program. Radames Lopez Olvera, an architect by profession, has taught in the workshops for about 12 years. The comprehensive program starts with the basics, teaching painting techniques, fostering creativity, and encouraging children to be responsible for washing their brushes and cleaning up their workspace. The children's artwork is offered for sale at different times of the year. Currently, signed works with a Christmas theme are on sale at La Tiendita, the shop near the main entrance to the Biblioteca, for 60 pesos each. Half of the proceeds go to the young artists themselves, and half support the program.

La Biblioteca Librarians sort and catalog a considerable amount of books each month. On occasion they discover a book or an author that they suggest as recommended reading. For the month of December the librarians have selected the following 3 books they felt our members would enjoy.

Non Fiction Selection

Half the Sky

Half the sky

Two Pulitzer Prize winners issue a call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential.